Hanoi Ink – Heavy Beats at Hanoi Rock City

Hanoi Ink catches most of Vu Nhat Tan and Nguyen Manh Hung’s Heavy Beat Concert at Hanoi Rock City on Thursday 24 March and experiences an impressive and sometimes terrifying aural assault.

Nguyen Manh Hung is best known in Hanoi as one of the most talented and original of the younger generation of artists (his next show will be in mid-April at Goethe, with details as always on Hanoi Grapevine) and as the guitarist with experimental/traditional group Dai Lam Linh.

He was also the initial connection behind Saigon art punk rockers Giao Chi’s first Hanoi show back in December 2009, and watching Hung recently at a Dai Lam Linh show I felt there were a few moments when he seemed to be edging towards a heavier sound. Running into him at the Giao Chi show at HRC a couple of weeks back, I pushed him a bit on this. He just smiled and suggested I check out his upcoming show with Vu Nhat Tan. So here I am tonight, arriving a little late due to a sudden need to Tweet about the earthquake that set my apartment block swaying just as I was about to leave for the show.

Hung is onstage when I join the mainly Vietnamese crowd of around 50 people upstairs at HRC. He is playing alone at this point; noise guitar with an amazing range of sounds. Also onstage is Nguyen Duc Tu (aka st.tus), controlling visuals projected on a large though fairly lo-fi screen behind the stage with laptop and hardware controller (for those who care about such things, he is running Avenue VJ software on a 17-inch Macbook Pro. I’m not sure about the controller).

Hung has built up an impressive array of pedals and controllers over the past few years. He manages to avoid the common traps of gimmickry or mere technical mastery, manipulating guitar strings and effects to build a certain mood, an emptiness that is musical in its effect while mostly avoiding much in the way of harmony or melody.

Hung is very clearly in charge and exerting a stronger presence under his grey hoodie than I’ve seen from him on stage previously

The crashing driving beat reminds me a little of Bangkok-based C.A.M.A. favourites Stylish Nonsense, with Hung laying noises on top with a very full guitar sound, all squeals and dives and staccato pedal bursts over looping delays.

He eventually comes out of this intensity into a lighter movement, with heavily delayed guitar meandering around a 5-note scale, almost tracing out the melody of popular Vietnamese folk song Trống Cơm or something similar.

The tune progresses through a set of minor triads that are probably the most diatonic moment of the night, but quickly moves back to heavy sounds with crushing searing analogue synth-like bursts and bombs that draw the piece to a conclusion.

Next up is Vu Nhat Tan solo with beats and samples. A trained composer, he is one of Hanoi’s best known experimental musicians and has been gradually introducing more beats alongside his found sounds and noise productions. Nguyen Dinh Nghia (aka Bom) joins on drums midway through the piece at a signal from Hung…

Vu Nhat Tan turned a few heads a couple of years ago with a very solid set supporting Girl Talk, and he is channelling a similar vibe tonight.

After setting things up with beats and sounds and a few changes of direction, he adds vocal samples on top. They have a kind of Asian tribal feel I guess, though they are not obviously Vietnamese. The piece evolves into a more industrial feel, with Tan triggering various sounds over the top through various filters.

The visuals are a bit muted at this point, and to some extent there is the usual problem with sample-based electronic acts, which don’t lend themselves to putting on much of a visual performance. The projections improve as the piece progresses though, with some mirrored images and a wide range of influences evident.

The piece moves through some nice occasional moments flirting with harmony, teasing the crowd then reverting back to the underlying framework of beats and noise. There is a very memorable moment when staccato chopper sounds combine with a repeated strobing image of an armed soldier, which for mine could have been drawn out even longer before the layered pad sounds and sweeps were added on top. I would prefer a slightly more bass-heavy approach, with maybe a few more low drones to flesh out the bottom end, but it is only a minor quibble.

Then next piece starts with Tan playing what sounds like a field recording of a loudspeaker announcement over traffic. After a drawn out introduction, the rhythm section of Hung and Bom enter abruptly. It is all driving drums and distorted atonal guitar, with machine gun-like bursts and flanging dips as Hung manipulates various expression pedals with his feet. Tan adds some 8-bit Atari-style sounds on top.

Just when I am thinking a bit more light and shade would be nice, with greater use of stops and harmonic features, they move into a kind of ambient-meets-sinister-breakdown section with just those features, although only for an all-too-brief moment.

My one real concern with the show is the sound levels, which are very high overall and sometimes hit levels and frequencies that could do real damage. This is something HRC and other venues need to think about, particularly for the young staff working the inside bar during shows.

Finally defeated by the sound levels and having some place else I need to be, I leave just before 11 as the band descends into a heavy breakdown, while the drummer takes a break and Hung reaches for his E-Bow. He is using this to good effect with long sustained notes and slight overtones over jerky impatient electronic beats as I ease out the door and head for home.

Check out Vu Nhat Tan Group on MySpace http://www.myspace.com/vunhattan