A Gobi "folk shaman" + a response to Bob Dylan
+ Police and Pea
In this edition: Chinese Football, Leah Dou’s dad, traditional Chinese instrument-powered post-rock, a “troubadour of the Gobi Desert”, Pussy Eyes, and lots more.
Subterranean Guangdong blues: guqin-powered post-rockers Zhaoze release new album
The May ‘golden week’ in China (the annual break granted for International Workers’ Day) has been one of the most important holidays for holding music festivals in China since they first began in the country in the early 2000s. Although in-person festivals continued throughout the Covid zero years, the events held during this year’s holiday still seem to have had the feel of ‘revenge spending’ or ‘revenge partying’.
Modern Sky held major events in Shanghai and Beijing and while the official ‘Still here’ theme could be interpreted as them celebrating 15 years of their Strawberry Festival brand, seeing those words emblazoned across the stages after three bruising years of grappling with Covid carried other connotations too. Tourism numbers during the holiday rebounded to roughly 2019 levels in China and there’s been a concerted push to get things looking as ‘back to normal’ as possible, but people continue to process the pandemic. On the music front, that’s meant a number of records attempting to deal with the bewilderness of the last few years.
Which brings us to the new album from Guangzhou-based instrumental rock act Zhaoze, a band known for their use of an electrified guqin (a traditional Chinese string instrument), and who I previously wrote a little about here. Also a band who will celebrate their 25th anniversary this year, no mean feat.
Entitled No Answer Blowin’ in the Wind, the new album is the follow-up to 2021’s Summer Insects Talk About Ice, a record which featured ten tracks lasting just 32 seconds each (inspired by PRSNT, an LP where the likes of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Laurie Spiegel imposed similar time constraints on their music). The album they released prior to that — recorded in a forest in Belgium — comprised a single 43 and a half minute track.
Whatever the length of their compositions, Zhaoze are a band who deal in expansive, dramatic soundscapes, with the guqin and xiao (traditional Chinese flute) deployed to add a layer of melody over swathes of guitar. There’s a clear signature sound to their work, without it feeling formulaic — especially when witnessed live.
This new record, initially intended to be released on New Year’s Day, is a collection of recordings made by the band during the past three years. “It’s a memorial,” says frontman Hoy; he and the band’s drummer Seasean lost their father and uncle last year. Although derived from something deeply personal, there’s a sense of speaking to a universal experience here, and there are moments that bring to mind Wang Wen’s own sweeping attempt to capture the tumult of the last three years in China on record.
A cheeky nod to Robert Zimmerman probably doesn’t hurt when you’re promoting a new record, but there’s a deeper message behind this album’s title. Yes, the songs are themed around wind, with swirling textures deployed throughout, but it also reflects the melancholy and darkness that pervades this release — evoking the futility of trying to grasp an intangible answer, of trying to make sense of something that is, perhaps, ultimately nonsensical.
Whether those answers really are blowin’ in the wind or not, there’s no question that from out of that darkness, Zhaoze deliver something of considerable beauty and poignancy.
Zhaoze’s No Answer Blowin’ in the Wind is out now.
Wandering “mystic folk wizard” Wang Xiao’s The Son of Black Horse River gets a beautiful vinyl re-release
Late last week WV Sorcerer announced a very fetching gatefold vinyl edition of Wang Xiao’s The Son of Black Horse River. The album actually came out in 2010 and I was planning to wait and write about Wang when his recently recorded new album sees the light of day, but it seems a shame to miss the opportunity to feature this outstanding record.
First though, this is Wang Xiao:
Variously described as “a troubadour from the Gobi Desert”, a “folk shaman” and a “mystic folk wizard”, Wang Xiao was born in Karamay in Xinjiang in the mid-’60s. He initially followed in the footsteps of his parents by working in the region’s oil fields before deciding to quit his job in 1989 to focus on music. That, and roaming around some of the world’s most beautiful landscape.
His songs pull from his subsequent wanderings, which included a decade spent living in Tibet. Son of Black Horse River incorporates elements from Central Asian, Tibetan and Mongolian folk traditions. The album features odes to the land and tales of discovery, depicting horses galloping across sunsets and wild geese taking to the skies, while also decrying urbanisation and the destruction of natural habitats.
The introduction from WV Sorcerer quotes Wang on the recording of the album in the winter of 2007 in Beijing: “At that time, it was just me, Wu Junde and Wu Tun to do this recording. They bought me some wine, we drank them and recorded the album (dombra and vocal) for only two hours, then I went back to Tibet right after.”
Wang has taken a similarly efficient approach to the recording of his new album, Prisoner of the Pamirs — in late March, he played a short series of live shows as a kind of practice run before heading into the studio to lay down the tracks, all within a few days. That will hopefully be with us soon, but for now, enjoy this fantastic reissue.
The Son of Black Horse River is available through WV Sorcerer, both as a digital album and in a coloured or black gatefold vinyl edition.
Quick links: Pussy Eyes, Whale Circus and Police and Pea
A trio of releases that are worth a quick look:
It’s been a patchy few weeks for solo projects, what with Atom from Hedgehog’s and Liu Min from Re-TROS’s decidedly meh individual albums, but this solo record from Beijing dream pop act Goodbye Honey Boy’s vocalist Wumako Xiao is more interesting.
The EP, which features production from bandmate Qu Qiu Fan, originally came out last year, but it’s only just made its way to Bandcamp. It comes with elements of dream pop and super chill trip hop, with occasional echoes of the likes of AM444.
Whale Circus — Solareti: About Time and Eternity
Billed as a ‘musical novel’, Solareti is the new album from Li Xingyu’s post-rock project Whale Circus and is impressive in its ambition. Li initially released it track-by-track over WeChat, with each song featuring an accompanying AI-assisted video to help tell the over-arching story.
“I thought an album revolution would follow [the rise of the internet], but the change came so slowly that the music remained locked in rooms it no longer belonged to,” Li wrote by way of introduction to the project. “Being a rebel by nature, I’ve been trying to break through that wall in all sorts of ways that violate the rules of the album.”
Encompassing a broad sweep of musical styles — opening with dramatic strings and traversing instrumental rock, jazz, dance and more — it’s a more interesting concept than it is a great album, but if you’re intrigued you can check it out above.
Police and Pea — ‘Two Kinds of Bad People’/‘The Civilized Were Burned to Death’
Maybe Mars-signed bedroom pop/indie rock act Police and Pea, mostly the solo project of Ji Ziyuan, return with two new tracks. After producing Police and Pea’s first album proper, Chinese post-punk godfather Yang Haisong steps up his presence here alongside Guo Zhen, another previous collaborator of Ji’s, to round out the sound.
The first song is a chug-along Moldy Peaches-style ditty that makes an instant impact; the second is a slightly messier track that takes a little longer to get to grips with but is worth sticking with.
Anti sweet girls: Dummy Toys need your help to conquer Europe
Qingdao punk band Dummy Toys are going on tour in Europe this summer — check out their Instagram for their confirmed dates so far, including Rebellion Festival in the UK and Pod Parou in Czechia. They’re also still looking to add extra shows to the tour, so if you’re a promoter in Europe, or fancy becoming one, get in touch with the band and help them out.
Decadent sounds of Dou: an old-school rocker experiments with traditional art forms
Depending upon your perspective and interests, you might know Dou Wei as an old-school Beijing rocker, a film soundtrack composer, Faye Wong’s ex-husband, or Leah Dou’s dad.
His more recent work has involved explorations of spirituality and traditional Chinese instrumentation, and that’s what we get with a collection of pieces released by Dou as part of his Chaojian project.
Chaojian sees Dou and a loose cast of artists offer up modern reinterpretations of ancient Chinese poetry and texts. Initially formed with multi-instrumentalist and poet Wen Zhiyong, Chaojian also regularly features famed singer-songwriter Li Jie, though Dou seems to be the one spearheading it all. The one-time pioneer of Chinese rock takes on production duties and adds synths, sampling and some drumming to the languid, textured compositions.
The newly released set of tracks range from 11 minutes to 55 and build on recitations by Peking Opera performer Jiang Peipei and, in the case of ‘玉真宮氏’, vocals from a whole troupe of traditional Chinese opera singers. The songs sit together nicely as a single body of work (with the cover art suggesting as much), but as is their wont, the overlords at label Taihe have decided to put them out as individual pieces on streaming platforms, rather than as an album.
Anyway, they’re worth exploring if you’re interested in the merging of traditional Chinese art forms with modern production techniques and ambient instrumentation.
If modern mixes working in elements from China’s traditional operas is your jam by the way, you should check out this pair of lovely kunqu-based tunes from producer thruoutin:
For something altogether different, you can check out the summery new single from Leah Dou here:
And don’t forget that for more from the world of Mandopop there’s the excellent
and for more from the world of Chinese pop fandom there’s the insightful af .Chaojian’s tracks are available through the IndieWorks Bandcamp.
Exit music
Leaving you with this heart-wrenching (and eventually heart-warming) new music video from Chinese Football, which they appropriately put out on one of the last days of April. More on the brilliant Wuhan band’s latest album here.
I’m not crying, you’re crying.