There are seemingly infinite layers of meaning to be
found in No-No Boy’s third album, Empire Electric.
You can listen closely to singer-songwriter Julian
Saporiti’s lyrics, which juxtapose true stories of
struggle from throughout Asia and its diaspora with
Saporiti’s own reckoning with intergenerational
trauma. You could also let the majesty of Saporiti’s
songcraft wash over you, his captivating melodies
cloaking those themes in a veneer of hope and
ecstasy. But the deepest storytelling happens at the
sonic level, as sounds drawn from across the Eastern
hemisphere mingle freely with distinctly American
instrumentation — banjo and koto, lap-steel and
guzheng — while electronically manipulated field
recordings of rushing water, chirping birds and other
natural sounds ground us in the now. Adventurous
and affecting, Empire Electric offers a vision for a
new kind of folk music, one that tells unorthodox
stories through unorthodox means and finds new
pathways through our tangled roots.
• “A remarkably powerful and moving album...
Our history of continual immigration leaves us
with strong ties to every country we came from,
and projects like No-No Boy remind us that all
of the stories of the world live here as well.”
— Folk Alley
• “Gentle, catchy and accessible folk songs that
feel instantly familiar” — NPR
• “No-No Boy, wants to bring you those individual
stories of people you don’t usually hear about,
tell the tale of one person at a time, and bring
you a sense of the place in which these people
lived through field recordings. Gravel grinding,
knocking on metal, voices of elders, all made
into the beats and texture of the songs he builds
to tell their stories. These are the stories of
Americans, like you and me.” — KEXP