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The Offset: Spectacles LP (2021 remaster)

by 憬觀:像同叠 The Offset: Spectacles

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    憬觀:像同叠 同名大碟十週年重製版。
    10th anniversary remastered edition!

    全長黑膠唱片、內附拉頁海報。
    LP is pressed on black vinyl, comes housed in a full-color LP jacket and includes a double-sided 12x24 poster insert w/ lyrics in Cantonese & English.

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Offset: Spectacles LP (2021 remaster) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Limited LP / Tee Shirt PREORDER BUNDLE!
    T-Shirt/Apparel

    憬觀:像同叠 同名大碟十週年重製版。
    10th anniversary remastered edition!

    黑膠唱片和衣服套裝
    BUNDLE INCLUDES: Limited edition Offset: Spectacles tee shirt printed in black ink on a white Gildan SoftStyle or similar brand (depending on availability) + one copy of the remastered vinyl edition of "The Offset: Spectacles" LP

    LP is pressed on black vinyl, comes housed in a full-color LP jacket and includes a double-sided 12x24 poster insert w/ lyrics in Cantonese & English.

    Sold Out

  • Limited Edition tee shirt
    T-Shirt/Apparel

    Limited edition Offset: Spectacles tee shirt printed in black ink on a white 100% cotton Gildan SoftStyle (or similar brand depending on availability)

    Sold Out

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about

Trouble In Mind is supremely honored to release the tenth anniversary reissue of Hong Kong trio The Offset: Spectacles lone full-length album; a forward-thinking, captivating and uncompromising missive meant to subvert R’n’R traditions; drummerless, lo-fi, with surrealist lyrics meant to confound & unnerve. The band was a crucial part of the Rose Mansion Analog label (including bands Soviet Pop, Hot & Cold, and Lu Xin Pei) & the scene that spawned around it. Since the band’s dissolution, guitarist Tom Ng has formed the (even more) minimalist duo Gong Gong Gong (Wharf Cat Records) and continues to hone the “Phantom Rhythm” with each passing release. Read what their associate Fung you-Chung wrote of the album upon it’s debut:
“Do the Offset: Spectacles need a drummer or a drum machine? There are a lot of different opinions on this topic. When the band first started, they were busy trying to answer the same question. In the early days, the band auditioned a drummer in Hong Kong’s famous underground rehearsal space, President Piano Co. The session began with some roughly-formed songs, and the drummer’s technique was hardly questionable, yet something was missing. Finally they decided to max out the volume on the three amplifiers they were using. At the end of the session, they couldn’t even hear what each other were saying. The drumless concept did not come from this incident, but the totality of each instrument, tone, expression, volume level and the subsequent ringing in the ears did conglomerate into form through it.
Beats produced by drums or drum machines do not always necessitate the sense of rhythm or listener’s immersion into the music. This is the art of the Offset: Spectacles: a demonstration of how to enter one’s consciousness through rudimentary movements. The quantified beat case no longer describe the intertwining results of the tug-of-war between different instruments through the negotiation of volume - that is, the Phantom Rhythm. Although one could certainly take the quantified beat into account, that would defeat the purpose. Whether it was deliberately done or not, it doesn’t matter. This result is not about technique or form, nor can it be pinned down to any sort of category, and it would be rather shallow to describe it as theory. This physical and mental dialogue not only connects the listeners (as well as the origination of its name.
If one were to suggest that history has provided adequate nourishment through the forebearers of Phantom Rhythm in Django Reinhardt, Bo Diddley, The Velvets, one could further suggest that the lyrics of the Offset: Spectacles is a realization of the characteristics of a spectacular society. As opposed to this age of totemic cities that oversaturated lofty ideas and golden rules, the Offset: Spectacles do not ask the listeners to explore the absolutes. The lyrics do not exist on their own, nor are they a subject of lyrical studies or dialogues crafted for enticing anyone, rather, they are a straightforward presentation of the society of the spectacles, or the spectacles of the society; bits and pieces of emotions left in the cities. Whether this musical layering is an inversion, negation or just a void of rhythm, the essence lies in how the band absorb and replicate such cities, such character, and such mental states. When the chord strikes, when subjects intertwine in space, if listeners could still sense the scent of the band, urges from each embrace would undoubtedly enter their perception.”
The Offset: Spectacles debut album is presented again in glorious black vinyl, with remastered audio by Mikey Young (with three unreleased bonus tracks!), and includes a new insert with English translations of the lyrics by Vince Li. The album will also land on streaming services for the first time.

文/馮耀中
“叠叠重影的音樂結構, 是節拍強弱倒置, 還是留白略過, 反照了樂隊吸取了及複製出怎麼樣的城市、人物的精神狀態。然而採納「幽靈節奏」(Phantom Rhythm), 不同樂器間音量輕重緩急所交纏出的結果, 已非量化拍子所能形容, 雖然要去數算不是沒有可能, 只是有點本末倒置。究竟是有意圖還是無意圖地完成已不重要, 再者這既不是一項技術、模式, 也不能歸納為任何分類之下, 說是理論也太過膚淺。
這也說明了基進地介入意識, 才是憬觀:像同叠生產的藝術。”

credits

released November 26, 2021

All music by The Offset: Spectacles (2010)
Ou Jian 區健 - Bass / Organ
Tom Ng 吳卓 - Vox / Guitar
Vince Li 李文泰 - Guitar / Viola / Organ / Bass

Recorded in Mossley, UK at Analogue Catalogue w/Rob Ferrier (Clinic)
Remastered audio by Mikey Young from the original DAT tapes
Executive producer: Michael Pettis
Artwork by Tom Ng
Photography: Madi, Fung Yiu-Chung, Reonda and Vince Li
New insert & lyric translations by Vince Li

Special thanks to Zhan Pan 詹盼, James Englebeck & Joshua Frank

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