FAZI – Folding Story
Release Date: 26th January 2024
Chinese post punk powerhouses FAZI return to fresh new audiences with this European re-release of their 2022 studio album Folding Story. Having established in 2010, now with five albums and prime time television appearances under their belt, the band gift us the rebirth of their latest studio offering in an album that’s as immersive as the coastline that inspired it.
Folding Story presents a kaleidoscope of undiluted shoegaze, kraut rock and ambient post rock. This album intrepidly delivers at a deliberate and organic pacing, suspending the listener with a wash of multi instrumental and cross genre compositions. From scant atmospherics, to cinematic interludes and towering guitar leads, this album aims to paint the vibrant panorama of the port city Dalian of which they take residence in.
‘Invisible Water’ introduces to the sound of these ornamental ripples, accompanied by almost siren song vocals and sonar like synth plucks, before launching into ‘Eye in the Sky’. This track is the first to feature the full band, escorted by soaring guitar lines and locked in rhythmic pockets. These melodies gradually build and stretch out into embellishing the drum and bass grooves.
‘Beautiful Teeth’ brings tender respite as an acoustic interlude to compliment the following track ‘Never Say Forever’, where sparse and pulsing synths support the delicate piano and vocal lines before building in nuance and harmony. The atmosphere shifts further along the album, exploring the murkier waters of its soundscape. ‘Body / Mind / Soul’ leads this departure, building tension between its rattling bass line and conversational vocals, before erupting into a synth laden climax. ‘Delingha’ follows suit with its sparse layering before reaching its zenith, in which bloated keyboard hooks and thunderous pads carry the track home.
The album concludes on ‘Way to Atman’, returning to more upbeat melodies through guitars swelling with delay and thick choral motifs. With the gentle lapping of waves carrying the listener towards the coda of this record, Folding Story appears to unfurl cyclically, reaffirming its motifs of rebirth and return to origin in an endless loop.
Whilst delivering compositions that likely resonate with listeners familiar to those more household names across these genres (such as King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Slift), FAZI undoubtedly deserve to stand shoulder to shoulder with them. Folding Story yearns you to reminisce alongside the band with an album that’s as tactile as it is captivating.
Recommended Track: Delingha