Today New Zealand’s Wax Chattels share their third single ‘Cede’ off their cathartic sophomore album, Clot, out September 25 via Flying Nun & Captured Tracks.
The vitriolic choruses of ‘Cede’ are in Amanda Cheng’s (bass/vocals) native language — Taiwanese Hokkien — and are an indignant confrontation about Cross-Strait relations and self-determination. This track follows their singles ‘No Ties’ — a melodic single about the experience of being a first-generation immigrant that BrooklynVegan called “ferocious” — and ‘Efficiency’, that We All Want Someone To Shout For called “hard-hitting slice of industrial hard rock”.
Amanda Cheng on ‘Cede’ – “I am angry. Saying “you don’t know who I am” in Taiwanese Hokkien is to say “you don’t get to tell me who I am”. You don’t just scream like this to put on an album — you scream like this because it’s the only thing you can do.”
“This song is an affront to the near-silent cultural genocide that’s taking place — the censorship, the militant threats — and the international community’s insistence on practising diplomacy with economics at the front of mind. If it takes a loud song that’s half in an unfamiliar language for people to ask, “what’s that about?”, then so be it.”
Watch ‘Cede’ below
Photo Credit: Ebru Yildiz
