Aphasia

An independent music community has coalesced over the last couple decades in Taiwan, which has both borne the burden and resisted the weight of Chinese rule for more than 60 years. This is a collection of noise rock instrumentals from Taipei quartet Aphasia (a term for loss of speech, usually following head trauma or injury.) With a few standouts, such as the uptempo drive of “The Freedom Highway,” the tracks maintain the tradition of guitar-led wall of sound, balancing ascent to major with descent to minor, shading moods light and dark, dancing to the edge of distortion,sometimes crossing into dissonance. This Taiwanese quartet plays the Seahorse August 31.