Shanghai based band Yuguo, originally from Jiangxi, were famous for their layered melodic rock, poetic Chinese language lyrics and for being the only truly full time band here at the time. Remember this? Yup, they have been off the radar for nearly a year but now they're back.
The band, known for their professionalism, have been locked away creating their new album under the mentorship of Yuyintang's Zhang Haisheng. It's all done now. It's called Babel and the band are kicking off a promotional tour at the Dream Factory on the 22nd of May.
I don't want to ruin it for you all but a couple of months ago I was listening to the demos and talking about writing some English versions of the tracks (finally, I didn't). Babel is inspired by the movie of the same name and there are other tracks like I Robot. Fans of Yuguo might notice a slight change in direction too.
There are two double bill samplers up at Douban here
Older Yuguo material at Myspace, Chun Xiao is the famous track.
Here's a link to the large tour flyer.
At the Myspace page, people who saw Yuguo last year will recognize Lost Paradise as the epic opening track at the shows. Their CD release will be coming two days off the back of Casino Demon's at YYT.
Great news that they're back. They're the nicest guys, and have a great attitude - and I love their music. Have missed them the past year, they're a real credit to the scene. I've remained impressed with their trajectory since they relocated to Shanghai - they're the rare small-town band that decided to come here to develop, instead of going to Beijing - and look forward to seeing what's next. Let's hope they get the success and recognition they deserve.