The Shanghai Restoration Project draws its creative inspiration from the old 1930s Shanghai jazz bands, an early combination of East and West that's become an international legend. Today Shanghai is a modern day chessboard of similar tensions and dichotomies, among them, exotic versus familiar, lore versus technology, and overriding it all, traditional Chinese philosophy versus contemporary life. The Shanghai Restoration Project captures and explores these tensions by introducing Eastern instruments and rhythms to Western sounds such as hip-hop, jazz, and pop. It's a sexy, beat-heavy, and lyrical album, a fusion of antonyms into gritty, exotic art. Born Chinese-American, producer Dave Liang aims to revive the exotic blend of the original Shanghai Jazz bands in a modern context: Like the rest of the world, China is changing so much, but it's doing so on an entirely different level from the rest of us. Liang's music has been featured in films such as Red Doors (Winner TriBeCa Film Festival 05), on programs such as KCRWs Morning Becomes Eclectic, in clubs and lounges the world over. He has produced for artists on Bad Boy, Motown, and Universal Records. In 2005, he signed a licensing deal with Thievery Corporations label ESL Music. In the BBC (UK) coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, The Bund (Instrumental) was used as background music whilst presenters gave news on the day at the Olympics so far. The Shanghai Restoration Project has appeared in the Top 100 Electronic Albums on iTunes in the US, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia, and Japan. In Jan. 2006 it reached No. 1 on MSN Music's Top 100 Electronic Albums. [Description taken from www.myspace.com/shanghairestorationproject on 11/3/07.]
