Primary Shapes

做为一支香港团，Primary Shapes的水准是可以让人惊讶的。对于国内团，乐迷、乐评、媒体都不要过于苛刻吧，应该给予五星鼓励。 　 Primary Shapes展示了非常有气质的声音美学，感性，迷幻，冷静！ 氛围电子、吉他背景铺垫、缥缈沉迷又富冷静的男声、各种美妙的实验音效、键盘点缀…… 充满了别致、轻盈和想象力！　

Hong Kong has more to offer besides Wong Kar Wai's art house films and Jackie Chan's kung fu flicks. In this fragrant harbour of the Far East, a creative duo called Primary Shapes is set to revolutionise the stale music scene with their avant-garde musical concept.

There is a blunt refusal to compromise in the music of Primary Shapes, but not in the cliched manner of guitar smashing. The enfant terrible group, formed by Chi-wai Tang and Shing-san Wong, express their musical concept in an innovative way, with melodic inventiveness synthesize with avant-garde song structure - the chemical reaction is just like The Beatles meet Massive Attack. The best phrase to describe their pioneering musical style is Avant-Pop.

Primary Shapes develop their original sonic concept "continuous change". Foregoing the conventional alternating chorus-verse structure, they invent the alternative continuous change form, with no obvious repetition of lyrics and melodies. The concept was first demonstrated in Wiper Song and Edison from "bELL LAB EP". Wiper Song has recently been selected in MIDEM 2005, a music conference held in France, and will be featured on the upcoming sports video games by Electronic Arts. Primary Shapes further experimented the musical concept and the result is cemented in their full-length album "HERE THERE EVERYWHERE".

Nevertheless, Primary Shapes are not only good at creating and producing their music in studios, the avant-pop duo also sparkles in live performances. They incorporate visual arts into their compelling live showcases. In 2004, they performed at Formoz festival, the largest outdoor music festival in Taiwan, and were the only guest band from Hong Kong performed on the main stage along with an array of international acts such as Michelle Shock (U.S) and Club 8 (Sweden). In their homeland, they were the headliner in Sunset Concert 2001, a charity concert organised by the Amnesty International Hong Kong and Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. This year, Primary Shapes are invited to perform at the North By North East Music & Film Festival in Canada.

The music of Primary Shapes is meticulously crafted, which is attributable to their musical upbringing and working experience. Currently, Chi-wai is a Music Producer, while Shing-san is a Visual Designer. They are teen mates for over ten years. The two strong-willed and courageous individuals formed Primary Shapes in 1998 when they found they share similar vision and mission on music, visual arts and live performances.

Their first self-financed EP bELL LAB was released in 2001 after they embarked on an UK trip in 2000. During the trip, they consulted and received some acclaimed feedbacks from music professionals, including Massive Attack's 3D & his Melankolic Recordings, Insects - the co-writing group of Massive Attack, Charlie Rapino, Dominique Brethes - engineer of Depeche Mode/Duran Duran. Their music, a tapestry of a wide range of musical styles, was compared to that of Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Massive Attack and early Stereolab. Credits were relentlessly obtained from experts in the UK and the States including Cherrylane's Richard Stumpf and Electronic Arts' Steve Schnur.

"HERE THERE EVERYWHERE" is the duo's latest artistic endeavour. This album was recorded, mixed and mastered in 5.1 DTS surround sound DVD format for a fuller and deeper soundscape. This concept album is an exquisite confection marrying avant-garde musical concept with mesmerising melodies, poetic lyrics, sensual vocals and intriguing use of sounds. Apart from that, their state-of-the-art audio soundscape is synchronised by their original visual images.

This is Primary Shapes in a nutshell. But the finished album is just stage one of their mission. For now, the versatile duo is ready to venture in other crossover projects with a variety of artists.