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At first glance, you might not think you'll be able to take Ming & Ping seriously, or that they take themselves too seriously, or that they don't take themselves seriously at all, but in each of those cases you would be mistaken. They are a duo of slightly androgynous-looking twin brothers born in Hong Kong (now living in San Fancisco), and they have matching outfits with upturned collars, big New Wave makeup and hair, and Patrick Nagel-style cover art (think Duran Duran's Rio). And the visual elements do provide some pretty strong clues as to their synthesizer-driven pop sound. But Ming & Ping are not a gimmick band, and they're not ironists or mere 80s-fetishists either; their music brims with sincerity and depth, and this album is packed with truly marvelous and honestly heartfelt electro-indiepop tunes. "Delete" is a soaring New Wave hit, "Shenzhen Speed" is shimmering and propulsive, and "Splendid" is ultra-sweet pop, but really all the tracks are consistently excellent, with layered, rhythmic intertwining keyboard parts and very pleasing vocals, one brother taking the lead-vocal low parts and the other taking the secondary high parts. The disc also includes some really nice touches of humor: the blippy, zappy retro-sci-fi sounds on "(this is) The Dream of Electric Sheep" include what could possibly be a sample from Meco's "Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk," and the brothers lightheartedly include a couple of clips of giggly recording-session outtakes and Nintendo boasting, which is entirely endearing. The final minute of the disc finds the boys breaking out guitars for the first time, for a pretty, gently psychedelic and slightly lo-fi little ballad.
With their retro-leaning sound, Ming & Ping aren't quite in the laptop-wielding camp of The Postal Service, nor are they blazing new sonic frontiers like M83, and they're not throwing a dance party like U.S.E. (although many of their songs certainly are eminently danceable), but like all of those groups they possess a kind of purity of expression and a quality of emotional sincerity and openness. Apparently their first album Mingping.com is really good too. This disc is just a wonderful, sparkling neon rainbow of love and synthesizers, and I can't help but adore it from start to finish. (mike.01.06)
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