Hedgehog is one of the handful of indie bands in Beijing poised for international accolade, world domination, and rock immortality. Riding a wave of cliché whenever and wherever they pop up for a show, Hedgehog are indicative not only of that healthy and vibrant "Beijing scene" but also of the budding tertiary English-language media finally self-satisfied that there is a band cool enough to latch onto and talk about.




Like The Subs and the Re-TROS before them, Hedgehog bridge the gap between an insular Chinese fan base and older expats half-heartedly keeping up with indie rock happenings in the west looking for something similar in China.

I'm in that latter category, so naturally I thought this was a pretty good album.

I'm also a big fan of clichés, name-dropping record reviews, and rock prognostication, so here it is: Coming from territories erstwhile forged by the Pixies and the Jesus and Mary Chain, Hedgehog inherit and update the standard post punk sound, offering a distinctive take in a blender of well-chosen influences -- its sure to win them continued success, wealth, fame, glory, and reverence all over the world.

Noise Hit World begins with the poppy "Toy & 61 Festival," an almost self-consciously upbeat number replete with harmonizing xylophone and guitar lines, wahs, oohs, ahhs, and an anthemic major key chorus. It sets the tone for a more romantic and introspective album than I would have expected after seeing their live show. A romantic, poppy sensibility shows up again in "Elf," "Love Tosh," and "Nova Nova." Generally, it's a more restrained record, with a few exceptions, playing up the layering of the instrumentation and the vocals rather than the soft-loud-soft-loud character of their live show. With the visceral effect of the distortion climaxes toned down, and qualified with bass and vocals, the various core ideas of the songs come though clearer. Basically, it's bass-driven, three-piece post punk, approached from all angles, shaken up a bit with lots of guitar effects, catchy Korg-ish lines, and sing-along choruses. It sounds like a more mature Jesus and Mary Chain. I love that shit.

Hedgehog are a pretty interesting band, indicative of a certain character of Chinese rock today -- like others, they've got the drum lines that sound like Blur and the guitarist clearly likes Gang of Four and Nirvana -- but the ideas in the song writing are clever and well-executed, and set the band in a class of its own. It's an earnest album, clearly created by a band that has poured over their own sound and approached things a number of different ways in terms of production. There's a lot of ways to like this record I think, if you come from a general fondness for post punk and the myriad of ways it can be interpreted and presented. It's a different experience than their live show, but it's definitely good enough to stay in your CD player for multiple listens.

Getting the record might be a problem though. They were supposed to be available when the band played their show at Yuyintang. I bought a copy at The Shelter (35rmb), and they had about 10 or so for sale, along with Sulumi's record, I-GO's record, and a few others. Word on the street is that Yuyintang will have CDs for sale soon as well. Also, if you want to order it online, head over to www.modernsky.com. Or you could just wait until they come down to play another show...

Louder.cn also had an interview (in Chinese) with Hedgehog before their show last week (or whenever that was) here.

Check out Hedgehog's MySpace page here.

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