MONG TONG レコード& CD

Review: Forget chip music, Taipei trio Mong Tong have again managed to crack the 'reminds me of a Mega Drive cut scene' sound in all its glory here. A record that's synthy to its core but still manages to muster enough guttural funk to make it feel like the ground beneath your feet is part of each track's fabric, it's a dancefloor groover writhing out of some epic, ethereal thing - hardly a bog standard experience. Opening on the aptly titled 'Intro', a slow float through refrained keys that conjure images of digitised clouds, the stage is set for the action that follows. The title number even opens on a crackled sample of a locked groove Wu Tang Clan wouldn't refuse before fully dropping in, perhaps nodding to those five-second intros to new stages of a game. 'Chakra' takes on a darker but no less hypnotic approach, with 'Jou-tau' finishing us with a roundhouse kick of Asian TV samples and another immersive, richly textured beats-y arrangement.