While less heralded than Beijing, Shanghai boasts a robust and eclectic music scene. Despite the city's constant influx and exodus of people, this year has offered a boon of releases from remixed metal to straight-up Mandopop and everything in between. Discover your new favorite local band in this chronological five-part series.
Psyclopus: Intrumental Demo
Released: Sep 7
Buy the album: Bandcamp
Follow: Douban
Style: Folk metal
The folk metal thrashers have long been a mainstay in Shanghai’s buzzing metal scene. Despite losing their lead singer, the band continues to roll, releasing this powerful instrumental demo.
Busy Gang & Conrank: HMFKZ EP
Released: Sep 11
Buy the album: Bandcamp
Follow: Facebook (Busy Gang), Soundcloud (Conrank)
Style: Trap rap
Two of Shanghai’s clubbing favorites team up on this three song EP. The bilingual Busy Gang crew routinely steal shows at Arkham while representing the city with hedonistic trap rap anthems. UK producer Conrank has long made Shanghai his base, supporting the local bass scene with his Rankadank label while winning praise abroad from legends like DJ Shadow. Although there’s a couple of bangers on HMFKZ, it’s the more low-key ‘Flying High’ that really whets the appetite for more collaborations.
PVA: This Smile is a Hoax
Released: Sep 13
Buy the album: Bandcamp
Style: Hardcore
The hardcore group bills themselves as “undisputed as the heaviest, drunkest and sluttiest band,” and have been living up to their claim with wild gigs all year. They released this rousing debut in grand fashion, with a record release show at an iconic punk venue show in nearby watertown Zhujiajiao.
SVBKVLT: Downpour
Released: Sep 18
Buy the album: Bandcamp
Follow: Twitter, Weibo, Official website
Style: Compilation
After its first ever refurb, The Shelter returned to its underground throne with a new Subculture Shanghai compilation in hand. Downpour furthers the experimental electronic label’s dark aesthetics and features tracks from some of the city’s finests (Laura Ingalls, Swimful, Goooose, B6) with some of their friends from across Asia (Soulspeak, Red-I, Caliph8).
Limousine: Fire Grenades
Released: Sep 19
Buy the album: Bandcamp
Style: Indie rock
The expat rockers have been a fixture in the city’s live scene for years, playing everywhere from Mural to MAO Livehouse. They follow up last year's Hit the Throttle, with this playful disc of guitar driven alternative rock.
Pantoo: EP
Released: Sep 21
Buy the album: Bandcamp
Follow: Soundcloud
Style: Electronic
The Bushwick, New York producer had been a vibrant part of the city’s underground DJ scene for the past year. While he’s left the city, he was kind enough to leave this EP to mark the time. Chinese samples mix with footwork and other future sounds for an unpredictable listen.
Upcoming Releases
The last few weeks have been stacked with local releases and you can expect that to be the norm for the next couple of months. Mongolian driven world folk favorites New Grasslands recently played a record release show at On Stage to celebrate a mysterious new disc.
Conrank is set to drop his latest EP Ma Fan on October 11 with a record release party at Uptown Records on October 14. Busy Gang’s Al Rocco will also release the Red Money mixtape on October 11, with hopes high that 2015 will usher in releases by hardcore faves Spill Your Guts, neo-psychedelic buzz band Nonplus of Color and the return of arguably Shanghai’s best band, Duck Fight Goose.
For more Sounds of Shanghai, check out: Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four.
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