Renminbi

Renminbi morphed into Magnetic Island in early 2010. The new band is operating more like a collective, with membership -- and musical identity -- shifting song to song or album to album. Renminbi's final release was the Surface EP, which came out in July 2009. A write-up describing the EP follows below: Three seconds into Surface’s penultimate track, Renminbi has already pitted a Polvo guitar wobble against a sing-song Galaxie 500 melody. Keyboardist Read more on Last.fm …read full bio

Renminbi morphed into Magnetic Island in early 2010. The new band is operating more like a collective, with membership -- and musical identity -- shifting song to song or album to album. Renminbi's final release was the Surface EP, which came out in July 2009. A write-up describing the EP follows below: Three seconds into Surface’s penultimate track, Renminbi has already pitted a Polvo guitar wobble against a sing-song Galaxie 500 melody. Keyboardist SMV and guest drummer Jenny Johnson sound like they’re winding down from a twenty-minute dirge, and guitarist Lisa Liu sings with Tara Jane O’Neil’s woozy assurance. But this song isn’t a half-hour epic. It doesn’t anchor an album by Sonic Youth or Mogwai—although Youth cohort and producer Don Fleming was at its helm. It clocks in at just over four minutes. And although it’s called “Set-Up,” it starts in medias res and ends with a feedback whine. Like the other three songs comprising Surface, its terseness belies its keening arc. Despite the EP’s scope, Liu insists its origins are humble. After accumulating a heap of experimental rock material she couldn’t use in her band Danger! Giant Ranger, in 2003 Liu formed Renminbi (pronounced REN-MIN-BEE) and recruited her girlfriend SMV to play keys. Working with a rotating cast of drummers, the duo released a pair of fractious noise-punk EPs and in 2007 explored electronic textures on its full-length The Phoenix. On Surface, the textures remain, but the keyboard sounds more like an organ or violin and once-faint vocals come to the forefront. So why the departure from 2007’s asymmetrical, electro-heavy forms? “Well… I got a new guitar,” Liu admitted—and she was drawn back toward more traditional structures. For her and SMV, traditional structures meant gutsy playing in unnamable time signatures or unusual keys, à la Versus (“Portland”), latter-day Sleater-Kinney (“Toulouse”) and Autoclave (“Then We Came to the End”). The pair was also drawn to Fleming, whose work they’d admired for years from afar. After they sent him a long-shot email, he surprised them by offering to produce the EP. In May 2009, with the help of engineer Matt Azzarto, Surface was recorded live at the Hoboken, N.J., studio that Sonic Youth calls home. “There was something magical about it,” said Liu of recording the tracks live. "Anything can happen in that situation." Fleming’s without-a-net approach served the band’s expansive sound well: "The focus was less on achieving a perfect take, and more on being present—feeling your way through the songs instead of thinking your way through," Liu explained. Sonically, Fleming introduced "a huge palette of sounds," pushing amps into the red to give the keys and guitars a grainy ring. “There’s a certain energy that’s captured through the extra overtones. It’s really open and raw,” Liu added. When it set out to record with Fleming, Renminbi’s goal was an immediate, taut statement. With Surface, it’s made one breezily. But it’s also made an EP that sounds like some early '90s double album you’d put on after everybody’s left the party, distilled down to four vital songs. -Sam Schulz CREDITS: "Surface" was recorded by Matt Azzarto (R. Stevie Moore, Peter Bjorn & John, Lykke Li), produced & mixed by Don Fleming (Sonic Youth, Hole, The Posies, Dinosaur Jr., Teenage Fanclub) and mastered by Alex Saltz (Deer Tick, The Mekons, Moby). "Surface" is released under a Creative Commons share - remix - give credit license. Visit CASH Music's website to get "Surface" on vinyl or a "Surface" T-shirt. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.

…shrink me down again