Tricky-endorsed "near-death" trip-hop + South Acid Mimi
+ the return of David Boring
Hello and welcome to Concrete Avalanche, a Substack about music from China. Thanks very much for reading.
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In this issue: Rock, trip-hop, near-death experiences, Bandcamp worries, a Howie Lee mix, the return of one of Hong Kong’s spikiest bands, Chinese acts on tour in the US and Europe, and more.
I was a bit sick and exhausted writing this issue, so if there are even more mistakes and clunky sentences than usual my apologies.
Tricky-endorsed artist Kloxii Li “interweaves East-West identities” on new trip-hop LP
‘Trip-hop’ may be one of those much-maligned genre terms (often none more so than by some of its key figures), but whatever labels are being attached to your music if your work is picked out by the likes of Tricky, it’s clear you’re doing something right. That was the case for Kloxii Li, whose ‘Shades’ was chosen by the Bristolian producer for his 2019 False Idols compilation Test of Time.
Four and a bit years on, Li has delivered her debut LP Gentle Impermanence on Beijing’s brilliant bié Records.
Born in Hunan and now based in Berlin, having spent significant time in LA in between, Li’s work is billed as “blurring boundaries” and “seamlessly interweav[ing] East-West identities”. Swaying between trip-hop and fuzzy, atmospheric textures, Gentle Impermanence is “a testament to the fleeting nature of existence and the profound impact of loss. Born from a 20-minute composed soundtrack, this album has blossomed into an intimate encounter with grief, akin to a near-death experience.”
Naturally with this kind of background, there are moments of darkness on the album, but it largely sticks to the ‘gentle’ part of its title as well, with tracks such as ‘Silver Lotus’ and ‘Beyond Past’s Reach’ that would happily sit in the ambient category.
These themes and textures are also threaded through the accompanying introductory video directed by Alex Orea:
In grappling with loss and impermanence, Li has crafted an immersive, impressive debut and one that demands repeat listens.
Gentle Impermanence is out today.
“Everyone is moving forward”: guitarist Su Zixu and drummer Liu Pi join forces for Impermanence
As coincidence would have it, Gentle Impermanence isn’t the only recently-released record to deal with such themes. It’s not even the only one with ‘impermanence’ in the title.
Back in 2015, Su Zixu got a glimpse of mainstream attention when he appeared on the second season of CCTV’s Sing My Song. After the show, he promptly “returned to the underground” as he puts it and has proceeded to put out bluesy rock records with his band The Paramecia since. That output has never really threatened to catapult him into the mainstream again, but neither has it especially excited ‘underground’ audiences beyond his established fanbase. The latest case in point is Tears Shared, a string-laden rock album that provides plenty of pleasant moments without ever really delivering something truly mindblowing or memorable.
So why the coverage here? Because on the same day, he released a more free-flowing album with members of The Paramecia and drummer Liu Pi, last seen in this Substack for his collaborations with experimental producer Howie Lee. Liu and Su formed a sextet of musicians in Dali and set about laying down a series of improvised-feeling tracks. Appropriately, it’s entitled Impermanence.
Su has said that the looser instrumental record got him out of his “comfort zone”. He provides more exploratory blues-ish guitar parts alongside Liu’s unpredictable yet consistently high quality drumming, as the other musicians chip in with flourishes of their own, most notably saxophonist Liu Zinan.
The sense of the record being a burst of freedom for those involved is heightened by its timing: recorded in the spring of 2022, zero-Covid still loomed large in the background. Liu caught a fever immediately after the album sessions wrapped and ended up spending around two weeks locked down. In an introduction to the record, written in July last year, he notes,
“Friends around me died of illness, activities around me stopped, various plans changed, and there are many more, too many things to list. But this is what we need to experience every moment, every vibration... everyone is moving forward in this way. […] As long as you truly uphold your love for what you do, you will develop amazing will power and action. […] Fortunately, I met such a group of people for this album.”
Tears Shared also deals with the fall-out from the pandemic and is still worth a listen. But it’s Impermanence that seems primed to stay with listeners longer.
Tears Shared and Impermanence are out now.
I can’t find them anywhere on international platforms apart from YouTube Music for now. Impermanence is now out on iTunes. In China, both are available on NetEase.
In Fantasia: Guzz conjures up beguiling pan-Asian soundscapes on latest LP
Beijing-based producer Guzz made his name as part of Do Hits, the collective he co-founded with Howie Lee that spliced together dancefloor-optimised beats with traditional Chinese instrumentation. Yet, like most of us of a certain age, he’s been slowly retreating from the club pretty much ever since. 2019’s Walking in a Boundless Dream saw him explore electronic versions of traditional Asian instruments, forming a glittering, mellow record that lived up to its title; 2021’s Seven Days and Twelve Nights was perhaps even more dream-like.
His new record, released last week, continues this trajectory, removing almost all traces of anything even club-adjacent to deliver sounds that stray into ambient and contemporary classical territory. It once again leans heavily on electronics to create traditional-sounding notes from across the continent, but also works in sax from Paulo Olivieria and samples from a group of Lizu singers from Guzz’s native Hainan.
Walking in a Boundless Dream remains a better entry point for anyone new to Guzz’s work. But for those familiar with his previous releases, this new album makes for an interesting next step in his musical journey.
风中的幻想曲 is out now.
Resonance FM x The Wire x Howie Lee
Speaking of Howie Lee…
“The 6 October edition of The Wire's weekly radio show on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured a guest mix by Beijing based musician and DJ Howie Lee.”
Doesn’t seem like Substack likes Mixcloud embeds, but it’s well worth hitting that link above for a mix that includes music from one Kloxii Li as well as Gooooose, Cocoonics and Lee himself.
More on Mr Lee here:
Bandcamp anxieties carry an extra edge for Chinese artists and labels
When Bandcamp was sold to Epic Games in March last year, there was a fair bit of concern in certain circles about what would become of the platform. It had grown into a real community hub for a lot of musicians and labels, a sort of anti-Spotify where the art on offer genuinely seemed to be valued. It was the closest thing at any reasonable scale to what Epic trumpeted in their acquisition announcement as “Fair, Open Platforms for Artists and Fans”.
After around 18 months of ownership, from the outside at least Epic seemed to be genuinely investing in the platform and rolling out some much-needed tech tweaks. Then came the news earlier this month that Bandcamp had been sold again — this time to music licensing company Songtradr — and less than a week later half of its staff were fired.
That’s a very quick overview of the situation; for more informed, better written summaries and commentary, you should read
and , with the latter asking ‘Is Bandcamp as we know it over?’
There’s a reason this Substack has always prioritised Bandcamp embeds over Spotify ones or those from any other platform: it’s not perfect, but it’s the rare site giving artists a better deal. And as Sherburne notes,
“many, many people—fans and musicians alike—see Bandcamp as more than just a store. They see it as part of the culture, a crucial lifeline for scenes where love, not money, is the main driver (yet money is still kinda necessary to pay the bills).”
For artists and labels from China, Bandcamp has been crucial in getting exposure for their music beyond the country’s borders, even since the platform was blocked in early 2021. As Josh Feola told Vice at the time:
“Over the last 5 years or so Bandcamp has become an increasingly important avenue for Chinese bands to present (and sell) their music outside of their home country, on a platform built with organic artist discovery in mind. It was (and will remain to be) indispensable as a platform for listeners around the world to discover and purchase Chinese music.”
Bandcamp may have become ‘Banned Camp’ (as one meme on WeChat at the time had it), but many acts still found ways around the Great Firewall to get their music to the platform. Its demise would shut off yet another avenue for people outside of China to discover the country’s more interesting cultural output.
That’s not just my biased view as someone writing a biweekly newsletter that leans on the platform (for clarity, I’ve never taken any kind of commission from Bandcamp for including its links here). The news of Songtradr’s acquisition and lay-offs was met by numerous alternative music-focused accounts on Chinese social media with dismay.
In a repost of EDopamine’s explainer on the situation on WeChat, metal label Dying Art Productions called Bandcamp a company “with conviction” and a god-send for artists compared to other streaming platforms:
“Because of this concept that Bandcamp adheres to, it attracts musicians, music labels and music lovers who recognize this concept. They all recognize that music is a practical creation of the human spirit [and] they all agree that music works should be valued and paid for.”
The future seems highly uncertain for the platform as it stands. What’s clear is that any move that further undermines its original convictions will be a double blow for artists in China.
South Acid Mimi spruce up their Bandcamp
Despite all the doom and gloom around Bandcamp right now, a reminder that it’s still a fantastic place to find exciting music from China comes in the form of South Acid Mimi belatedly updating their page with 2018’s ‘Spegulo’ and 2019’s Mimism.
The former came about after the Yunnanese trio, once known as South Acid Mimi Dance Team, “drank some tequila, exchanged some facts, played some imagination, released and received some brain waves, talked about some strange things with translation software, [and] improvised it” in Yiwu.
The latter was their first album proper. It doesn’t quite capture the energy of their live show, but it’s an interesting listen nonetheless:
Are these uploads signs of something new in the works? Let’s hope so.
David Boring are back + Chinese bands are on tour in the US and Europe
I know this is a Substack about mainland Chinese music, but I feel the need to break that rule for a moment to share news that excellent Hong Kong act David Boring are back and going on tour.
Also touring are Beijing’s good times rockers Naja Naja who are in the US of A right now. Go see them if you can. And coming to the UK soon are emo rapper Bloodz Boi and cutting-edge dance music crew Genome.
Exit music
The Big Band ended at the weekend and to be honest I barely noticed. But keep an eye out for more on the hit TV show arriving in your inbox in the near future. In the meantime, here are ultimate winners Second Hand Rose:
Great read as ever, Jake! It seems the Impermanence album is on Spotify but under its Chinese name 无常定
Thanks, very interesting set of artists.
Could you please suggest where I go to find out what music do Chinese people listen in China? What is popular, what is underground etc?