GINGER BEEF
Their beef with singers, and resurrecting an extinct musical genre.

Tijuana Taxi, Soul Bossa Nova, Classical Gas — you could probably hum these songs as you read this, but none of these classic chart toppers have any lyrics, and not a single one of them came out in the last 50 years. Ginger Beef aim to take their place in the zeitgeist by reviving the instrumental pop genre with their ambitious self-titled full-length debut.

“IF EVOKING EMOTION IS THE GOAL OF MUSIC, THEN LYRICS ARE CHEATING,”

Itʼs a hot take from MSG (aka Warren Tse), producer and one half of Ginger Beef. His thesis for the album: “Classical and film music prove that you donʼt need words to resonate with listeners and stir up feelings. What if we could do the same, but with pop?”

In 2021, flutist Jiajia Li was asked to present a music video for the Camp Sled Island event in Calgary. She ended up collaborating with the veteran multi-instrumentalist/producer/Calgary Flames organist conveniently living under her roof (sheʼs married to MSG) to cook up “Flashback”, an energetic track seasoned with anachronistic synths, slap bass, and traditional Chinese elements — and no singing. Unexpectedly, this one-off only whet the crowdʼs appetite, and Ginger Beef was born.

So how do you resurrect a long-extinct genre like instrumental pop in 2023? Ginger Beefʼs answer is to splice together DNA from other genres. “Weʼre unabashedly pop, but being jazz- adjacent gives us access to a much broader palette.” MSG cites acts like The Police and Steely Dan as examples of jazzers who slummed their way to mainstream success.

While MSG brings rock and “jazz-adjacent” sensibilities to the table, Li virtuosically fronts the project with breathtaking musical athleticism and beauty, courtesy of her extensive classical training (she has a masterʼs degree in flute performance), and digs deep into memories of growing up with musical parents in Beijing. To wit, the track that started it all, “Flashback” was inspired by a traditional Chinese tune her mother played on the pipa when Li was a child.

Instrumental music is often doomed to fade into the background, but Ginger Beef seizes your attention in its gleaming, genetically engineered jaws.