Country : Taiwan Label : In Utero Genres and styles : Art Rock / Experimental / Contemporary Year : 2020

Formosan Dream

· by Rupert Bottenberg

Taipei’s thrift-shop shamans of site-specific psychedelia released their last album, Pán, two years ago, confounding and delighting listeners worldwide with their raw, ritualistic reflections of Taiwan’s complex past (real and imagined). Note that brothers Hom Yu and Jiun Chi of esoteric doom-funk unit Mong Tong are involved in this quintet with two drummers – both bands explore their Taiwanese roots, though Prairie WWWW do so with a lighter, if even weirder, touch, with poetry as a key component.

Last fall found Prairie WWWW as guests on a track on Battles’ Juice B Crypts, the hilarious, hyperactive “Sugar Foot”, joined as well by Jon Anderson… oh, Yes, indeed! They must have got the giggles out of their systems with that, because this new Formosan Dream EP is the most decorous and disciplined recording to their credit. With heavy synths and deconstructed dance-club beats, it’s their most digital too, the ones and zeroes strung like prayer beads along tendrils reaching back through obsolete pop culture, history, folklore, deep myths – all the way, with the eerie interlude “Whales’ Bones”, to some primal, pre-human place.

The response signals from the past manifest as allusions, inferences, incomplete fragments. It’s an expressionistic archaeology that’s in many ways really about the future, a search for pathways forward for a picturesque, culturally cluttered island nation permeated by existential uncertainty. Something a bit more certain (missing only an exact date) is the forthcoming “live session” video for the release. A promising thing, considering that the band took the trophy for Best Live Performance at last year’s Golden Indie Music Awards in Taiwan.

Latest 360 Content

Semaine du Neuf | A Spiritual Journey Through Matter and Sound

Semaine du Neuf | A Spiritual Journey Through Matter and Sound

Rachel Therrien – Mi Hogar II

Rachel Therrien – Mi Hogar II

Lady Gaga – Mayhem

Lady Gaga – Mayhem

Semaine du Neuf | Paramirabo/Musikfabrik: old school avant-garde meets cool post-modernism

Semaine du Neuf | Paramirabo/Musikfabrik: old school avant-garde meets cool post-modernism

Semaine du Neuf | Tim Brady and The Symphony in 18 Parts

Semaine du Neuf | Tim Brady and The Symphony in 18 Parts

Violons du Roy | Mozart, Dvořák, Kodály and Johann Strauss: an unexpected aperitif encounter

Violons du Roy | Mozart, Dvořák, Kodály and Johann Strauss: an unexpected aperitif encounter

MARO + NASAYA – Lifeline

MARO + NASAYA – Lifeline

Semaine du Neuf | Quatuor Bozzini: “Effusion of Friendship” With Oesterle, Smith and Arnold

Semaine du Neuf | Quatuor Bozzini: “Effusion of Friendship” With Oesterle, Smith and Arnold

Semaine du Neuf | Martin Bédard’s “archaeosonic” excavations

Semaine du Neuf | Martin Bédard’s “archaeosonic” excavations

Melodînes | Cyrille Angers and Bruce Gaulin, a Trio of Questions for a Flute-Piano Duo!

Melodînes | Cyrille Angers and Bruce Gaulin, a Trio of Questions for a Flute-Piano Duo!

Shunk – Shunkland

Shunk – Shunkland

Manu Katché: Star drummer, star communicator

Manu Katché: Star drummer, star communicator

Semaine du Neuf | Decidedly Acousmatic !

Semaine du Neuf | Decidedly Acousmatic !

A Celestial Journey: Holst’s The Planets with the OPCM

A Celestial Journey: Holst’s The Planets with the OPCM

Semaine du Neuf | “Listen with your eyes closed”: Acousmatic Music by Annette Vande Gorne

Semaine du Neuf | “Listen with your eyes closed”: Acousmatic Music by Annette Vande Gorne

Semaine du Neuf | When Opera Questions Technology

Semaine du Neuf | When Opera Questions Technology

Big Band for women at UdeM

Big Band for women at UdeM

Semaine du Neuf | Horror-themed kick-off event

Semaine du Neuf | Horror-themed kick-off event

Semaine du Neuf | Paramirabo-Musikfabrik: Montreal-Cologne encounter

Semaine du Neuf | Paramirabo-Musikfabrik: Montreal-Cologne encounter

Dômesicle | Kap Bambino and Alix Fernz transform the Dome into sensory chaos

Dômesicle | Kap Bambino and Alix Fernz transform the Dome into sensory chaos

Semaine du Neuf | Chants Libres : Laboratoire Lyrik 03, “La voix lumineuse”

Semaine du Neuf | Chants Libres : Laboratoire Lyrik 03, “La voix lumineuse”

Once Upon a Time… 100 Women | Diane Tell’s Playlist

Once Upon a Time… 100 Women | Diane Tell’s Playlist

Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec | An Evening of Discovery in The Footsteps of Bach’s Early Cantatas

Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec | An Evening of Discovery in The Footsteps of Bach’s Early Cantatas

Regularfantasy, Activism and Creativity in the Women’s Electronic MTL Scene

Regularfantasy, Activism and Creativity in the Women’s Electronic MTL Scene

Subscribe to our newsletter