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LTK Commune (aka LTK, Taiwanese: Lô-chúi-khoe Kong-siā 濁水溪公社) is a well-known Taiwanese "underground" band founded in 1990. Their music has been variously described as having elements of punk, rock, nakasi, Taiwanese folk songs . In recent years band members have self-consciously applied the label "Taik" (from Taiwanese + -k ending, as in punk, rock) to their music – a reference to the Taiwanese Taike ( Trad.: 台客) subculture.The LTK stands for "Loh Tsui Kweh", an ideosyncratic spelling (in Taiwanese) of the name of the Choshui River in Taiwan, one that evokes nativist sentiments.
The two guitar players – Tsai Hai-en (蔡海恩) and Ke Jen-chien (柯仁堅) – are lead vocals. Both attended the top National Taiwan University but left school early. Between the two of them they have driven the band's evolution. The critic Malaite attributes the group's early grunge influence to Tsai. [1] In addition to Western influences, both of them are, in their own ways, steeped in local, traditionally working class genres. There is also a bass player and a drummer.
LTK Commune's earlier music echoes the island's protest movements of the early 1990s. Earlier themes have consciously reflected environmentalist concerns and anti-authoritarian sentiments. With the decline of street protests and the onset of political liberalization, socially-conscious themes have become less foregrounded. The band unabashedly supports Taiwan independence.
Their songs often express the frustration of the Taiwanese working class maleThe word male has the following meanings: In biology, it refers to one half of a heterogamous reproduction system, where the female is the other half. The male sex comprises those organisms that produce sperm cells (which is defined as the smaller gamete). Unapologetically sexual or scatologicalScatology or coprology in medicine, biology and paleontology, is the study of feces. In psychology, a scatology is an obsession with excretion or excrement, or the study of such obsessions. See also coprophilia). In literature, "scatological" commonly des references and vulgar language are found in some songs, a characteristic embraced by the fans but found outrageous by some critics. Some critics detect a streak of male chauvinismMale chauvinism is the belief that males are superior to females. Male chauvinists are sometimes opposed to feminism. Some view girls as second-class children. The opposite belief is called female superiority which some masculists consider it the definiti, most notably in the song "Rape, Murder"; others consider the song as a study of the perverse psyche of a rapist-murderer.
Much of the lyrics are in the native Taiwanese language, a choice consistent with the language's working class base, as well as the anti- KuomintangThe Kuomintang (KMT; Traditional Chinese: Hanyu Pinyin: Zhongguo Guomindng; Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo Kuo-min-tang; Tongyong Pinyin: Jhongguo Guomindang; literally the National People's Party of China , also known as the Nationalist Party is a political party Opposition culture. Spoken monologues reminiscent of traditional melodrama (such as Budaixi, Taiwanese operaTaiwanese (folk) opera ( Taiwanese: koa-a-h Mandarin: , Gezaixi lit. song-drama") is the only form of Han traditional drama known to have originated in Taiwan, specifically the Yilan region. The language used is a stylized combination of both literary and) are a favored device in their narratives.
LTK Commune's live performances are noted for their spontaneity and engagement with the crowd.
1 Discography
1.1 Solo albums
- Underground Music File 5 地下音樂檔案５ (1995)
- Revenge of the Taike 台客的復仇 (1999)
- Too Smelly 臭死了 (2001)
