Big China & Little Trouble

"You Really Believe In Magic?"

BY Cam LindsayPublished Jul 31, 2008

It was the name that caught my attention, for sure. A play on words with one of the greatest adventures in motion picture history, John Carpenter's 1985 masterpiece, Big Trouble in Little China, which featured arguably Kurt Russell's finest moment, there isn't a whole lot of story behind this duo.

Big China & Little Trouble is Mike Haley (Electric Human Project founder, Wether) and Brent Eyestone (Aughra, Forensics), two noisemakers who admittedly came together over their "mutual admiration for the TV show Lost." About that influence, they say "the songs aren't about the show, per se. Rather, the mood and structure is created with and ultimately emanates a looming, ominous, uneasy tension of what's to happen next. Basically, how we felt watching early episodes of the show..." It's a pretty accurate description, even during the later episodes.

Haley and Eyestone just released their first LP, a compilation of various tracks called Black Blood of the Earth, through the latter's label, Magic Bullet, which has in the past released the likes of Old Man Gloom, Cave In, Doomriders, and Boy Sets Fire. Though I've read comparisons to Wolf Eyes, "You Really Believe in Magic?" is far from the nightmarish, bloodcurdling noise of that band's liking. Instead, the song travels along a line of varying sound experiments, shaping feedback into a feeling of unsettling paranoia until a tender acoustic guitar enters halfway in, giving it some unexpected and rather gorgeous contrast. Harsh this is not.

But sounds that capture the thrilling mysteries that make up Lost? Absolutely.

I only wish James Hong had made a guest appearance...

You can buy a copy of Black Blood of the Earth by clicking here.

Big China & Little Trouble "You Really Believe in Magic?"

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