Founded in 2010, post-punk rockers FAZI spent most of their first decade pursuing a raw, rough sound best described by their former English name, The Fuzz. There’s a definite abrasive edge to the production of both their krautrock-fuelled numbers and melodic songs such as “西安”, an ode to their city of origin, Xi’an. The band have also drawn inspiration from genres like shoegaze—the title and moodiness of “慢潛” are inspired by British band Slowdive—and psychedelic music. But it was on 2022’s philosophical concept album Folding Story that they took the plunge into cleanly produced post-rock, with sweeping tracks such as the cinematic, elegiac “Way to Atman”. FAZI have since applied that new aesthetic perspective to earlier material, while retaining the essential grit of the original. “Be as one”, for example, transforms a hypnotic anthem into a multipart epic whose liquid smoothness is offset by a martial beat and doses of aggressive noise. As vocalist and songwriter Liu Peng tells Apple Music: “It sounded too good otherwise.”