Casting a spell in China with new album

Middle Kingdom inspires Blur's Magic Whip

The British band Blur is releasing its first album in 12 years, which is great news for music fans in the UK. But it is also creating a buzz in China.

The Magic Whip, named after a fireworks brand its singer Damon Albarn picked up in China, is due out on April 27. The album's artwork even has the words Magic Whip in Chinese.

The album's first single Go Out was put out on February 19, or Chinese New Year. The music video opens with the words Kung Hei Fat Choy, a traditional greeting wishing someone prosperity, and it takes place in a kitchen decorated with Chinese paper-cutting. A character called Moli Xiaojie (Ms Magic) demonstrates how to make ice cream with pans and woks and the video has Chinese subtitles.

The video has gone viral on Chinese social media, generating comments such as: "No KTV shoddy patch-work! It's the real goofy thing!" as one frequently "liked" post on Sina Weibo says.

Another track, Lonesome Street, sees men and women performing a square dance, a form of exercise practiced in parks and public places across China that is deemed old-fashioned by the younger generation.

"I thought I had the wrong link open," Heian Qishi, a fan comments on Sina Weibo.

"Are they short on production money?" asks another fan. "But it looks like they've got the hang of cheap local Chinese aesthetic elements."

"Square dancing to a Blur tune, that makes the dancing a bit classy," says Houson.

The video has been viewed more than a million times and the album is highly rated on douban.com, a Chinese social network service.

Albarn says the band drew inspiration from their visit to Hong Kong in 2013 and from the juxtaposition of skyscrapers, ferries, Buddhas, mountains and neon. "There's nothing pastoral about it, it's very urban," Albarn says at the album launch in London. "You can be totally invisible if you choose to be.I've been to China a lot, I've got a lot to say about it."

His previous work with the virtual band Gorillaz also shows a fascination with the Far East, through song titles and use of a Chinese zither.

"His fascination with China is definitely the drive behind the album," according to Candysays, a fan who was at their 2013 gig in Hong Kong.

Blur, a Britpop band that had its biggest hits in the 1990s, has a sizable fan base in China. Response to their China-themed album has been nothing but effusive.

sunye@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 04/24/2015 page26)