Shi Lu (石璐) “Atom” has been on the scene for awhile.

Which, for lots of people, is fairly stunning: packed in a tiny physique and a face filled with youthful exuberance, Shi Lu’s standing as a single mom nearing 40 flies within the face of what the standard concept of a rocker appears to be like like for a lot of – significantly a drummer.

However Shi Lu’s nickname “Atom” comes from extra than simply her small dimension. Referencing a manga about just a little boy with superhero powers, she additionally explains that like an atom, she will be able to make an enormous explosion. And in 2005, on the age of 21, she did simply that by becoming a member of the indie rock band Hedgehog, and cementing herself within the Beijing rock scene as an aggressive drummer able to capturing the essence of many various genres. At instances, her candy voice shouts kindly over the group, “Howdy Howdy Howdy, we’re Hedgehog!” and at others, “There isn’t any aura of God – maintain the extraordinary in your fingers!”

The mixture of her demure look and hardcore philosophy packs her persona with deeply motivating disparity, cutesy however nihilistic, and bordering on absurd.

Like many bands, she and the lead singer struck up an offstage romance for 7 years that finally fizzled out in 2013. In that point, Shi Lu married and divorced, and have become a single mom. However the band struggled on and ultimately hit a level of success in with most of the people in 2018 that pressured the 2 to remain collectively – leading to no small quantity of web drama primarily based off vitriolic post-concert feedback on Weibo, particularly over the turbulent pandemic interval – till lastly, in March of this yr, Shi Lu formally departed Hedgehog on the most effective phrases the band may handle.

For some, this variation is nice information, because it heralds the discharge of her first solo album, Give Some Sunshine and It Will Be Sensible (給​點​陽​光​就​燦​爛); however for others, Shi Lu’s departure from the band is cause sufficient to ditch her, her album evaluations flooded with these one-star bombing the album and telling her to stay to the drums.

However Shi Lu stands agency in her convictions, unapologetic concerning the modifications she’s gone by:

In assist, the most effective of the music scene be part of on her debut. The primary to depart Hedgehog some whereas again, bassist Boxuan, returns, in addition to Pan Gaofang (of Gaofunk, G-ELEVEN, and Sweet Gun) on guitar, and the famend jazz musician Wen Zhiyong on trumpet.

A lot of the album revolves round Shi Lu’s thematic perception in music being like a plant you develop – and for that, she insists, you want plenty of crap. Her daughter even describes her mother’s music as characteristically brown, and the lead single, “Identical Sh*t,” emphasizes the flexibility to show each day monotony into one thing powerfully shifting. Skidding by genres – punk, rock, ska, prog, shoegaze – she expresses each a way of despair and pleasure for the world, and aboveall a love for the grime that turns into fertilizer and grows all of it.

In “Morning or Evening,” the penultimate tune earlier than the cincher that goes finally joyful and jazzy, Shi Lu expresses the darker facet of issues in a novel tune composed in English, delving absolutely right into a sluggish, slinking sound. Just like the ballad on a steel album – assume Opeth’s “Harvest” – or perhaps a darker take of Linda Perhac’s “Hey, Who Actually Cares?” – or if Mazzy Star’s “California” was much less morose, and extra gothic.

I see the sky is blue
I see the tree is inexperienced
I see the river is white
(I see) individuals chortle and cry
So lovely they’re

Like a shinigami – a god of demise – overlooking the “world of mortals,” Shi Lu expresses a mindset closely centered on mortality, who sees past the current second to the bones we turn into, the solar which can, terrifyingly – & finally – blink out:

However they’re useless
Good morning or evening
By no means, by no means thoughts
The solar is black
The solar is black

The rhythm of a single keyboard word pierces the tune till it staggers and spills out in a trio, a fourth, a falling fifth and regains its tempo; a refrain edges softly in, as if a skinny mist. When her voice appears drained from what it’s foretelling, like a punk Cassandra whose warnings gained’t be believed, the electrical guitars communicate for her till she will be able to categorical her frustration:

I can really feel it, however can’t contact it
I can hear it, however can’t discuss it
I can see it, however can’t discover it
Lose my eyes, my mouth, my mind, my hand, and my coronary heart

Because the narrator sings a reverse treatise: now the sky shouldn’t be blue, the river is dry, the world is desolate and empty, she rings out a purple sundown:

The solar is purple
Tune, quiet
Shut your…

Whereas the tune peters out right into a considerably miserable conclusion, the aim in expression is launch, a form of irony that’s lovely in its subtext. Finally, Shi Lu is the form of one that creates music to maintain hope alive in others, one thing to sing alongside to in moments of worry and dread, one thing that’s solace.

With a debut that stands out, I’ll be re-listening to this album for awhile, eagerly ready to see what comes subsequent.