{"id":30621,"date":"2020-10-19T14:16:40","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T18:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/records\/formosan-dream\/"},"modified":"2020-10-19T14:18:14","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T18:18:14","slug":"formosan-dream","status":"publish","type":"records","link":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/en\/records\/formosan-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Formosan Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Taipei\u2019s thrift-shop shamans of site-specific psychedelia released their last album, P\u00e1n<\/em>, two years ago, confounding and delighting listeners worldwide with their raw, ritualistic reflections of Taiwan\u2019s complex past (real and imagined). Note that brothers Hom Yu and Jiun Chi of esoteric doom-funk unit Mong Tong<\/strong><\/a> are involved in this quintet with two drummers \u2013 both bands explore their Taiwanese roots, though Prairie WWWW do so with a lighter, if even weirder, touch, with poetry as a key component.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last fall found Prairie WWWW as guests on a track on Battles\u2019 Juice B Crypts<\/em>, the hilarious, hyperactive \u201cSugar Foot\u201d,<\/strong><\/a> joined as well by Jon Anderson\u2026 oh, Yes, indeed! They must have got the giggles out of their systems with that, because this new Formosan Dream<\/em> EP is the most decorous and disciplined recording to their credit. With heavy synths and deconstructed dance-club beats, it\u2019s their most digital too, the ones and zeroes strung like prayer beads along tendrils reaching back through obsolete pop culture, history, folklore, deep myths \u2013 all the way, with the eerie interlude \u201cWhales\u2019 Bones\u201d, to some primal, pre-human place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The response signals from the past manifest as allusions, inferences, incomplete fragments. It\u2019s an expressionistic archaeology that\u2019s 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 \u201clive session\u201d video<\/strong><\/a> for the release. A promising thing, considering that the band took the trophy for Best Live Performance at last year\u2019s Golden Indie Music Awards in Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n