London-via-Beijing singer-songwriter and electronic music producer Fifi Rong's recent single "Attack" arrives on the heels of the titular track from her recent EP Awake(2018). Rong's intention for the EP was to chronicle her personal journey towards an existential enlightenment of sorts: “Awake is about waking up to the truth after you have hypnotised yourself and deconstructing the paradoxes of human nature: subordination and rebellion, pain and joy, self-limitation and liberation.” This artistic statement of intent certainly seems portentous, but Rong's music has always been accessible and emotionally direct in its approach.
In "Attack", Rong imagines herself as a retro video game femme fatale and flips the typically misogynistic gender dynamics of violent video games: 'Hungry heart, ice in veins/ No surprise you feel no pain/ Heavy chest without a breath/ To see you run is so much fun.' The song's momentum-driven chorus scores a gamer's frenetic finger movements during a climactic battle with a boss: 'Attack! Attack!/ Up, up down back/ Attack! Attack!/ Up, up down back.' Rong's usual penchant for avant-garde electronica sounds is replaced by nostalgic inclusions of AMIGA and ATARI vintage sound effects.
The song's music video draws inspiration from the Nintendo era (christened 'Nicktendo', in honor of collaborator Nick Ford). When compared to recent music videos that also draw inspiration from the visual aesthetics of modern video games - Kelela's "Frontline", The Weeknd's "False Alarm", Grimes' "Kill V. Maim" - it comes across as a lone proponent of cyber-primitivism. Rong features as a Chinese empress, ordering her fembots to attack a swarm of muscle-bound reptilian monsters. A lone warrior perseveres to the very end - until she is gunned down by a humanoid beast twice her size. One certainly hopes that this is not a metaphor for Rong's music career.
