With their roots firmly in the local punk rock scene, Lip Servants debut single is as they beautifully describe it “a nihilistic boogie to celebrate the end times.”
“An exorcism ofgrief and despair” the cascading torrents of seasick fuzz and propulsive powerhouse rhythms that are Affectation and Stutter are available for free on Bandcamp.
Lip Servants are Arthur Urquiola, Hans Schlaikier and Glen Lewis – familiar names to many from their previous bands Two Finger Salute, Star Whores and The Tracy Lörds- and you can catch them perform their debut tracks live at The Aftermath on 28 August, 2021.
Cantonese rock metal band 逆流 NiLiu have released a new 5 track EP Desire which you can listen to on most major streaming sites.
Formed in 2011 Ni Liu have become popular stalwarts of the local music scene playing at multiple festivals and releasing several singles and EPs.
The band’s ability to write catchy melodies and moving chorus incorporating a wide range of musical elements make them well worth checking out, even if metal isn’t your thing.
Punk band Delay Our Misery, who only formed in January 2021, have released their debut single The After Party.
Amit Gurung (Bass/Vocals), Aaron Mordeno (Guitar/Vocals) and Justin Orcino (Drums) who make-up Delay Our Misery have a passion for pop-punk and list their influences as Blink-182, Ramones, The Beatles, Neck Deep and Belmont.
To quote the band “Amidst the pandemic and current events going on in the world, we wanted to make music that was more on the fun side to take our (and the listeners’) minds off the stressful and serious side of life. We all need to lighten up from time to time!”
New hardcore band Regret have released an eponymous 7-track debut EP on cassette and through bandcamp.
A veteran of the local music scene singer Riz also plays guitar in Dagger, fronted the massively popular King Ly Chee and runs the popular Unite Asia hardcore music website.
Commenting on his new band and their debut EP Riz said “We were just looking to play something that was more straight-ahead hardcore punk whose simplicity and directness is better suited to capture the intense emotions we all have as HongKongers living through the tumultuous past couple of years.”
Regret‘s seven tracks, including We Exist, the band’s debut single released in March, are about political turmoil, minority rights, police brutality and censorship.
“The past couple of years have been heavy on the people of Hong Kong, but then you’re seeing similar issues pop up in Myanmar, Thailand, Chile, USA, and everywhere else,” commented Riz in an interview.
“Though you may find your own situation so utterly hopeless, seeing others fighting the same causes brings a sense of camaraderie. So instead of letting all of these dark, chaotic, uncertain emotions eat us up inside, we’re getting it out through this music.”
In a post on his facebook page 689 threatened the Foreign Correspondents’ Club with eviction from their clubhouse if they allowed Andy Chan Ho-tin’s talk about his views on Hong Kong’s future to go ahead.
It’s amazing how thin skinned and insecure Xi Jinping and his sycophants are.
CY Leung did nothing but demean and denigrate the people he was ‘elected’ to govern during his time as ‘Chief Executive’ of Hong Kong – while enriching himself and his Beijing buddies.
Xi and the CCP by their actions and policies directly created the idea of an independent Hong Kong. By ignoring the needs and desires of HongKongers they sowed the seeds and then actively fertilised dissent and dissatisfaction.
Why because it’s easy to rule and skim the cream from the pot by pitting HongKonger against HongKonger. Favouring and rewarding the sycophants, penalising those who don’t kiss the ring is designed to divide and distract while the oligarchy feasts on both.
If you think China is so wonderful, then why do so many mainland Chinese – including Xi and all his top CCP cronies – look to get their money out of China as quickly as possible!!
No other people in the world have so little faith in their own country when it comes to investing their own personal wealth.
Beijing and Xi want to destroy Hong Kong and it’s values including freedom of speech, an independent judiciary and an honest police force.
Yet it’s to Hong Kong that mainlanders flock to secure and safeguard their savings and future. You have to ask why they do this, if China – as supreme leader Xi loves to espouse – is such a wonderful country where all are equal and people’s rights are respected.
Xi and the CCP are so jealous of what we HongKongers have created without them that they need to destroy it because they fear it.
We do not agree with Andy Chan Ho-tin, but we respect that he has the right to express his views.
To quote the poem of anti–Nazi theologian and pastor Martin Niemöller
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
As the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region turns 18 never has it been so obvious and open how the pro-China sycophants are looking to destroy and undermine Hong Kong for their own self interests.
The lack of respect and disdain Chief Executive CY Leung has for Hongkongers (as opposed to Mainland Hong Kong residents) is obvious every time he opens his mouth and either insults HongKongers or sticks his tongue further up the Mainlands arse.
689’s latest show of pettiness and vindictiveness is to not invite the Legco members who voted against the fake universal suffrage bill last month to the Hong Kong 18th Anniversary flag raising ceremony.
Beijing what you fail to understand is that you have created the discontent and anti-China feeling here in Hong Kong by imposing on us completely incompetent Chief Executives who couldn’t run an orgy in a brothel.
What I fail to understand is why you want to turn Hong Kong into just another mainland city when so many members of the NPC have invested their personal money in Hong Kong purely because it’s not a Chinese city…
I know it goes against the basic CCP’s dictate of line your own pockets first and let everyone else fight over the scraps – but if you want to ease tensions here and in cities on the mainland you need to start looking after the people you claim to be representing. Pitting penniless peasants against each other so the CCP could stay in power worked well in the past. But HongKongers and many Mainlanders are educated and aware and not happy to suffer so corrupt government officials can enrich themselves.
In less than a year you’ve allowed CY to destroy the reputation of the Hong Kong Police and it’s relationship with HongKongers. Camera phones and the internet expose the lies the police tell. One video can be edited/cut to support your lies, but hundreds shot from different angles expose the truth – and that genie can never be forced back into it’s bottle.
So Xi Jinping, as an 18th Birthday present to HongKongers why not give 689 the boot and impose a leader with a brain and an understanding of how to return Hong Kong to its status as the World’s Greatest City. Why should you do that? Pure self interest – a thriving dynamic Hong Kong, drives Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other mainland cities to improve and become great. A neutered Hong Kong removes that incentive. There’s enough people and money around in China to have several great and unique megalopolis.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONG KONG Special Administrative Region!
Out of control police pepper spraying and assaulting HongKongers. The plain clothes officers in the background look surprised the actions of the uniformed officers, who are standing behind a road side barrier and in their police van. Why one policeman thinks its ok to rub pepper spray in the face of woman is quite beyond me. Surely these unprovoked actions amount to assault with a weapon and the police involved should be charged and jailed.
Richard Scotford on Sunday night’s protest in Sai Yeung Choi Street where respect for the police amongst law abiding HongKongers hits a new low – if that were possible – as those attacked are arrested and the attackers, protected or ignored by police.
From the very offset, this protest was never really about aunties dancing on the street, but instead a proxy fight for what many believe is the increasing Mainlandisation of Hong Kong. From as early as 18:00 there was a visibly high presence of plainclothes police in the area. The police had clearly mobilised high numbers of officers and it would later become clear to all why that was the case. At 19:30, the main group leading the protest, HK Localism Power, began to set up their speakers and banners.
Just in front of where the Localists planned to speak, a ten metre, empty corral had been created with police barriers. It wasn’t clear what the barriers were doing other than blocking half of the road to both pedestrians and the increasing number of protesters who were now quickly gathering. The protesters, quickly pushed the barriers to the one side and opened up the throughway. These barriers remained at the side of the road for at least fifteen minutes until some police tried to reopen up the corral again.
At this point there were hundreds of Localists in the area, who found themselves both in and outside of the newly created corral. It was all very confusing. No one could figure out why the police were so insistent on making the corral so close to the Localist booth. Needless to say, this action skyrocketed the tensions between both the police and the protesters. The police first moved the barricades out, then moved them back, then out, then back again, but there were just too many confused people in the way. Finally the police dragged the barriers a further twenty metres down the road and made a new corral.
This was when the first scuffle broke out between a police officer and a protester. As in every incident like this, almost everyone has no clue as to why the police have suddenly targeted just one person. The crowd closed ranks and the person was able to scurry away without being detained. Interestingly, and this would set the tone for the rest of the night, the police officer involved in the melee ran nearly a hundred metres down the road after the intended target . At which point the crowd demanded to know why the person was being detained, as is his lawful right, but the police could not answer. They then hogtied the man and violently barged him through the crowd to take him to a waiting van.
I have no problem with this slightly aggressive police, arrest procedure, if the man is found to have committed a serious crime, but bear in mind the enormous effort the police had invested in detaining this single person, and then how hands off they became once things got really serious and laws were blatantly being broken.
This first arrest then went on to lead to the first pepper spraying of the night. This occurred when the police, erroneously stated that their vehicle was surrounded and so needed to use pepper spray to push back the crowds. The reality was that the vehicle was behind a barrier, on Nathan Road with free access to leave at anytime. Protesters were on one side only, standing on the footpath, behind the barrier. There was no reason to indiscriminately pepper spray those on the footpath.
While the first pepper spraying of the night was taking place on Nathan Road, it became clear as to why the police had wanted to create their corral. With a police escort that even a president would be proud of, in came a tiny contingent of Pro-Beijing supporters with flags and a loud speaker. A fifty minute slanging match and flag waving contest ensued between the two groups, divided by a very thick, blue line of police. In this regard, I thoroughly support the idea that the police are there to protect free speech for everyone but once again, we have to see the police orders in context. For this coming July 1st march, booth licenses have been refused on the grounds of security, yet, the police mobilised an entire army to ensure that two Pro-Beijing supporters could stand on a stepladder and shout profanities at an already agitated crowd. The police action was tantamount to mobilizing hundreds of officers to ensure that Joshua Wong could shout abuse at five hundred CCP stalwarts.
If getting the Bejing loyalists in was impressive, extracting them was a military operation to behold as the police effectively made an impenetrable blue tunnel for them to scurry through. It was epic, superstar treatment fit for a king. Needless to say, the tensions were now off the charts and most importantly, the confidence of the Blue Ribbons in the area was at an all time high, as the police had demonstrated in spectacular fashion who they were supporting, and so the fighting began. Not, pushes and shouting like you see at most protests but full on fist fights and assaults with isolated Localists getting the worst of it by gangs of ageing male Blue Ribbons.
All the serious fighting occurred on Nathan Road. As more Localists began to stream of Sai Yeung Choi Street to help those that had been assaulted they easily cornered the attackers. So what did the police do with the assailants? They released them to the great consternation of the crowd. At this point, let’s remember the first Localist arrested, who was chased 100metres down the road, hog-tied and carried onto the police van by six officers, yet now the police were confronted with victims of assault, with obvious signs of injury and there were multiple people wanting to give statements and the police let them go. No hogtying, no violent police take-downs, no pepper spraying. Those accused of the assaults were given the friendly shoulder tap and released out of sight.
But not out of sight enough!
Protesters had seen the police release them and weren’t going to tolerate it.
At this point, the police could have saved themselves a lot of legwork if they’d have treated the Blue Ribbons like the Localists and bundled them into waiting cells in Mongkok Police Station. Instead, rolling battles ensued as the Localists hunted down the released Blue Ribbon assailants, to demand that they be arrested once again.
Serious scuffles continued all the way to Tong Mi Road, which is practically Sham Shui Po, until once again the assailants were cornered on Palm Street. The police then set up another defensive circle around those accused of assault until a police van arrived to finally take them away. To ensure that the police didn’t release them again, Ray Wong, leader of HK Indigenous, went in a police van too to make a statement, escorted by 8 police men, erstwhile the accused attackers sauntered onto the waiting police van with a gentle shoulder tap from the police.
All in all, the night was a sad example of just how much energy the police will spend on detaining Localists, erstwhile going to great lengths to avoid detaining their own so called supporters. The aunties never featured in the night, not even for a minute. The night was never about dancing. The Localists chose the dancing because they knew it would get a rise in the authorities, and true to form, the HK police showed once again that they are now just a paramilitary force set up to defend the Mainland. They’re happy to let clear assaults pass by in plain sight, so long as those doing the assaulting support the Mainland.
