2014 年製作未完成的樂曲，歷經 12 年終於迎來完整面貌！
台灣 Dream Pop/ Shoegaze樂團 Manic Sheep 最新專輯《REWIND 2014》正式以黑膠（LP）規格發行。

本張作品將 2014 年雖已製作完成卻未曾公開的曲目，藉由初代團員的重新聚首將其完美補全。淡雅的噪音、帶有浮遊感的旋律，以及靜靜燃起熱情的吉他聲響，將 Manic Sheep 的原點與現在緊密相連。

這是一部交織著台灣獨立音樂過去記憶與當下現況、Dream Pop 與Shoegaze 樂迷絕不能錯過的必聽之作。特別收錄與 DYGL 主唱秋山信樹合作的單曲〈Invisible Discord〉。

Side A
1.Dream
2.Woo
3.Juliet
4.Mushroom
5.Do I Have To Stay Awake

Side B
6.Kimchi
7.Reset
8.Impending
9.Invisible Discord
10.Don't Let Them
11.Underpass
12.All We Said

If you could go back ten years, what changes would you make? In the year 2024, when time traveland parallel worlds have become standard plot devices, Manic Sheep revisits the past with their new album Rewind 2014, confronting their younger selves in a non-fictional narrative. The raw recording files of the nine tracks on Rewind 2014 had been stored on former guitarist Hung Yu's hard drive for a decade, capturing the intense year before his departure from the band - when he, vocalist Chris Lo, and drummer White Wu pushed each other to their creative limits. A decade later, the original trio has reworked these old tracks, merging their past selves with the present.

After their 2012 self-titled debut album Manic Sheep was released, Chris and Hung Yu became well-known in Taiwan's indie music scene as a songwriting duo. It was still a small community, where the "six degrees of separation" theory could be reduced to two: the stranger next to you was often your bandmate's friend or your friend’s bandmate. Before long, they were performing at festivals from Taiwan's Megaport to Hong Kong's Clockenflap, and touring across the U.S. (SXSW/NXNE) and Japan, even landing a slot on Fuji Rock Rookie A-Go-Go. In just two years, they seemed to be far ahead of other bands from the same scene at the time. Yet instead of feeling hopeful, this rapid rise planted seeds of anxiety about artistic integrity and musical perfection.

Whether watching DIIV up close in New York or meeting Tokyo’s DYGL for the first time, the closer they got to the groups they looked up to, the clearer the gap to catch up became. In 2014, they devoted themselves to rehearsals and recording sessions, eager to realize the sounds they envisioned in their heads. After experimenting with several drummers, they eventually found White, a young drummer who had already figured out how he wanted to interpret Manic Sheep's sound before coming back to Taiwan from Melbourne.

Many of the songs from Rewind 2014 can be found as live bootlegs on YouTube. Back then, Taipei's underground music scene wasn’t dominated by softer-sounding genres, such as City Pop. Post-punk, Shoegaze, and Krautrock were the main attractions at live houses. The focus was more on whose distorted instruments sounded more aggressive in reverberant drone than on whose Mandopop lyrics were more self-loathing.

The first half of the album sets the finish line for Taipei's shoegaze marathon, kindly inviting peers to explore other musical genres. Before the iconic guitar riff of the opening track "Dream" , they inserted four bars of the classic Amen Break, which Hung Yu, forty years after its debut, has only recently come to love. This addition further scrambles the timeline of music history. "Juliet" features a guest appearance by Orangegrass's Clock Chung, also newly recorded in 2024, whose youthful voice sounds just as it did a decade ago when they were on their way to becoming the legendary Taiwanese
power trio.

"Mushroom" is layered with Chris's sweet vocals and Hung Yu’s fuzzy guitar distortion over the rhythm of Joy Division's "Disorder" . The contrast between an innocent facade and deep, dark emotions has long been a hallmark of Manic Sheep's sound. This is embodied in the song "Mushroom, " which symbolizes an overwhelming sense of despair, calling to mind a towering mushroom cloud. The layers of meaning offer more subtlety and impact than the blunt declarations of
hopelessness in contemporary Taiwanese indie rock.

Starting from the sixth track, "Kimchi" the album takes a dramatic turn, delivering a Krautrock-inspired soundscape. The final four tracks can be seen as one continuous piece, a bold exploration of Post-Punk, Krautrock, and No Wave. Drawing influences from Neu!, Joy Division, and DIIV, the songs ferment into a rebellious clash against the world.

The eighth track, "Impending, " is a sped-up version of "Kimchi, " subtly paying homage to Neu! 2, where tape speed manipulation was used to fill half an album. A decade ago, White’s relentlessly mechanical motorik drumming established the industrial vibe of "Reset" and "Invisible Discord.

" In 2024, Mong Tong’s Hom Yu elevated the track by adding synthesizer pads and chirps, contributing an even more cinematic feel. "Invisible Discord" features
vocals from DYGL's frontman Nobuki Akiyama, whose hypnotic voice complements Chris's detached yet determined delivery, as if representing the battle between the left and right brain in the lyrics - and spraying the "Manic" part of the band's name across the wall of sound. Many great albums created through painstaking effort end up tearing bands apart, leaving them either immortalized in history or fading into obscurity. Remarkably, Manic Sheep evaded both of these fates,
allowing them to return to the past and finish building the sounds in their minds. Reflecting on the final product, the trio agrees that they’ve only now matured enough to present these songs in the way they always intended. The universe, in its mysterious ways, has allowed Rewind 2014 to be heard as it
was meant to be, even if it meant the departure of a band member and a decade-long delay.

"Rewind" is the act of physically winding back the tape, a way to reverse time to when music was still played on cassettes. We’ll never know how different the world would be if this album had been successfully released in a parallel 2014. But at least in our timeline, we get to see Manic Sheep in 2024 purposefully rewinding time, taking us back to the coolest, noisiest version of Taipei, and daring to turn