Leng Seong‘s Chinese-Malaysian-Italian heritage comes into play on Gweilo. The influences appear in rapid-fire snippets, from ambient to electronic, from classical to pop. While such variety is the natural output of a multicultural background, it also reflects the melting pot of a digital world. As such, the music seems futuristic while remaining very much of its time. The more modern influences, such as anime and video games, are tempered by a respect for the past, apparent in the sampling of a Chinese choir on the telling “Shapeshifter;” the title refers not only to the music, but the archetype of the Trickster.
“Speaking Tongues” introduces the set with spoken word and a sense of intimacy. In the background, one hears what may be a motorcycle, a temple chime, a rattling sword, before the words begin to wobble like interrupted transmissions. Distorted guitar sends the piece toppling into the abyss. “FLOL” combines chant, song and spoken word, but seems less like a vocal track than an experiment in texture and timbre.
The thirty-three-second “Omertà” demands to be longer, plunging immediately into big beats and large chords; perhaps a remix will follow. Even the longest track is only 3:37, a nod to the A.D.H.D. age. Just as one has fallen into the drum and motor grooves of “Kira(A)”, the spell is broken again. This being said, it’s better to leave listeners wanting more than to wear them out with any needless extension. Lead single “Sang Kancil” invites attendees to the dance floor with shifting rhythms and a sense of largesse, the kettle drum break at 2:18 providing one of the album’s signature moments. While the track ends twenty-six seconds later, few will notice as the percussion rides confidently across the break into”White Devil,” imitating a DJ mix. “Shapeshifter” is reminiscent of Meitei’s more danceable efforts, a callback across time, giving voice to the ancestors, whose holy song is transplanted into a new electronic body.
The music is purposely disorienting. One may attempt to glean the nation of origin, but in such cases, dissection is impossible. A multicultural heritage leads to a multicultural sound, just as it does in a modern multi-cultural city. Leng Seong includes the best of the past and the present, honoring where he has come from and where he has ended up. The album, which began with “Speaking Tongue,” ends with “Mother Tongue,” exposing not only the competing claims on identity, but the ways in which seemingly disparate influences can be reconciled without compromise or assimilation. (Richard Allen)
