"Singular mind inside the coil / A flickering sign becomes the sun / Open up oil in the heart / Burn your fire for everyone..."
Sonically rich, emotionally vast and mysterious, "Flood The Harbour" released by Kai Tak, the Los Angeles based music collective helmed by producer Chris King (Cold Showers), gets in your head, pushes memory buttons that you didn't know even existed. A blend of ambient sounds, startlingly evocative synths walls, a deep cut drum groove, post punkian guitar washes and exquisitely dreamy featured vocals from There's Talk's Olivia Lee and you feel like you are dropped into a movie, one from another time and place, one filled with nostalgic heaviness and maybe even dire consequences, (who knows).
The track as written by King and artist Tamaryn and produced by King is the kind of song that while open to interpretation by all who hear it, feels deeply poetic and darkly romantic. I couldn't help but feel a pressing weight on my shoulders, the kind of weight of a world (micro or macro) about to change drastically and probably not for the good. The song feels soaked in the enormity of historical gravity that pulls us all down amid the glimmers of hope and survivorship along the way.
"I'm stuck in
A violet feeling
To swim the water world
Leave everything Not staying
Give us a reason
To flood the harbour"
A violet feeling
To swim the water world
Leave everything Not staying
Give us a reason
To flood the harbour"
From the upcoming Kai Tak debut album "Designed In Heaven Made In Hong Kong" dropping on June 21st (2024).
LINER NOTES (bracketed):
["Flood The Harbour" follows Kai Tak's acclaimed singles, "Blush," "Jalen Rose," and "Villains In My Mind," setting the stage for the highly anticipated debut LP, "Designed In Heaven Made In Hong Kong", out on June 21 via à La Carte Records (pre-order).]
[Reflecting on the inspiration behind "Flood The Harbour," Chris King of Kai Tak shares, "The music for 'Flood The Harbour' was written on the same day I wrote 'Blush.' After feeling uninspired for a long time, I spent the day repeatedly watching Fallen Angels on mute while messing around with instruments, and 90% of both songs were written in a few hours. Whenever I'm working on something new, I always give the songs a temporary working title of the neighborhood that inspired the tune, or that I'm using found samples from, and this song drew from Yau Ma Tei. Formerly a little fishing bay, Yau Ma Tei has been built extensively upon reclaimed land. Because of Hong Kong's limited usable land and massive population density, land reclamation has been a central part of the city's growth over the past century - over 60 km of land has been added to the city from land reclamation projects, including part of the old Kai Tak airport, and just thinking about land reclamation and its endless ripples helped shape the song."]
[Olivia Lee of There's Talk adds her perspective, stating, "I aligned on inspiration with Chris - the lyrics came to mind after simmering on the working title for the song, Yau Ma Tei, as well as hazy neon-lit montages from Fallen Angels. Sinking into the broodiness of the song, images of a revolution on the heels of the end of the world engulfed in flames and flood came to mind. Perhaps a meditation on the consequences of colonialism and corporate greed, and who will have the last word."]
[Olivia Lee of There's Talk adds her perspective, stating, "I aligned on inspiration with Chris - the lyrics came to mind after simmering on the working title for the song, Yau Ma Tei, as well as hazy neon-lit montages from Fallen Angels. Sinking into the broodiness of the song, images of a revolution on the heels of the end of the world engulfed in flames and flood came to mind. Perhaps a meditation on the consequences of colonialism and corporate greed, and who will have the last word."]
I love the heaviness of "Flood The Harbour" while I hate it's reason for being. AS an old dog who has been around a very long time I realize that the world is run by corrupt actors and has been forever. Maybe the best thing we can do is find those who you dearly love and hold onto them tightly and call out the wrongs in the world when you can in any way you can.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/kaitakmusic
https://kaitak.bandcamp.com/
https://x.com/kaitakmusic
https://soundcloud.com/kaitak
https://taromagazine.com/kai-tak-fallen-angels-new-singles-blush-sleepwalking/
Kai Tak is an LA-based music collective led by producer Chris King, known for his role in Cold Showers, as well as production work for artists such as Tamaryn, House of Harm and Fearing.
Named in homage to the now-retired Hong Kong airport known for its harrowing approach through the city’s skyscrapers, Kai Tak sculpts moody soundscapes that pull sonic inspiration from shoegaze, trip-hop, and electronica.
Born in Hong Kong and adopted by American parents who worked at a camp for Vietnamese refugees seeking opportunity in the city known as the Pearl of the Orient, King started writing songs for Kai Tak in the crucible of quarantine as a vehicle for connecting with his unconventional roots, while also serving as a platform for collaboration with many of the musical friends made from his career as a producer and engineer. Operating without any deadlines or creative constraints allowed King to use and explore every technique he had learned over the years, incorporating re-sampling, drastic pitch shifting, time-stretching, liberal use of tape delay, recording live drums with MIDI drum triggers, and creating his sample-based synthesizers using found sounds recorded during various trips to Hong Kong.
Kai Tak assembled a live lineup in December of 2022, and in just over a year of performing live, the band has opened for Blonde Redhead, Tamaryn, and Public Memory, with plans to tour in support of their debut LP, due in June via à La Carte Records.
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