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Imagine a Bosch-esque garden of psychedelic flowers, blooming in a realm of eclectic delights. In the centre of the hyperreal chaos is Hua Li 化力, the only “half-Chinese, half-militant, half-rapper of your heart,” back with her most ambitious and personal record to date, ripe fruit falls but not in your mouth (Mar. 27).
“Part Time Muses” is an earthy, opalescent diss-track, recounting slept-on pleasures and near misses. The bones of this song were written at the Banff Centre on a beautiful Kawai grand piano. Hua Li had been starting her days playing pieces by Chopin and Ravel and weaved a melody over an impressionistic, chromatic piano line that is referenced in the incisive synth lines you hear now.
What emerged were soulful verses about longing and limerence and the story of a love triangle gone wrong. Her producer, Alex Thibault (a.k.a. Gloze), picked up on the 90s influences and created a lush, contemporary take on Timbaland and Aaliyah.
“The video was directed by Yang Shi who is a brilliant director in Montreal,” says Hua Li. “She heard the delulu longing in the lyrics and came up with the idea of having me embody this as a 30-some-year old prom queen. We shot in Plaza St. Hubert, which is one of my favourite Montreal oddities.”
