SCORPIO-L claimed his new album as a ‘Protest Album’ (Words by MRDD)

Since the release of his first album ‘Paradox’ in 2010, emerging Macanese Electronic Musician, SCORPIO-L has been holding on to his leisurely attitude while composing fine quality music. Since the last ten years ago, several new singles or EPs had been released. In 2020, he unveiled his new album ‘Fancy Hybrid’, created and recorded in London which took approximately two years.

There are seven songs in ‘Fancy Hybrid’. Like all his previous works, SCORPIO-L continues to express his views and feelings on various social issues through music, and this time, the central idea is about ‘resistance’. SCORPIO-L describes all seven songs on this album as ‘Protest Song’: “This era needs more people to stand up for justice. Music is my tool!”

The album’s opening track ‘Only Love Can Make’ pretty much sets the general mood for the rest of the album. Its heavy bass and bizarre rhythm symbolises the fear within love, then the lyrics expressed that the fear can be conquered by love. ‘This Matrix Standard’ is a single that was released in 2018, but the arrangement had been slightly modified. The theme of the song revolved around social media addiction and surveillance capitalism. And it is the most brisk song in the album. Arranged by using Harmonic Sequence on music, ‘Too Weird To Listen’ is unusual and ironic. There are too many people who think that SCORPIO-L's music is strange, that was why he wrote such a ‘weird song’ to give them a black humor.

SCORPIO-L was very touched by the social protest movements in the world in the past year. Hence, ‘With Musicracy’ became reality. Musicracy is a portmanteau of music and democracy. The first half of the song permeated a sense of fragility and the powerless feeling of being desolated, which made people breathless until ‘Peace Declaration’ takes place: “Let's protect our lantern of peace. Stop that havoc and free them please". This is probably the most depressing piece of SCORPIO-L. The title track ‘Fancy Hybrid’, is an Industrial Dark Dance style song which was composed 12 years ago and now re-released with whole new arrangements and lyrics. The crazy synthesiser sound effect is likened to the bad temper of powerful rulers. Under a strong beat, SCORPIO-L sings with his signature, sharp vocal: "All the people allergic to him... So raving mad". The song ended with explosive dance tune, as if the protesters cheered fearlessly and bravely marched forward.

‘Your Love’ and ‘Follow Unfollow’ are remodel version of the first two songs in the album, produced by British composers, Asher Fynn and Will Davenport whom SCORPIO-L met in London. Speaking of these two collaboration projects, SCORPIO-L said: “At first, I just asked them to produce a remix version. However, when I received both songs, they were entirely remodelled. They became another song! I was surprised and exciting!”

‘Fancy Hybrid’ is a spine-chilling, aggressive and straightforward yet frank and genuine electronic music album. It depicted the "scream of love" made by SCORPIO-L for the disturbance and collapse of the generation today. The atmosphere also exposed on the album cover - tears are transformed into the flames, and glow in the lost world of our time.

The album is sponsored and published by Instituto Cultural de Macau and MOWAVE and distributed through London's independent music label Thunder Hides Rain Records. It is now available for listening or downloading on major music platforms. Limited edition CDs are available with free worldwide shipping on: scorpio-l.com

SCORPIO-L 新專輯刻劃亂世中的「愛」與「恐懼」(撰文: MRDD)

自2010年發佈首張專輯《Paradox》以來，澳門電子音樂人SCORPIO-L一直以「慢工出細貨」的態度去做音樂，十年來平均每一兩年會推出新的單曲或EP。2020年，他帶來了全新專輯《Fancy Hybrid》，整張作品在倫敦創作及錄製完成，耗時差不多兩年。

《Fancy Hybrid》一共有七首歌，和以往的作品一樣，SCORPIO-L繼續通過音樂去表達自己對各種社會問題的看法和感受；而這一次的作品，中心思想離不開「抗爭」，SCORPIO-L形容這張專輯的七首作品為「抗爭部曲」：「這個世代需要更多人站出來為不公義的事情去抗爭，我也一樣，但我只是用了音樂去作為抗爭的方式。」

專輯開場曲《Only Love Can Make》幾乎為專輯的其餘部分設定了整體氛圍，沉重的Bass和詭異的節奏帶出對「愛」的恐懼，而歌詞卻道出了這種恐懼只能通過愛才能消除；《This Matrix Standard》是早於2018年就曝光過的單曲，編曲作了輕微調整，主題圍繞著上網成癮及網絡監控等問題，是專輯中節奏較為輕快的歌曲；編曲運用了Harmonic Sequence技巧的《Too Weird To Listen》，是一首幽默又極具諷刺意味的「迷幻圓舞曲」，因為太多人說SCORPIO-L的音樂很怪，所以他就寫了這麼一首「怪歌」去幽大家一默。

過去一年世界各地發生的社會抗爭運動，讓SCORPIO-L非常感觸，《With Musicracy》也因此應運而生，「Musicracy」就是「Music」和「Democracy」的結合，歌曲前半段滲透著「脆弱」和「悲涼」的無力感，直到間奏裡朗誦出「和平宣言」後才讓人喘一口氣，這可能是SCORPIO-L創作過最壓抑的一首歌；Industrial Dark Dance風格的《Fancy Hybrid》，是專輯的同名點題作品，SCORPIO-L在12年前就完成了Demo，如今配上新的編曲和歌詞重新發佈，歌曲裡幾近瘋狂的Synthesizer音效，比喻成強權統治者們的「壞脾氣」，在強烈的節拍之下，SCORPIO-L用他標誌性的、鋒利的嗓音唱道：「All the people allergic to him... So raving mad」，爆炸性的Dance Tune在尾段出現，仿如抗爭者們整齊有力的吶喊聲，無所畏懼，勇敢向前。

結尾的《Your Love》和《Follow Unfollow》均是專輯頭兩首歌曲的Remodel版本，由SCORPIO-L在倫敦認識的英國朋友Asher Fynn和Will Davenport製作，談到這兩首作品，SCORPIO-L說：「一開始只是叫他們做Remix，收到作品後嚇一跳，基本上都變成了另外一首歌，是Remodel Version了!」

《Fancy Hybrid》是一張純真中帶著侵略性、冰冷卻又溫暖人心的另類電子音樂專輯，它刻劃出SCORPIO-L對當下世界的紛擾和崩壞所作出的「愛的嘶吼」，就像封面裡的造型一樣：淚水幻化成火焰，在這個迷失的世界，給自己發光。

專輯由澳門文化局及MOWAVE贊助出版，並通過倫敦獨立音樂廠牌Thunder Hides Rain Records發行，現可於各大音樂平台收聽或下載，限量版CD可透過網上訂購 (全球免郵)，詳請: scorpio-l.com