• Record Label: Hyperdub
  • Release Date: May 6, 2014
Metascore
67

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 18
  2. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. Q Magazine
    May 20, 2014
    60
    Not always easy to decode, but worth the effort. [Jun 2014, p.103]
  2. May 13, 2014
    60
    Tuning out the conceptual aspect is close to impossible, but there are some moments--as in the hypnotic "Shanghai Freeway"--that can be enjoyed on a purely musical level.
  3. May 12, 2014
    60
    If you stop trying to hear it as grime, and listen to it as a sci-fi movie of an album, a classy electronica dream journey through a high tech Orient, then that gloss becomes a strength, and it really does stand up on its own.
  4. May 5, 2014
    60
    There is still much to admire and enjoy, not least Al Qadiri’s pursuit of an individual, politicised, socially-conscious path that never lacks ambition or self-confidence.
  5. The Wire
    Jul 17, 2014
    50
    It's hard not to feel that this dense conceptual flotsam is arranged around a lucuna. [May 2014, p.67]
  6. May 5, 2014
    50
    With such an unbending focus on intellectual ideals, Asiatisch is as erudite and wildly impenetrable as its maker.
  7. Asiatisch, however, is even more pretentious [than two previous EPs], pairing instrumental UK grime with Asian flourishes to explore the relationship between the west and China.
  8. May 8, 2014
    40
    Asiatisch mixes repetitive industrial noises, poetry samples, Asian synth motifs and vaguely menacing atmospherics into tepid, listless and melodically bland soundscapes that serve the concept more successfully than they do the listener.
User Score
7.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 8 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 8
  2. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. Jun 10, 2015
    6
    This record is based on the conceptual idea of representing Asia in a generalist way, portraying it with all its popular cliches. On a musicalThis record is based on the conceptual idea of representing Asia in a generalist way, portraying it with all its popular cliches. On a musical level there's no great composition and the album tends to be boring, even if there are some good ideas here and there. In the track named Shanghai Freeway we can hear a vaporwave version of Philip Glass, while Shanzhai is an ambient cover of Nothing Compares To You that creates a metaphysical post-modern atmosphere. Full Review »