QUAN

Boots and ball... from the hackstreets of Hong Kong with hot smokin' Chow chops comes Regurgitator's QUAN live and kicking off the sweat stain of debut solo album THE AMATEUR.
So awesome news... QUAN has scored slots on the Australian BIG DAY OUT tour as well hot spots with THE PRODIGY on the east cost and a few extra special sneakin' shows.

Featuring OMG! as favoured by Triple J, AND THIS IS WHAT SHE SAID, THE ONE, YEAR OF THE JERK, GIMME GIMME and many more of your childhood favourites.
Dates and reviews below. For spirited discussions and visual motifs please approach Paul Curtis (LABEL/MGMT) consume1@ozemail.com.au or BRIAN (RISH publicity) brian@rishrecords.com ph 02 9660 9119.

Get here to download the promo track ARE YOU THE BEAT?
www.quantheamateur.com

AMATEUR TOUR 2009
SAT 17 JAN - brisbane THE STEP INN with Z-Trip
SUN 18 JAN - gold coast BIG DAY OUT
TUES 20 JAN - brisbane RIVERSTAGE with The Prodigy, Simian Mobile Disco & Hot Chip DJ.
FRI 23 JAN - sydney BIG DAY OUT
SAT 24 JAN - sydney HORDERN with The Prodigy, Simian Mobile Disco & Hot Chip DJ.
MON 26 JAN - melbourne BIG DAY OUT
WED 28 JAN - melbourne NSC plus guests
THUR 29 JAN - melbourne PALACE with The Prodigy
FRI 30 JAN - adelaide BIG DAY OUT
SUN 1 FEB - perth BIG DAY OUT

Beat it!

Quan - The Amateur (Valve)

It's entirely possible that, without his history as a foundation member for Brisbane avant punk troupe Regurgitator, the debut solo album by Quan Yeomans would be arriving in a blaze of hype, with glowing puff pieces here, there or anywhere. He would be being called the finest exponent of Australian hip-hop to emerge since...well, possibly ever.

So good is 'The Amateur' that it seems ridiculous that, in all likelihood, it will go ignored by many who claim that the likes of the Hilltop Hoods, Bliss N Eso and other makers of the so-called 'skip hop' genre are pushing it forward in Australia. When their successful releases are held up against 'The Amateur', they truly pale in comparison.

More M.I.A. than TZU, eclectic beats and a sense of experimentation dominate throughout 'The Amateur'. From the chopped-up sonic delights of Gimme Gimme (featuring Sydney musician Spod, Quan's occasional collaborator in radness) to some cuts with the buzz-saw guitars more familiar to Regurgitator fans, much of this debut solo release brazenly showcases its four year development from an idea to a finished product, with a variety of sounds on show.

The single guiding force is, of course, Quan himself. His verbal rhythms are amazing to hear throughout 'The Amateur', as he weaves tales of MCs battling on A Tale Of Two MCs, then loses those jokey ideals in favour of the bitter And This Is What She Said, which may or may not be directed at a certain paramour from a certain point in happier days. This album deserves to be heard by any fan of adventurous hip-hop - it may be one of the best releases in the genre for the year.
Andrew Weaver (dB MAGAZINE)

Quan - The Amateur (Valve Records/MGM)
Published by Adrian Elmer at November 23, 2008 in Reviews Issue 21.
There's been a deluge of Regurgitator related activity over the last couple of months - the band themselves performing shows; Ben Ely's Radio 5 has been active releasing and performing; sometime collaborator Spod has released his latest album, and now he appears as a guest on Quan's first official solo album. It has an obvious connection to all those other activities, and particularly shares much sonically in common with Superfrienz. However, this album, for mine, is the pick of the current batch. It's actually a little odd to think that this is Quan's first solo release - he's left a trail of side projects in his wake over the years, but never just on his own.

A few things could easily be Regurgitator tracks - 'Year Of The Jerk', 'And This Is What She Said' and 'OMG!' are the kind of electro-pop-rock that have become familiar over the years, though no less enjoyable. 'Year Of The Jerk', in particular, has Quan's trademark deadpan self-effacing lyrical content which is always a highlight of his work. But the main sonic touchstone here is hip-hop, and it's deeply steeped in 21st century r'n'b and hip-hop production values. But as accurate as the pastiche might be, Quan always places himself as the outsider (just look at the title), and the lyrical content generally uses postmodern cynicism to brutally attack that which has inspired it. And fair enough - there's no contradiction here. It is lyrical content, and the attached posturing and self-mythologising, that is being attacked. There is no reason the sounds can't be loved by the outsider/producer and used sincerely in this context. A brief track, 'But Then Jesus Told Me', uses the 'old-school' skipping rhyme in manner that places Quan directly in the lineage of Malcolm McLaren and his early 80s Duck Rock album. Not that this is going to be a money grabbing publicity exercise for Quan, but he's openly appropriating the genre, viewing it from the outside, rather than buying into its cliches and pitfalls. 'Just Like That' is the best example of using the form to critique the form. Using a deliberately Australianised accent, he is amazed at 'that JT guy' - 'he just smiles like he's not even trying/he's like a robot/how does he do it?/if i tried that, man, I'd totally screw it'. It's hilarious, scathing and completely deadpan at all times. Elsewhere, Quan utilises his often overlooked singing voice to similar effect, 'The One' could make a teenage girl swoon if put in the wrong hands.

The highlight of the album, though, is 'Reading The Script', which throws everything together - the r'n'b croon, the hardcore rapper, the bombastic production. It's a brag rap, except anyone who has followed his career knows that it's all actually true. From teenage experiences visiting the country of his heritage and being faced with his own (Western) culture's apathy and abuse, through a recall of Regurgitator's history and achievements, to his position as elder statesman. It undermines its target because any mythologising taking place has nothing to do with the putting down of others. It's actually sincere and touching without a trace of either bravado or saccharine.

While Quan has always been, and I dare say always will be, a supreme piss-taker, he succeeds precisely because he actually has something to say. He also knows his way around production, whether that's aggressive guitars or physically irresistible grooves. As with Spod, I still reckon the obscenities are a lazy cop-out option, but here they seem more appropriate. And with the displays of intelligence in all other aspects of the album, Quan has to get the benefit of the doubt. The thinking postmodernist's contemporary urban album of the year.
Adrian Elmer (CYCLIC DEFROST)

QUAN – The Amateur
WEDNESDAY, 29 OCTOBER 2008
(Computer Recording/Valve)
Him from Regurgitator flying solo.
If you liked Regurgitator in their less rocking songs, when they tended towards electro and hip hop and electro hop and those pure pop joy moments where Quan tried to sing like Prince, then this is the album you have been waiting for. The songs? The One is a gloriously overblown melodramatic R&B tune that steals and repurposes all those Justin Timberlake tricks for good instead of evil. The boy-band harmonies and the Timbaland-sounding production, it's all here and all awesome. Just Like That starts with marching boot-steps and the sound of the Russian Mordor military band warming up to play their anthem before the beat drops and Quan suddenly gets crunk while rapping about watching music videos and being jealous of the dance moves. A Tale Of Two MCs is a love song to a microphone written in Shakespearean dialogue and spoken over classical violin. So yes, it's weird. Quan's rapping won't go down well with hip hop fans obsessed with realness – as he admits, 'Only streets I know are ice-cream cones.' Regurgitator fans may hate it for not sounding like whatever their favourite Regurgitator album is. Your mum is unlikely to care for it very much. None of that matters, because an album this diverse – crass but intelligent, thoughtful but thumping – will find its audience and they'll love it for all its strangeness and charm.
****½ JODY MACGREGOR (RAVE)