Here are six new homegrown albums from musicians around China on our radar this month.
1. The Kickoff by Various Artists
This compilation is the first release on Rad Ran – the Beijing-based studio’s international arm. With a mix of Chinese and European producers, it highlights some of the best musicians the label has to offer. The second track, ‘I no’ from Dutch producers Dayle and Supb Yao is short and sweet, taking a page out of Flying Lotus’ book with its beat heavy, scribbling mess of record scratches at the start. From the southern coast of China, Negative 808’s tech heavy, dizzying digital skips is just the kind of upbeat electro you’d want to hear around 2am on a night out. With a mix of local and international representation, the EP is a prime example of the direction the industry is headed. If you ever weren’t sure about how much variety you can really have in electronic music, this eight-song survey does a great job of spelling it out.
2. Odd F**king Gesure EP by Odd Gesture
Released out of Shenzhen, this Indonesian garage-rock number harkens back to a time where the genre was dirtier, noisier and more guitar-heavy. It's reminiscent of something you might’ve heard if your parents were ‘cool’ and have incredible, if not embarrassing, photos to show for it. With ballads like ‘Saccharine,’ and double-timed tracks like ‘I H8 Sharesprings’, the EP runs the gamut of what you expected – and loved – about those that pioneered shaggy hair, thrashing rhythms and bruise inducing crowds. The vaguely pop-punk lyrics and higher-pitched, heady vocals make for a more palatable sound, and a good way ease yourself into the genre if you've never figured yourself the grunge type.
3. Flip House by Flip House
Pop-punk fans, we’ve got another good one for you. 2019 is off to a strong start with the first release from Flip House. Reminiscent of Bomb the Music Industry, the first song ‘Lorelai’ starts off with a single guitar strumming chords like your high school crush did back in the day, shortly followed by a flood of percussion and strings, all playing in unison – full frontal and full of energy. ‘Bukowski,’ like Jeff Rosenstock, doesn’t shy away from intense drumrolls and slow-paced breakdowns with quick transitions, acting as an emotional rollercoaster that'll have your calves sore from bouncing all across the floor. Fluctuating between singing and screaming in both Chinese and English, the album is clean, yet uninhibitedly fun.
4. Lonely Perfection by Yannick Barman
Jazz trumpet and electronic music come together in Yannick Barman’s fourth studio album, and Ran Music’s first release of 2019. The Swiss musician recorded the songs during his residency in Shanghai and Beijing, drawing on his experience of loneliness and traveling in a foreign country, while painting a futuristic musical landscape. In recent years, many genres have begun to champion the trumpet, but what Barman’s done in combining his classical training with computational composition is a unique take on the brass instrument. He’s recorded, mixed and mastered the album himself, making the product entirely his own. At a low BPM, the tracks are not exactly danceable, but would likely make for a memorable live show combined with the artist’s penchant for performative audio-visual effects.
5. Mi Zi You Xing by Mice
Mice’s upbeat electro acoustic album, translating to ‘Freedom,’ comes straight off of play rec label. While it was recently released, the album had already been finished in early 2017 and the songs are in no specific order, a detail that doesn’t distract from the listening experience. The second, and longest, number ‘Gai Mian Shou Jiao’ sounds like an arcade game dance track, slowing in the middle only to pick back up to a tight, computerized high hat and building, stripped down chord progressions. Mice put the album together while studying synth timbre and vocal sound processing in Hangzhou, coming out with a set that we’d be happy to hear at any underground club.
6. [GNM010] Noctilucents by Noctilucents
Shanghai-based music collective Genome6.66Mbp released their first album for Noctilucents late last year, and the five-track EP is well worth a listen. It’s at once sleepy and playful, with misleadingly pop-inspired synthesized vocals and anime sound bytes. On ‘Used to It,’ the words “I don’t really wanna go, not tonight I don’t, every time I want to keep you and I lose it, because I know I never will…,” are bookended by a man and woman conversing in Japanese. Like a half bad dream, it’s vaguely innocent while sad and a little sinister, visualized on the cover by what looks like a kawaii bear entangled in bed sheets with a sketched batwing.
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