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"The Seattle instrumental duo comprising Chinese—guitarist Aaron Campeau and drummer Michael Strenski—may well find themselves shocked to see their debut CD reviewed in Decibel. Unlike labelmates the Ax, written up in a previous issue, this is somewhat of an awkward fit for our extremely extreme pages. Which is not to say that it’s not noisy and raucous and kinda heavy; it’s just that in describing them, we keep wanting to preface whatever stylistic comparison with “post,” and post-metal is not what comes to mind. Post-punk, post-garage, post-hardcore, post-something.
What did we call Albini’s post-Rapeman band Shellac back in the day? That seems like a fair comparison, minus the vocals. There’s something very early ’90s and Midwest about Chinese. (Go ahead and say that last sentence out loud and see if anyone understands what the fuck you’re talking about.) It’s complicated enough to keep you interested, but not so much that it feels like you’re listening to some sort of musical version of calculus. And the spazzy noise-jam freakout called “…Theseus Slays the Minotaur” pretty much seals the deal for us. If Thurston Moore is worthy of a few pages in dB, surely these dudes warrant a few column inches, if even for the fact that the penultimate song on The Conquest of Tomorrow Today is called “Guitar Solos Are Counter-Revolutionary” and the last song, “Path of the Destroyer,” is two-minutes of minor-chord indie rock pop."
—Adem Tepedelen (DECIBEL MAGAZINE)