Sound Colour Vibration (Music | Art | Film | Technology | Science | Culture)

I had the great pleasure in getting in a DVD this year that has taken awhile to process but something that I have really enjoyed experiencing. This film is the documentary of a sub section in China’s noise music community from directors Guy-Marc Hinant and Dominique Lohle and is appropriately called Fuck You: Fucking Noise In China Now. Shot in hopes to capture a revolution in sound taking place in the midst of cultural oppression of the leftest of fields, the directors were stunned yet humbled when realizing how normal and removed from this reality many of the noise musicians in China are. The idea of even calling their music noise is repulsive to some and shows an age where expression, creativity and the removal of strife in history overpowers a new generation to purely create in the name of creation itself. In a world where history has repeated itself, those who are the creators in the name of creation break this rule and truly give something new to this world.

Shot in Beijing and Shanghai in April of 2006, Fuck You is shot in a very interesting style with a multitude of camera lens’ used and editing components added in. It’s filming that is constantly moving in motion with the experience, capturing very odd elements from each artists in the most unusual aesthetic forms. It’s as if the camera crew become a part of the experience or captivated by the experience so much that institution techniques took a back seat to something more free, spontaneous and in the moment.

With around half a dozen main voices of China’s noise community examined in performance and with exclusive interviews, the range and ideology behind each of these voices is respectfully different. The music having so much freedom is what really pulls back the veil and connects all the dots into how this form of music has thrived in what was once an extremely oppressive state. When I watch a film like this, I understand exactly where the older artists are coming from in their concept of revolution through sound and I also understand the younger ones who just want to create what they feel is beautiful. It’s this balance that shows the true integrity of what noise music is and the vats network of sub communities it allows into the sense of what the whole equation is. Fuck You is a film I stand by and something that has opened up my eyes to how generations can evolve and heal in different ways, removing trappings of anger through history that has kept the world on repeat for thousands of years. In my eyes, the film makers actually achieved their goal: To find artists who had elevated beyond a cultural connection of an archaic past and had wiped the slate clean to express themselves into properties beyond human influence. The revolution has really begun. They are the voices of China’s movement of artists who are connected to a grid that extends far beyond the country’s borders.

-Erik Otis

Order a copy from Sub Rosa here: http://subrosa.itcmedia.net/en/catalogue/dvd/fuck-you.html;jsessionid=002607B431718E78925E0D6E9415C5E5