Beijing 8-bit bops + Shanghai’s 33EMYBW meets Björk
+ Chinese bands tackling Sonic Youth and 4AD classics + anti-algorithm rock
Hello and welcome to Concrete Avalanche, a newsletter about music from China. Thanks very much for reading.
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In this issue: math-rock with a message from Sichuan, games and good times motorik from Beijing, fuzzed up punk from Shanghai, Lanzhou emo, leading Chinese producer 33EMYBW meets Björk, and a nightclub hidden on the 21st floor of a tower block in Chengdu.
Songs of Fayzz: Chengdu instrumental rockers rage against AI and the state of the internet
For a band who don’t make use of lyrics, Chengdu act Fayzz have a lot to say. The math-ish instrumental rockers have a tendency to introduce their albums with lengthy texts, and new record Patch is no different. The band’s introductory blurb for the album does more than simply trotting out platitudes about their evolving style and musicianship (though it does a bit of that as well):
In these times, people champion the technological singularity, intelligence, innovation, and breakthroughs.
Yet in this so-called glorious era, the self-media messages that flood our ears and eyes are littered with ads and rumors — stuffing our bodies with pre-made food, elongating limbs with image-editing software, masking faces with lighting.
We lose ourselves in the internet, hiding our true selves, sharing, venting, opposing, and slandering.
We outsource every judgment and decision to artificial intelligence, then obediently follow its answers—turning ourselves into mere tools.
It’s a striking statement. And that’s only half of it; click through to their Bandcamp to read the whole thing.
The strong words (and admirable sentiment) might come as something of a surprise to anyone casually listening to Patch. Infused with funk, jazz, and hip hop influences, and with occasional vocal support from Kyuu of Chengdu dream pop act Sleep Leaps, Fayzz’s third full-length is a pleasing listen, underpinned by intricate guitar work. Math-rock fans in particular will find plenty to like here; as the band declared on their 2021 LP Connection, ‘We Love Tortoise’, and it’s not hard to spot this influence.
There’s also talk of “new experiments—from timbre and arrangement to style”, and this is arguably the band’s most accomplished record to date, but don’t let their statement fool you into thinking this is an album that is discernibly cut-through with anger or disillusionment — musically, it’s very easy on the ear. Still, good for them for taking a stance. And good for us that they’ve produced a satisfying record to go with it.
For more Fayzz, here’s an old video of them playing in what looks a little bit like a southern European hill town but is actually a fancy development in the newer part of Chengdu:
Patch is out now.
Naja Naja just wanna have fun: Beijing duo have a blast on their debut LP
Naja Naja’s new album features songs about gazing at the stars in the desert, hiking in California, and “an imaginary electronic space where bionic people make tea and strive to reproduce the ‘human world’ that they have never really experienced”. But how much of that is understandable to you is ultimately secondary. As bassist Gou Gou says, after explaining that the song ‘Coconut (Billy)’ is inspired by “a fictional French New Wave film set”, “it’s not that important for it to make sense, because fun is what matters.”
Billed as “a modern urban fairy tale for grown-ups”, Sheep Out of the Box picks up where Naja Naja’s highly enjoyable and literally-titled 2022 EP EP left off, pairing motorik beats with rhythmic basslines and retro-futurist riffs, while the pair drip borderline laconic, sometimes sardonic vocals over the top. And yes, it’s lots of fun.
Formed in 2020, Naja Naja were quick to declare themselves “uninterested in any typical ‘rock band’ approach”, simply focusing as much as possible on enjoying themselves while making music. That playfulness comes through across the album, with songs like ‘Laser Gun’ and ‘Sagittarius Universe’ sounding like contemporary spins on GameBoy soundtracks. For the release of ‘3000 Ways to Die’, they even created their own online platform game, featuring a range of life-ending obstacles.
There are some brief moments where the tone is a bit more reflective, but generally the record zips along. And then it ends with ‘Purple Cloud Mountain’, a psych-ish, more immersive track that borders on dungeon synth, where Naja Naja demonstrate that they have more than one string to their bow.
A hint of things to come or just an experiment that felt so sonically different to the rest of the LP they stuck it on the end of the tracklisting? Time will tell. But don’t expect Naja Naja to overthink it — they’re focused on fun, and we should probably just enjoy the ride.
Sheep Out of the Box is out now.
Just briefly: lo-fi hip hop beats to climb karst peaks to, a 4AD cover, Lanzhou emo, and Chinese electronic artists in Reykjavík
Guilin-based producer D4P4 recently put out two albums blending hip hop beats with traditional Chinese instrumentation and minority vocal samples. Before the Calm appears to be brand new; The Dividing Line was released last year in China, but only just made it to Bandcamp. The new LP in particular is good background music for working (or, presumably, cycling around / climbing Guangxi’s spectacular karst landscape) to.
Hangzhou’s whetherday feel a little bit like a young band still in search of their sound, with their latest release skipping across shoegaze, grunge-ish rock, psych and more. But their experiments in the meantime can throw up some fun moments. Case in point: their combined cover of Deerhunter’s ‘Cover Me (Slowly)’ and ‘Agoraphobia’. (Side note: the latter track was previously covered in a very different way by Sleeping Dogs collaborator BowAsWell on an album of Chinese artists doing 4AD songs.)
Diels-Alder were formed in Lanzhou in 2017 but are “now scattered across different coordinates”. That’s not stopped them releasing a new four-track EP of midwest emo-influenced music however. They say the record deals with “a painful collective memory” and represents “a form of resistance against the pressures of life”.
I’m aware this might be a big if, but if you’re in Reykjavík this weekend get yourself over to Smekkleysa for a meeting of possibly-perfect-for-each-other musical minds. Or at the very least, to see Shanghai producer 33EMYBW play live before handing over to Björk for a DJ set (there’s also the not insignificant matter of Rian Treanor and his dad Mark Fell featuring on that line-up). You can then head over to MONO for a night hosted by Shanghai-born label SVBKVLT and featuring Hyph11e, Nahash, Swimful and more. Here’s a reminder of why 33EMYBW and Björk have long felt destined to cross paths:
The shifting sounds of 33EMYBW + bootleg "Chinese Gorillaz"
In this issue: GG Allin-inspired Shanghainese anti-heroes Top Floor Circus unveil some very special merch, renowned critic Ted Gioia waxes lyrical about a Chinese band, Bloodz Boi teams up with Thor Harris of Swans fame, and lots more.
Let’s Goo: sex angels, ghosts, and a Sonic Youth cover on Shanghai noise-punks moya’s debut EP
A different sound to that of Naja Naja, but another blast of youthful energy here, this time out of Shanghai, and with a (relatively) old hand helping to guide things along the way. There’s a febrile atmosphere to this five-track EP from punk quartet moya, a spiky feeling that grows as the record spirals into a noisy, blown-out-speakers-style riot.
Entitled Land of Groan (a name that tellingly gets rendered only in pinyin, not in characters on Chinese streaming service NetEase), the record’s introductory text is a twisted ghost story with some eyebrow-raising reference points: “the youth of knowledge must kill the youth of love”, cheap milk powder, and not being able to open one’s lips.
Lending a hand is Ale Amazonia, the Brazilian drummer for Oh! Dirty Fingers, a punk-turned-“jazz-infused” rock band who have their own new record on the way very very soon.
moya’s EP captures the kind of raw intensity that has seen the group pick up fans through lives shows at venues such as Trigger (an experimental / noise space) and Specters (a delightfully divey rock bar) in recent months. It’ll be interesting to see where their momentum takes them next.
Land of Groan is out now.
Exit music
And another one’s gone. Less than a month after we lost ALL, the successor to famed Shanghai club The Shelter, and not long since FruitySpace and DADA disappeared from Beijing and Hangzhou’s Loopy shut up shop, China has lost another important alternative music space.
Last weekend saw the final parties at .TAG in Chengdu, a club that was really like no other I’ve ever been to — in part because it was located on the 21st floor of a fairly nondescript tower block. Founded over a decade ago near Sichuan University’s Wangjiang campus, the venue had been under threat for a while but its confirmed closure still feels like a bit of a shock.
Venues come and venues go of course, and if you’re an alternative culture space in China you know you’re not going to live forever. But it’s still been a tough run of closures in recent months.
Chengdu Community Radio mourned .TAG’s passing by calling it “Iconic, irreplaceable, beloved”. They also livestreamed the final blow-out, though that video is yet to make it to YouTube, so instead here’s an archive set from 2020 by DJ Blue (who also played the farewell party this past weekend), filmed in the venue’s Hidden Bar amid widespread lockdowns.