- Tribal industrial music with a haunting edge from one of Beijing's most original acts.
- It's been a long and winding road for Beijing-based duo Zaliva-D. Before pairing up with his wife, the visual artist Aisin-Gioro Yuanjin, Li Chao made dark ambient music as Enemite (Enmity). Since forming Zaliva-D in 2006, the two have released their style of unclassifiable music on metal labels (Pest Productions) and dance music imprints (SVBKVLT) alike. Misbegotten Ballads is the duo's fourth studio album and their most refined yet, bringing to mind the scintillating industrial of Vessel's "Red Sex" (a song made with "unplayable instruments") and the wordless vocals of Marina Herlop, staying true to the project's distinctly demonic character.
Unlike their last album, 2018's Sky Singing, there are no ambient passages or odd build-ups on Misbegotten Ballads. Nearly every track swings into a ritualistic halftime plod instantly, the kick drums leaving plenty of space for something sinister to creep between them and blessing each with a pronounced rhythm. Tiptoeing synths scale up and down between thuds on "Hai Ti Zheng" and "Shang Liu Xing Xing", and militant battle cries impose themselves over "Weng Weng Zheng"'s more propulsive tempo. These are not the kind of ballads shared between lovers, but the kind that rouses the dead from their slumber.
Li Chao's vocals aid in this, too. "I like to sing non-verbal stuff with a genderless voice," he told The Ransom Note around the time of the duo's Immorality EP in 2020. The way he mangles and moulds his voice conjures the same striking imagery as a rich passage of prose. On "Hai Ti Zheng", it's gnarled like an olive tree and on "Hun Shou Qiang Qiang" and "Mian Ru Er Tiao Tiao" it's a droning mantra spoken through a gummy mouth. Are those lo-fi vocal bursts on "Diao Rou Rou," or are they just gargling staccato notes lifted straight from the set of Mario Kart 64's Banshee Boardwalk? And following what sounds like a lamb bleating, I hear echoes of the wailing Goron baby from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask in those swelling synths on "Dao Yao Zui." For every one of Zaliva-D's menacing motifs, they colour it with playful effects that keep the album from becoming overwhelmingly bleak.
Misbegotten Ballads does not meander towards a ghost story by torchlight or a seance beneath the stars. It sticks to its devilish dance throughout by casting off Enemite's atmospherics and focusing on the essentials: a marching drum, otherworldly effects and Li Chao's wonderfully scraggly voice. It's been a long and winding road for Zaliva-D but here their steps are the most sure-footed they've ever been.
Tracklist01. 指你 Zhi Ni
02. 昏寿锵锵 Hun Shou Qiang Qiang
03. 倒摇嘴 Dao Yao Zui
04. 孩提症 Hai Ti Zheng
05. 上路星星 Shang Lu Xing Xing
06. 面入儿跳跳 Mian Ru Er Tiao Tiao
07. 步女绕梁-Bu Nv Rao Liang
08. 吊揉揉 Diao Rou Rou
09. 嗡嗡症 Weng Weng Zheng