This is the debut 12” from mysterious electronic outfit TAIBACH. Conceptualized by ABCs, Taibach has emerged from the shadows as a blunted East-Asian historical consciousness failing to return home after becoming a stranger to itself.
Their martial approach to electronics follows in a brood of decidedly cryptic underground music: drawing on the sound of classic industrial bands, early 90s techno, and more recent developments at the intersection of noise and rhythmic music.
Taibach’s debut LP contains a rawness and intensity that excels in club contexts, spilling over into more varied strands of experimental and underground music. While the music itself is primed for big room sound systems, the omnivorous use of guitar, effects pedals, and sampling techniques alongside stalwart drum programming also allow for more intimate listening—soundtracking both club depravity and solitary walks in equal measure.
Inside the sleeve is a photocopied insert of a watercolor painting depicting an anonymous man hanging from a streetlamp. A sign with the Chinese characters 漢奸 (“traitor”) hangs around his neck. Taipei 101 Tower looms in the distance, once the tallest building in the world—a conspicuous symbol of Taiwan’s American-style capitalist power—now shrouded in the fog of war. Absorbing the anxiety of these times, Taibach’s debut provides an anxious soundtrack looking for the old military bunkers underneath spreading skyscrapers and machines chorusing the rising tides of global unrest.
