Big Trouble in Little China captures what it can’t capture, to become more than just an album, but a romance between one culture and another, one person and another, one dream and another, between those of us scuttling across the ocean floor, and those who stand above us, between the losers and the lost, the great home in the heavens, and the one we don’t want to go home to. We get saccharine as we get older, but what does it matter when all you got left is memories?
After a long stint in China, the Liszts were re-united stateside to record this album in an effort to expose China’s burgeoning consumer culture to more independent-minded western music, but also it is important to remember that those who love, love perhaps too well. The lyrics for these songs were born out of a matrimonial fever on both continents. Only time will tell if we’ll make it to the wedding, but we can weep a little on the way, and maybe take a trip to the beach this december.
A number of songs were written in Mandarin, but as the album progressed, a shift to english occurred, so it became clear that the songs would need introductions for our Chinese friends. In an effort to keep the material fresh, the Liszts imposed a one month deadline, and with the assistance of producer, Malcolm Felder, the album was finished at the end of August, 2006. The album remained in limbo for a couple years before Felder honed the sound of the album, utilizing field recordings from a Virginia graveyard, old Tascam tracks from Jamaica Plain, and his own electronic compositions.
Want to become infused with a larger sound, and begin to breathe in the larger atmosphere of a holistic sound emporium? The Liszts will take you there.
Recorded in Kalamazoo, MI
Written and performed by Liszts
Production by Malcolm Felder
CDD Pre-Mastering by Scott Craggs