New Pants
Dragon Tiger Panacea
Shock 2007
China’s rising prominence in world trade and affairs is a point of conversation for any two-bit commentator these days, with an endless tirade about everything from the state of their stock market, the crappiness of cheap Chinese goods to the Sino-NZ free trade agreement (good idea, IMO). But a Chinese punk rock band? With synthesisers? Now that’s something new. New Pants, indeed.

I don’t really know the New Pants back story, but I don’t think you really need to anyway.  The elements that make up Dragon Tiger Panacea sounds like a checklist of things that could only make something quite, quite awful: punk rock over disco beats; vocals half in Chinese / half in Engrish; vocoders; walls of reverb. On first listen, it’s a smorgasbord of novelties that’s hard not to laugh at. The chorus of “Bye Bye Disco” has a cheerleader call squad, kind of like Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E”, except they keep saying “”D.I.I.C.O”. This is only slightly less amusing than the verse, in which the vocalist sings of a girl who is “so ronery”, just like Mr Kim from Southpark’s Shitty Wok. But aside from the cultural artefacts, the album is remarkably endearing. It starts off sounding like A Flock of Seagulls, and after a new wave rap diversion on “Magical Shampoo” (which may or may not have background vocals from the Swedish Chef), comes full circle with the last two tracks sounding like an Asian pirate copy of New Order, circa ’83. New Pants may not be the first thing that jumps out at you next time you’re down at Galaxy, but if you’re looking for something that’s a bit different as well as highly amusing, then Dragon Tiger Panacea could be just what you’re looking for. If you can find it.

Ed Muzik
www.cancerwatch.wordpress.com