Members :
Sean: Vocal & Guitars, Alok: Guitars, Lamb: Guitars, Kei: Bass & Simon: Drums

Review by Clare Tyrrell:

Endless running

The music video for “Logan’s Run” flashes on the screen: a band-room filled with guitarists and bassists and a vocalist—it’s hard to tell if it’s a man or a woman. The scene flashes from black and white to psychedelic colours, as the shots capture the fingers of the musicians and then switches to the silhouette of a man, running, endlessly running.

Welcome to the inner mind of Alok, one of Hong Kong’s most talented guitarists and songwriters. This is a music video from his new album “29 Minutes from the End” and it is telling of how the artist has never stopped running in his quest to create new sonic landscapes and technologies. It is also telling of his new pursuit of the visual elements to music-making.

“29 Minutes from the End” was released earlier this year, and received rave reviews from the press. Keen to find out more about this fascinating Hong Kong artist, I track him down for an interview to discuss his new album, and find him in the Tsim Sha Tsui bar, once known as Chemical Suzy. He sits in a dark corner with a pint of beer, lighting up a cigarette and looking completely different from everyone else in the bar: maybe it’s the scraggy goatee on his chin, the shaved head and thick black-rimmed glasses. Most likely it’s the manic gleam in his eyes and the way he attracts attention from natural charisma. After the initial “hellos” and ordering of drinks, he gets up, and wanders over to the bar, handing them a CD of his new album and asking if they can play it now. It comes onto the speakers with “You Are Always in My Prayers”, a hypnotic introduction of guitars and driving drums that opens the work.

Those who are familiar with the indie band scene of Hong Kong will be very familiar with Alok. He first emerged in the band scene more than a decade ago with the “shoegazing” band Pillow. Then, in 1997 he formed the electronic outfit Slow Tech Riddim with Kim Lam—who had formerly been the drummer with Pillow. The pair released two albums with the People Mountain People Sea label, which were highly experimental journeys into a fusion of dance and guitar noise. “After we released the second album, we came across some problems,” explains Alok of the duo’s eventual split. “Kim wanted to make non-beats, music without beats, but I found this hard to do.”

Being a natural rock’n’roller, in 2001 Alok stepped his life as a solo artist. His first release “Wahoo” set out to destroy people’s preconceptions of his music. “People at the time thought I only played electronic music, but I wanted to be rock’n’roll, with a lot of guitar noise and vocal stuff,” he reminisces. “So my first album had a lot of new sounds. It was pretty melodic.”

Here was an album which showed the musician’s maturity and his sheer songwriting finesse. He was also beginning to tell a tale with the album’s structure. “I wanted to say something with my music with this second album,” he explains with a gulp of his pint. “I wanted to tell a story, a sad story. Making an album is very different from composing songs. You have to arrange all the music.”

In the funky bar “29 Minutes from the End” plays out into the night air. It rocks the sound system, lending an atmosphere of tension, then building up to climaxes of guitars and drums. The album picks up from where his second album “31 Minutes to Midnight” drops off. “I really love numbers. I love dates,” he says skirting the question of the significance of the title. “This is like a continuation of the story,” he adds. “Now we’re only 29 minutes away from the end…” The fourth track “Letting Me off the Happiness” comes on and Alok reminisces the recording of this slow, melodic track. Surging with beauty, it is powerfully emotive and winds in mysterious circles. “I remember when we recorded it in the studio, I only did this once. Because that day I had drunk a lot and when you listen carefully the beat gets completely lost. The beat is out of beat,” he explains with a cackling laugh.

One of the personality traits of Alok, and a reason why he is so utterly rock’n’roll is the way he pushes the extremes of existence and is a natural rebel—albeit a soft-speaking and very polite one in the flesh. This comes out in his music which pushes the listener into new audio ground. His newest release is like a soundtrack to the indie scene of Hong Kong. It is truly representative of the new direction of the band scene because no less than five talents of the band scene lend their influence on vocal tracks. These include the likes of Sean from the band Unixx, singer Lawwaiyip, the renowned rapper Ghoststyle and singer Mabel from the band JoyTrendySound.

“First I do the backing track, then whatever they feel like they do, I want to make some types of crossover. I have some patterns and just allow them free form,” says Alok of the creative process involved. The creativity also extends to a set of bonus features that come with the album including a 50-minute feature film “Slavery Techniques” by the director Domting which Alok provided the soundtrack to. “The film is really important to me,” says Alok. “For me it’s the first soundtrack I’ve done and some songs in ‘31 Minutes’ are based on the film.”

There are also three music videos accompanying the album, including the utterly fantastic “Logan’s Run”. It’s a particularly creative offering, and it really sees the artist coming into his own turf. But with a swig of beer in the Tsim Sha Tsui bar, he shakes his head to any praise and says it’s no big deal. “We just wanted to make something happen,” he says with a grin. “I wanted to make myself better. Play the music I love.”

www.myspace.com/31ghk

HK Magazine - The Best Of Local Music 2005

1. VA - Xiang Gang Electric Vol.1 (Love Da Records)
2. Alok - 29 Minutes From The End 29。跋 (Lona Records / 89268)
3. VA - The 5th Elements (89268)
4. Elf Fatima - Elf Fatima ( Elf Fatima)
5. The Academy - The Academy