Meishi Smile is an emotive electronic project founded by producer and visual artist Fei. The word “meishi” is Japanese for “business card.” When combined with the word “smile,” the name evokes a falsifying of one’s own emotions throughout the “transactions” of everyday life – reflecting the project’s variance of digital pop, harsh noise, and atmospheric visuals.

Since 2014, Meishi Smile has gone from netpop underground, utilizing vocoded vocals colliding with maximalist trance on their first full-length LUST, towards the confrontational noise-pop mannerisms of their 2015 follow-up …Belong, singing in bursts of distortion and auto-tune reflecting upon societal violence and self-acceptance, which have led to their recognition as a chaotic live act amongst their peers more centered on left-field electronics and hyperpop.

Originally having finished an album of much brighter tracks entitled Limerence in 2019 and going on an extensive tour with Anamanaguchi and Terror Jr., they quickly ditched the record in lieu of COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests. They continued to perform online and began to finalize tracks of a much more visceral nature in response to the world - a nu-metal-ladden LP entitled “Ressentiment.”

Ressentiment is the first to feature the full Meishi Smile live band, which includes Sílva on Guitar, Jason on Bass, and Zachary Roy on Drums. Thematallicaly referred to as “a 20-minute metal album about the cosmic wrath of God, systematic violence, and coming out as transgender,” the LP marks a modern reclamation and intersection of nu-metal, dreampop and heavy electronics, underlined with political themes of civil unrest, political identity, and the hopelessness of the Y and Z generation.