More Chinese shoegaze + new Hualun
More Chinese shoegaze + new Hualun
+ a trio of notable hip hop releases + Mong Tong x Gong Gong Gong
Hello and welcome to Concrete Avalanche, a newsletter about music from China. Thanks very much for reading.
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In this issue: a(nother) compilation of young Chinese shoegaze acts, a new LP from the ever-excellent Hualun, not one but three new hip hop releases to be aware of, an artist who wants you to ‘prepare for the unfuck world’, a Chinese Football video, and two of Asia’s finest acts — Gong Gong Gong and Mong Tong — join forces.
Triple trouble: three soulful new Chinese hip hop records to check out
Kicked the last issue off with a trio of interesting electronic releases; starting this one with a triple shot of alternative hip hop records.
First up, Space Fruity-signed Guangdong outfit Mdprl & Git Busy Trio have dropped their debut LP. Jazzy, super laidback, and with strong summery vibes (at one point they work in ‘Everybody Loves the Sunshine’), it’s a fun one. It’s a goood summertime hip hop record… that I’m telling you about in October. Sorry.
Over in Sichuan, Mintone Records have released a series of tracks from 新鲜仔, including one that featured on the soundtrack for Youku TV drama Escape from the Trilateral Slopes:
I didn’t recognise the name 新鲜仔 at first, but the rapper’s flow felt familiar. Turns out, 新鲜仔 is a translation of Young Fresh Chin, and a new alias for Zhiyu Xia. Understandable if you’re still no clearer on who that is, but his Young Fresh Chin II album was one of the Chinese hip hop records of the year last year. These new tracks are well worth a listen too.
Finally, J-Fever, Zhou Shijue, and Eddie Beatz have reunited for their third collaborative record following Go Love, Go Cry, Go Doubt and Heart Healing Frequency. It’s called 你的声音变了 or Your Sound Has Changed. Honestly, it’s probably my least favourite of the trilogy, but in fairness, the other two records set a high bar (I called Go Love… one of the albums of the year at the time). It’s also available on iTunes for about $4, which seems like a steal.
On the scene: Hualun release new LP
It’s a well-worn cliche to describe music as a soundtrack to a film that doesn’t exist, but it’s hard to escape that feeling on Scene, the wonderful new album from one of this newsletter’s favourite bands, Hualun.
Over the course of the record’s eight tracks, the Wuhan-founded act toy with texture and melody in a way that seems to suggest an unfolding story — albeit a wordless one.
For Scene, Knoxville-based label Gezellig Records have done what they did for the band’s wʌndərlænd series, scooping up the best moments from a series of EPs into a single album, available on beautifully-produced vinyl and cassette, and with a limited edition piece of artwork if you want one.
When I wrote about Hualun for The Wire back in 2021, the group were just starting out on their Scene journey. The band’s MK Zhu told me at the time that the series would see them attempt to “fuse experimental and film score sensations.” Mission accomplished by the sounds of this LP.
As the Gezellig blurb puts it, “Their soundscapes bring to mind the legendary works of Brian Eno, Suzanne Ciani, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Laraaji, and Cluster, while staying in touch with contemporaries like Mogwai, Sarah Davachi, Tengger, and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith.”
Scene is out on 11th October, but you should buy it on Friday 4th October because it’s Bandcamp Friday that day so the label and band will get more of your money.
“Transglobal melodies with undeniable grooves”: Gong Gong Gong x Mong Tong
Speaking of soundtracks for non-existent films, Beijing’s Gong Gong Gong and Taipei’s Mong Tong have joined forces to create an “imagined soundtrack for a lost kung-fu film.”
Mongkok Duel finds the two celebrated bands “building a shared language of cyclical motorik rhythms, evolving drones, textural sound effects, snarling guitar and growling bass hooks.” It’s excellent.
In a recent interview with William J Stokes at Sound On Sound, the Mong Tong brothers talk about their general distaste for studios other than the small one they’ve built for themselves. But presumably that didn’t apply in this case, given the album was written and recorded at President Piano Co., the legendary Mongkok rehearsal rooms that also lent its name to this great 2016 tape from Gong Gong Gong.
“The bands played the studios’ own instruments and amplifiers, which date back to President Piano Co.’s foundation in 1978. The studio’s recording setup is a unique system designed and set up by owner Mr. Lee King Yat, giving the album its distinct vintage sound while maintaining impressive clarity.”
The result is also the sound of two quality bands clearly enjoying their sonic explorations together.
Battle of Mongkok is out now.
What you want: up-and-coming artist-focused compilation Kind of Shoegaze releases volume 2
“Make China shoegaze again”, says a poster promoting this new compilation album, and while twists on Trump’s slogan have been done to death, this one rings true as a mission statement for the record series. When I put together my round-up of Chinese shoegaze acts earlier this year, it leaned a lot on artists who were around in the early- or mid-2010s but were these days nowhere to be seen. Volume 2 of the Kind of Shoegaze compilation series shows there’s plenty of new life in China’s take on the genre.
Volume 1 got a limited cassette release by Indonesian label Gerpfast Records and promptly sold out. Volume 2 is even more elusive if you’re outside of China (for those on the Chinese shopping app Weidian, a CD version is available). So far, I’ve tracked it down to this poorly labelled YouTube playlist and an Amazon Music listing. Not sure I realised Amazon Music was even a thing before this.
Anyway, as advertised, it’s chock full of young shoegaze from China, with excellently-named bands such as Strawberry Lust (appropriately sweet, from Guangzhou) and The ClapTraps (one of the stand-outs and embedded above, from Beijing).
Long live Chinese shoegaze!
Kind of Shoegaze vol 2 is out now. Kind of. Good luck finding it.
Just briefly: Chinese Football live videos, more AI, and remixed pagan dark ritual
As they gear up for their tour of North America (and before that, Taiwan), the brilliant Chinese Football have released some slick videos from their recent gig in Nanjing, part of a China tour that took them to 40 cities in 95 days. The videos include a (slightly poppier) live version of their utterly anthemic ode to their hometown ‘Wuhan’:
Also heading out on tour this autumn are Chengdu electro-rockers Stolen, who have a series of shows in Europe over the next week or so. I wrote about their track ‘AI Arena’ in the last issue; turns out, it was part of a three-song EP interrogating artificial intelligence:
Sichuanese electronic producer Anti-General is fairly prolific, though to be honest his output often veers a little too close to ‘EDM’ to hold my attention for long. But here’s an interesting recent remix from him, taking on a track from the “Pagan/Dark Folk/Ritual Ambient” act I featured a couple of issues back:
Exit music
On last year’s Dream Hacker album, avant-pop artist otay:onii displayed “a willingness to engage with more approachable rhythms without completely discarding her predilection for bursts of noise, oddball samples and abrupt endings.” Her latest solo release, surprisingly, takes this even further: it’s an acoustic album.
Put out by WV Sorcerer and No Gold, the piano-propelled True Faith Ain’t Blind is billed as “tracing the revival of opera past swirling into Chinese folk, with lust to outlive emotion through the lunatic dance of fingers on the piano and the throaty growling melting into silence.”
Here’s the striking video for lead single ‘Unfuck’:
have booked Mong Tong x Gong Gong Gong China tour:)
Oh boy. This issue. The headline was like clickbait! So much listening to do... thanks!
I've loved this other Mong Tong collaboration recently too. All four tracks are superb. https://fordtrio.bandcamp.com/album/khun-pra
And The Claptraps. Yes! They released an early tape on Beijing's Nugget Records. Which I see is sadly no more. It was a cool place to hang out. https://www.livechinamusic.com/interview-dave-carey-nugget-records/