Hong Kong In The 60s is a London-based trio, lined up by Mei Yau Kan (vocal, guitar, keys), Christopher Greenberg (vocal, guitar, keys), and Tim Scullion (vocals, guitars, keys). Their 8-track sophomore Places EP - the follow-up to the Willow Pattern Songs EP (2009, Proper Songs) is full of mesmerizing, chillout/easy listening-soaked shards, dominantly loaded with the space age pop and exotica pop sensibility. Indeed, they are deeply get involved in mighty psychedelic grooves to draw upon kinds of moods and shades popularized by Jean-Jacques Perrey, Gershon Kingsley, Mort Garson, and the Barrons approximately 4 decades ago. As you have figured out yet, indeed, a set of simplistic and robust yet catchy, a bit dreadful, altogether full-blown, synth-based melodies-harmonies and burbling cadences can be expected for. Almostly, though. One of the two exceptions is A Bad Night Out which is into the exploiting of vintage-looking, downbeat-drenched Latin rhythms (of course, mingling it with electronic effects). The second feature is Disintegration The Advisory Circle Reshape, as the title admits, it is not their own creative output, playing out a notch of contemporary indie electronica/indietronica/poptronica/glo-fi. By the way, the release name of this Sean O`Hagan-afforded group is obviously used to be a hint at their vast scale of their nowadays and previous residing places/countries (The UK, Hong Kong, Brazil, Japan, Spain, Africa). In a nutshell, without some exceptions, as it is noticed above, it is an excellent quasi-retrospective/retrogard-ish outlook.
Listen to it here
9.8