The Republic by Policy

Last summer Francis Hsueh aka Policy returned to his childhood neighborhood in Taipei where his parents first settled after leaving China when the communists took power in 1949. Despite its legacy of displacement, he felt a communion riding the city’s MRT train through hazily remembered suburbs and landscapes: “The sounds of urban life, of people going someplace, made sense no matter who or where I was.”

This “steady thump of movement” birthed The Republic, a 50-minute tapestry of sinuous, autobiographical house, each track named after a subway station. Opening with the airy chords of “Shipai,” the album moves through liquid percussion, organ reverie, post-punk bass, street sounds, and syncopated bells, riding the rhythm through outer boroughs until the familiar fades away into dusk.

https://soundcloud.com/policy