EP Review: She Likes Normie Things In The Same Way An Alien Would Like Human Things

I will freely admit that when Goodspace’s new project landed I really didn’t have a clue what I was listening to. It’s the work of bedroom producer Jefferson Chen, who recently made headlines by launching their album, Let’s Talk About Death, released last year, in a food court, with all the songs offered up as menu items to order and be consumed. A crazy concept that went down a treat, I’m told. And it managed to get to No.10 in the NZ Album Charts. That’s nothing to wave your chopsticks at, for sure. But this latest offering, She Likes Normie Things In The Same Way An Alien Would Like Human Things, is, by contrast, an utterly different serving.

The back story is that all the music was written, recorded and produced in Chen’s Goodspace home studio, featuring samples from a trip to India, a music video in a motorway underpass, and the EP’s cover artist Quentin Lind’s squealing car. The compositions were originally written for an immersive theatre piece, This Room is an Island (Te Pou Theatre, Feb 2024). The production is a fully interactive, inhabitable world which unfolds through the perspective of a displaced daughter making sense of life in another home. Choreographer Yin-Chi Lee and her collaborators merged dance with digital innovation to craft an immersive multimedia experience—a layered space shaped by two generations’ memories of belonging and not belonging to the same world(s). It sounds like a really cool show.

But I didn’t see it. So, I have to use my own imagination. Jefferson calls it “pretty bonkers – a dystopian that inhabits the body within”. And it really is. The best way I can make sense of these “mostly instrumentals” – Jefferson’s words – is to refer to them as “tiny soundtracks”, flavoured with exotic Eastern spices and seasonings, crunchy abrasive textures, and chewy, dark, bitter industrial fragments.

The first two numbers, The Best Way To Tell A Lie Is To Tell The Truth and Lucknow, are definitely pure cinema. If Ridley Scott had set Blade Runner in the future cyber-factories of Mumbai then it’d sound like this. Both are uncomfortable, itchy, disturbing slices of Grime, stitched together like a droid gunshot wound repair with a digitally reinterpreted tabla and a deep, dark bass replacing the more typical Tanpura drone.

Chai Chai moves the sound to the backstreets of late 40’s Calcutta, with an overwhelming pungency and fragrance. You’d half expect Indiana Jones to jump out of a pot plant pursued by tigers and wayward Nazi Grail hunters. With externally crunchy roughage, a stewed up deep hypnotic beat, overlaid fractured vocal samples and a deep throbbing gong clang, you get a heady, if confusing mix of Buddha Bar vibes and old Hollywood style adventure.

Moving further Eastwards, we now plunge into a video game interpretation of old Shanghai with the piece entitled The Air Has Bamboo Marks. There’s a bit of a spiritual element in the vocal chanting and a nod to the Thai go-go bars in the 50’s styled surf guitars. It reminded me a little of the work of American/Cambodian 60’s psych rock revivalists Dengue Fever. Both postcard retro and scroll-friendly modern. There’s also a strong narrative dance beat going on in this one. Grace or Footnote Dance Company would gladly take this up for their choreography.

On There Are 4 Stations (National Health Dance) the set finally makes it to the temple, just in time to release the Yangqins, Hulusi (Chinese bagpipes), Tanggu barrel drums, waist-worn Yaogu drums and bianzhong (chimes). Heck, there might have even been a Gamelan in there somewhere, too. Well, that’s what I was hearing. This track feels the most traditional, and ritualistic, yet the production wants to move it from the ancient to the futuristic through layers of digital dystopian dirge and a traditional 2000’s techno house beat. It’s a world class banger. Even Gilles Peterson would be adding it to his world music playlist.

I feel like She Likes Normie Things… is a million miles from the last release, which was more ‘song-based’, quirky and jittery. That album proffered comforting similarities to heroes like SJD and Disasteradio, with a bit of an Asian twist. But if you go back and listen again, you can hear the genesis of this current tangential departure in the production choices, which are now clearly manifesting themselves here on this EP. It’s an interesting brew, and a clear statement that Mr Chen is a producer with many utensils and exotic ingredients cooking in his kitchen. I can’t wait to taste what he serves up next