Alexmalism - ALEXMALISM
Tracklist
- 暮
- 虛擬妄想
- 海
- 真假你我 (feat. Kelvin T)
- 香
- 秘密都市
- 灰
- 夢裡
- 鯨魚・月亮．星空
- 晨
Total: around 37 mins
STREAM
專輯封面：Sharon Lee IG@leeworks
ALEXMALISM (2022)
Released in October 2022, ALEXMALISM is a self-titled conceptual album that functions as a sonic cartography of contemporary urban anxiety, digital alienation, and queer desire. Acting as the sole producer, songwriter, and vocalist (with the exception of a collaboration with Kelvin T), Yiu navigates the psychological friction of existing within a hyper-capitalist metropolis and the complexities of digitally mediated relationships. Grounded in the melodic sensibilities of Cantopop, the album radically deconstructs the genre by cross-pollinating it with underground club frameworks, oscillating seamlessly between Deconstructed Club, 90s Trip-hop, Trap, Industrial, Breakbeat, and Trance.
Narratively, the album is structured as a chronological nocturnal odyssey, traversing a spectrum of existential and affective states. The journey opens with Dusk (暮), utilizing a WaveNet AI to recite Nietzschean philosophy over cinematic soundscapes to set a speculative tone. The album then plunges into the digital and ecological anxieties of the modern era. Virtual Delusion (虛擬妄想) blends avant-pop and rave aesthetics to examine algorithmic determinism and social isolation, seamlessly leading into Ocean (海), which employs sluggish 90s trip-hop to frame the deletion of romantic memories against the backdrop of apocalyptic ecological collapse.
As the night progresses, the album's focus shifts toward interpersonal fractures and sensory navigations. In True or False, You and Me (真假你我), Kelvin T’s brutalist industrial production clashes with Yiu’s emotive Cantopop lyricism to process the trauma of ideological fracture and cognitive dissonance. This abrasive energy dissolves into Fragrance (香), offering a moment of atmospheric introspection that translates olfactory memory into a delicate exploration of transience. The album then moves back into the shadows with Secret City (秘密都市), utilizing retro-industrial rhythms and gender-fluid vocality to map the spatial politics of queer desire within Hong Kong's marginalized urban enclaves.
Descending into the deepest part of the night, the apocalyptic dread resurfaces in the dark Trap aesthetics of Ash (灰), reflecting a visceral anxiety toward a decaying world. The structure begins to fragment in In the Dream (夢裡), where stream-of-consciousness Dancehall mimics the disorientation of fading memories within a vanishing city. Before the final awakening, the light Breakbeat of Whale・Moon・Starry Sky (鯨魚・月亮．星空) offers a moment of poetic respite, reflecting on the creative process and internal fantasies. The journey ultimately resolves with Dawn (晨), transitioning from Trance into a cathartic Drill sequence that brings an end to the nocturnal nihilism, arriving at a radical, illuminated affirmation of existence as the morning light breaks.
《ALEXMALISM》（2022）
《ALEXMALISM》（2022）是一張充滿概念性的同名全錄音室專輯，宛如一幅描繪當代都市焦慮、數碼疏離與酷兒情慾的聲響地圖。除了與 Kelvin T 的合作曲目外，姚氏包辦了整張專輯的曲詞編監與演唱，藉由音樂與文字，梳理個體在高度資本主義都會與網絡中介（digitally mediated）關係下所經歷的心理摩擦與愛慾希冀。在聲響建構上，專輯以粵語流行樂（Cantopop）的旋律為基底，並透過與地下俱樂部音樂框架的交融，對該流派進行了徹底的解構，其音樂風格不斷游移，穿梭於解構俱樂部、90年代 Trip-hop、Trap、工業音樂、碎拍（Breakbeat）以及 Trance 之間。
在敘事結構上，整張專輯猶如一場按時序推進的夜間奧德賽（nocturnal odyssey）。序曲《暮》運用 WaveNet 人工智能朗誦尼采哲學，在電影配樂般的氛圍中奠定了推想式的基調。隨後，專輯深入探討了現代社會的數碼與生態焦慮：《虛擬妄想》融合前衛流行樂與銳舞美學，審視了演算法決定論；緊接的《海》則以慵懶的 90 年代 Trip-hop 節拍，將浪漫記憶的消亡置於末日生態崩壞的背景之下。
隨著夜色漸深，專輯的視角轉向了人際斷裂與感官探索。在《真假你我》中，Kelvin T 粗野的工業製作與姚氏充滿情感的粵語流行演繹產生強烈碰撞，藉此梳理意識形態斷裂與認知失調所帶來的創傷。這種極具侵略性的能量隨後消融於《香》之中，作品在細膩的鋼琴引導下將嗅覺記憶轉化為對無常的探索。接著，專輯再次步入暗處，《秘密都市》運用復古工業節奏與流動於真假音之間的唱腔，勾勒出酷兒情慾在香港都市邊緣空間中的政治性。
當長夜步入最深沉的時刻，末日恐懼在帶有暗黑 Trap 風格的《灰》中再次浮現，反映了對衰敗世界那發自內心的存在性焦慮。音樂結構在《夢裡》開始隨之瓦解，結合 Dancehall 與意識流書寫的節拍具象化了在消亡城市中的迷失感。在最終覺醒之前，輕快的碎拍曲目《鯨魚・月亮．星空》提供了一個充滿詩意的喘息空間，反映了創作者內心的幻想與對創作過程的叩問。這場旅程最終在《晨》中得到救贖，音樂從 Trance 過渡至極具宣洩感的 Drill 段落，為深夜的虛無主義畫上句號，在晨光初現之際，邁向對生命存在作出最堅定、最純粹的肯定。