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Dou Wei the Dreamer by Yan Jun
Dou Wei might not be the best among those, but at least he has shown the qualities of an excellent musician, or say, he has built his own system of music. His prolificacy of music, his long-term diligence and his humble attitude of life had transformed him from his old dreams, and had sublimated him to a new world that's worth probing into. The Dou Wei we're talking about is no longer the rock-angst, or the hot-shot of Magic Rock Records, he is now a musician who is ready to cooperate, communicate and co-create music with other talented musicians. On the other hand, his voice is often mixed among a band (take the "Hallucination" album by Dou & E Band for instance), if we scrutinize his music career, it would be helpful for our study of Chinese new music collectivity. Many critics tried to mark Dou Wei's music with chronological phases, such as The Black Panther era, the Dark Dreams era, the Hallucination era; or the rock era, the electronic era, the post-rock era, blah blah blah. Obviously, people are interested by Dou's change in music taste and style - how did the 22-year-old most successful rock singer become the jazz drummer, movie music maker and ambient music enthusiast at his 32's? Dou Wei's late works are extensively laden with Chinese classical culture and modern ambient music. We can forget The Black Panther singer Dou Wei. To a 20 something young man, a loud and sonorous voice, the simple and beautiful melody, a feed-back guitar and the rock drum rhythm mean the world to him. But that would be merely a rehearsal to a person who has suddenly realized who he is, and has decided to pursuit the music of his own. After all, the rest members of The Black Panther were quite numb and did not have their own sight in music, they couldn't match Dou Wei's music visions - after Dou Wei had left, they turned the simple instruments and common sound into complicated tasteless instruments and commercial sound, their melody is trite, too. Musically The Black Panther had turned from an keen-witted street boy to a hefty wino, while Dou Wei is more like a stalker, he has become abstract and translucent step by step, he has given up the real world and runs towards the ethereal void. After the early rock hit "Hope" with The Dreaming, and later the "Dark Dreams" album, Dou Wei had bidden adieu to the real-life. His later songs are woven with enchanting and ethereal lyrics, and even with ancient Chinese words. As for his music, he had tried the gothic style in his first solo album "Dark Dreams"; self-obsessed humming in his later album "Sunny Days"; by then he had completely changed the "rock" idea in his crafting. "Rock music" is now to him a mere music element. He has transformed the essential of "rock" in his music, in his rhythm, solo, melody, and instrumental skill. His late works are combinations of post-rock, sadcore, slowcore, brit-pop, Chinese classical music, and ambient music both new and old. But the reason why he didn't joined the post-rock scene (or other music scene that's equal to post-rock), was not because he disdained this music system that is supposed to be very open. It was because he didn't realized the restriction of stale songs and being in a band. If we say in "Sunny Days" Dou Wei had just taken off his city-cloak, then in "Mountain River" he had become a transcendent pilot. He didn't need the city buildings anymore, there was nothing in his eyes but natural landscapes. Next was the cooperation of Dou Wei and E Band, they made two albums "Hallucination" and "Rainy Murmur" together. The members of E Band: bassist Chen Jing, guitarist Deng Ou Ge, drummer Shan Xiao Fan, were among the most active musicians in Beijing in the 1990s', they were skillful with instruments, their attitude towards music were more open than their previous generation, they were smart and keen to any fresh and interesting sound. But i don't think they could fly without Dou Wei. Taste is very important. Dou Wei has been pursuiting a more transcendent music world, besides that nothing else can captivate him and stall him from improving, neither can the luxurious brit-pop guitar (from Smith to Amp to James to slowcore to white-noise) of E Band. The sound of "Hallucination" was clean enough and open enough for the instrument performers to exert their fascinating skills, and then rushed towards the delicate British franticness... As for "Rainy Murmur", with the four pieces of excerpted samples I heard, I think Dou Wei had returned to his tranquilness, and embraced the ambient music again. E band don't have their own taste, while Dou Wei has his own, he had tried to control the band, and the result was the pureness and appealingness of "Rainy Murmur", but the rest members of E Band had lost their own edge. Tracing all the way back, Dou Wei had always been fond of old sounds. His soundtracks are close to Brian Eno's ambient music efforts distributed by Gyroscope label, the combination of synth, simulate samples, chords arrangement, ambient sound effect and main instrument, etc.. He had been keeping this music style all the way to MLWW's works. Jazz is also a music element to Dou Wei. He had formed another band called "Uncertainty". This band emphasizes on the trumpet player Wen Zhi Yong's cool and lush sound, just like those cooljazz classics. Wen Zhi Yong widens the space of music, and blows cool wind into the listeners' ears. The Uncertainty's music is also like some kind of ambient music, especially when the guys jam in fusion jazz style, the keyboard sounds like vibraphone or simulate organ, this can really bring you back to the 60s'. No matter if they are emphasizing on the funk guitar, or surpassing jazz, jamming like post-rock, they have incarnated an atmosphere that is both old and new, they seem to be paying a high tribute to the old music masters. To be honest, they had shown all the possibilities of exciting music, if Dou Wei had higher ambition to invent his own music style, then he would have made a huge change in Chinese jazz and post-rock scene. So is Dou Wei lack of proper ambition. He had been searching for the right way to incarnate his music dreamland. Although he could use his extraordinary imagination to create the right music form, but he had relied too much on his instincts and sensibility and experience when he focused on his abstract dream, instead of making his own music style. He seldom made albums on his own, he likes to cooperate with other musicians, to cater to each other's music taste and to induce others into his own music world. He likes talented musicians and laconic music performers like himself, but he couldn't find a musician that has his/her own innovative vision towards the integrated music style, and he himself is often lost in his own dreamland and forgot about what's real from virtual. In 2002 Dou Wei has formed another new project called "Mu Liang Wen Wang" (Mu Liang stands for Dou Wei, Wen stands for trumpet Wen Zhi Yong and Wang for dulcimer Wang Xiao Fang). Despite the bad reputation of the neo-Chinese-folk, Dou Wei has devoted to his new works that is similar to this music style. With dulcimer as the main instrument, added with some fragments of ambient music, a little bit experimental sound and noise, Chinese percussion segments, and jazz drums, MLWW has freed the dulcimer and flute and other folk instruments from the melody cliche, they even use the academic minimalism to create a layering, expansive atmosphere. MLWW's 2cd album "Live On, Gloriette by Water" might be the best effort of Chinese new music in the last few years, but it has the innate flaw of this music genre. And Wang Xiao Fang's vocal and performance is a bit pedantic. "Live On, Gloriette by Water" is Dou Wei's new experiment with Oriental music, it conveys his music emotions and visions, it's a resplendent and difficult try. MLWW is a good new start for Dou Wei, but he still has a long journey to his eternal success. If only Dou Wei can cooperate with excellent musicians like Tortoise, he would have built a milestone in his music career. Lay back and enjoy the music, Dou Wei's dreams and hallucinations are more like a mental therapy. He completely devotes himself to the music, he emphasizes on the sound effect of every note, every song, he is so lonely in his ancient Chinese dream, he has nearly nothing but the mountain, river and his own soul. (translated by krazy) |
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