BEEP – City Of The Future Album Review

Vee Hua 華婷婷2 min readFebruary 13, 20111 comment

The San Francisco trio, BEEP, is equal parts experimental electronica, free jazz, and jam band — a delectable mishmashing, ragbagging, hodgepodging mingle-mangle of sounds. The band’s latest record, City Of The Future, will tickle the sensibilities of easily distracted individuals, while driving fans of the orderly to the brink of insanity.

“Golden Chinese Amulet” kicks off the album, giving listeners just a small sampling of the percussive elements to be found on the disc. What sound like damp sleigh bells and cracking metallic whips are present in just the first half of the track, the other half buried deep in different variations of gongs. Everyday objects make appearances on other tracks; alarm clocks seem to be losing battery life on “Today Is Your Birthday” and toasters seem to be popping out bread on “Labryinth Snacks.” On “Wolf Pantolones,” which invites vocal assistance from the ever-wonderful Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs, BEEP really goes all out, crafting an intense and insane terrain of rhythmic beauty that is quite unpredictable.

Listen to “Wolf Pantolones” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Someone once said to me that the most interesting part about listening to a Deerhoof record is hearing what arrays of sounds the band comes up with, and that is the way I feel about BEEP; I don’t believe I would listen to them with any huge regularity, but the spectrum of musical sound the band explores is impressive, and intriguing.

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Vee Hua 華婷婷

Vee Hua 華婷婷 (they/them) is a writer, filmmaker, and artist who splits their time between Oaxaca, Mexico, and Seattle, Washington. Much of their work unifies their metaphysical interests with their belief that art can positively transform the self and society. They are the Editor-in-Chief of REDEFINE, Interim Editor-in-Chief of International Examiner, and an Environmental Justice reporter at South Seattle Emerald. They also previously served as the Executive Director of the interdisciplinary community hub, Northwest Film Forum, where they played a key role in making the space more welcoming and accessible for diverse audiences.

Their latest short film, Reckless Spirits (2022), is a metaphysical, multi-lingual POC buddy comedy; the feature film version is slated for production in 2026. In 2025, they premiere their documentary short film, Hunt's Trading Post, set just outside of the Navajo and Ute Nations.

In 2017, Vee released the narrative short film, Searching Skies — which touches on Syrian refugee resettlement in the United States — and co-organized The Seventh Art Stand, a national film and civil rights discussion series against Islamophobia.

Vee has two narrative short films. Searching Skies (2017) touches on Syrian refugee resettlement in the United States; with it, they helped co-organize The Seventh Art Stand, a national film and civil rights discussion series against Islamophobia. Reckless Spirits (2022) is a metaphysical, multi-lingual POC buddy comedy for a bleak new era, in anticipation of a feature-length project.

Vee is passionate about cultural space, the environment, and finding ways to covertly and overtly disrupt oppressive structures. They also regularly share observational human stories through their storytelling newsletter, RAMBLIN’ WITH VEE!. They have a Master’s in Tribal Resource and Environmental Stewardship under the Native American Studies Department at the University of Minnesota and are pursuing a certificate in Incidencias en Problemas Socioambientales at the Universidad del Medio Ambiente in Mexico.

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