Hirsk Turns Boredom into Madness, and this is How We Fall in Love with This City Again. hirsk, noista/gia
By: Who Am I To Judge Cantopop
Tags: Electronic Music, Cantonese, Hong Kong, Cantopop, Music

Turning Boredom into Madness, and this is How We Fall in Love with This City Again.

For years we consider repetition mundane and soul-crushing, hirsk renounces such claim in his debut album with some repetitive but fluorescent samples and synths. TV series Westworld hypothesised that all human beings may one day become robots if we are too comfortable with our “loops”, yet hirsk illustrates the countless possibilities of loops and every irritating sound you can hear everyday. It sounds as if a musician being stuck in this city for too long (actually this is what we all feel in 2020) and is driven mad, in a good way, don’t get me wrong.

Cantonese opera your grandparents listen to, white noise, the train announcement and that drilling and piling noise, all those sounds that we have internalised a hatred and disgust towards, are being redefined in noista/gia. Back when I was a sound design major, I tasked myself with a music technology homework to incorporate annoying sounds into music and produce a jingle as a morning alarm, to literally drive you crazy and force you to leave the bed. It was then I realised how hard it is to make these noises sound “good”, to sound natural. I can imagine the production process of noista/gia being excruciating, to sample, compose, mix and master every track in noista/gia would mean one having to listen to these samples for a thousand, if not million times.

The process begins with incorporating these samples into a beat, a loop. Replacing what we know of as snare and kick drum with an ATM cashing sound or a steel-ish sound that provokes a conversation between my wall and my speaker. We love beats, beats are the fundamental of music because it gives whatever on top a skeleton, a direction and a sense of stability to ride along. WIth that we have the first step of transforming something annoying into something refreshing and somewhat comforting.

But we are not looking for comfort and assurance in music, we need excitement. Arpeggiators laying the basis and then that is where electronic musicians like hirsk get an upper hand, they subtly throw a new element in and automate. It may be a filter, or just a tiny change on the texture of the active arpeggiator, the chords are not new, they are the same as 4 bars before, but it is those tiny tweaks and shifts that make a difference.

We repeat, subtly change this or that, and that is basically evolution in a nutshell.

The fact that each track is so closely knitted with this city is astounding. No Cantonese lyrics (except for WW) but it is more down-to-earth than any Cantopop on the market. Have been writing Cantopop critique for months and listening to Cantopop my whole life, never have I ever encountered something so “Hong Kong”. Every sample and effect is so carefully chosen to articulate a characteristic of this city. If we are here to find a way to endure what is ahead and fight for this city again, this album is a loveable reminder to us all.

If we are here to find a way to endure what is ahead and fight for this city again, this album is a loveable reminder to us all.

Looking for excitement in banal matters is not the hardest, reinventing banal matters themselves into excitement is. I have no intention on introducing or recommending a single track here because this album as a whole is an experience. And noista/gia is a reminder to creators that finding new perspectives is not hard, do not wait for “inspiration” to come along, get your hands dirty and tweak things around, that is where your new perspectives lay.