From Melbourne to Guangzhou, via Helsinki

On Sunday Amanda posted a current Australian music playlist. The band Architecture in Helsinki stood out for me, and I proceeded to consume their entire 2004 release Fingers Crossed.

Track 6, entitled Spring 2008 displays a distinct Eastern patina. It uses wood blocks, plucked strings, and indecipherable lyrics in a way that made me run straight into the arms of my current Rhapsody closet obsession: Cantonese opera.

Anyone I've exposed to Cantonese opera has considered it a painful endurance contest of caterwauling and twisted metal. What can you do? I must have been in an especially susceptible state when I was first exposed to it. Whatever the reason, I can while away half a day bobbing my head and working with this stuff playing.

I've found about thirty records of Cantonese opera on Rhapsody. I haven't heard them all yet, but here's a highlight from my research so far:

Cai Yanfen - Xi Shi