Snapline

Snapline
Origin	Beijing, China
Genres	Post-punk
Years active	2005–present
Labels	Maybe Mars
Members	Chen Xi Li Qing Li Weisi

Snapline is a band based in Beijing, consisting of Li Qing on guitar and keyboards and Li Weisi on bass, who met while at students the Beijing Institute of Technology. Their music was dedicated to working out in a contemporary Beijing context the sounds and ideas produced by the noise and minimalist musicians of the 1970s and 1980s, especially focusing on the New York scene of that period. Wanting also explore the dark, industrial music coming out of England during that period, especially from bands like Joy Division and the Cure, the two created a side project, which performed strange, drum-machine-driven music over dark, minor chords. Chen Xi, on vocals and drum machine, bought a softer, more fluid sound to the band with his delicate and slightly otherworldly singing.

Ex-Public Image Ltd drummer Martin Atkins produced their first CD.

As snippets of the recording filtered through the scene in China, the band’s shows started drawing larger crowds, and they soon began to develop a strong following. A series of concerts at D-22 established them as one of the central bands in the scene, much loved by critics and musicians, although difficult at times for audiences to follow. In October, 2007, the performed a stunning set at the Modern Sky festival, as Chen Xi danced and stumbled frenetically onstage while Li Qing’s strange and ugly noises dueled with Li Weisi’s relentless bass lines. After that show it was clear to many that Snapline was one of the key bands in the musical explosion emanating from Beijing.

The subject of many articles in the Chinese press, the band was listed in the September 2007 edition of That's Beijing as one of the ten best bands in China and in an article in Rolling Stone that same year Li Qing was listed as one of China’s four major guitar innovators.

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