The best albums from China in 2025*
Yet another end of year list
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In this issue: the usual caveats apply, hence that * in the title, but here are 13 records that I enjoyed in 2025. I hope you enjoy them too — and if you do, please support the artists with a bit of money if you can.
You can listen to most of these, plus some extra bits, via this playlist.
Gloriously mellow, jazz-laced, ambient-adjacent electronic music from Guangzhou producer Cola Ren. The rest of these records are in no particular order but if I had to pick just one for you to listen to it’d be this one.
A meandering (in a good way), largely improvised jazz expedition from a group of renowned Chinese musicians reuniting on record for the first time in over 15 years.
Zhiyu Xia x Dizkar — Everybody Loves Hiphop
Skai isyourgod may have continued to garner international attention in 2025, not least with his recent tour of North America, but he’s not the only Chinese rapper tapping into regional identities. Dizkar, the Yunnanese singer who this time last year released a Chinese take on 1970s American soul music, teamed up with old friend Zhiyu Xia, the Sichuanese lyricist dubbed ‘the Jia Zhangke of rap’, for an album that revelled in China’s linguistic diversity. Beijing, Guiyang, Leshan, Hong Kong, and Naqu (in Tibet) were among the places represented on an LP celebrating dialects and local identities.
红发少年杀人事件 — Brutal Girl Delusion
Hugely-likeable, high-energy, driving guitar tunes from this young Guangzhou group.
Long-running post-rock-plus-guqin (a traditional Chinese string instrument) band Zhaoze added a string quartet for this immersive live album.
This album came out back in April but it’s still a bewildering listen no matter how many times you’ve heard it since then. Elements include experimental bursts of noise and static, Dong minority-like (funeral?) chants, soaring pop hooks, dirty club beats, warped vocals, rapped verses, random horror film screams and heavy breathing. And this was just one of the records that the beatmaker behind the DJ Gurl persona was involved in this year. Definitely the hyperpop producer of the moment in China.
Sumptuous shoegaze (with a dash of dreampop) from young Fujian band TheCurly.
The river, Orchestration, Walkman! — Eternal Summer
Guangdong kooks The river, Orchestration, Walkman! returned with their first formal release in a couple of years, a calmer but still pleasingly off-kilter set of recordings referencing everything from Erik Satie to Super Mario.
Quirky, lo-fi, not-quite-ambient electronica dedicated to young producer DaYe’s home city of Yangzhou.
Mesmerising work from Xinjiang-born musician Mamer, with the musician playing everything from ‘90s Kazakh rock anthems to traditional folk tracks solo on a nylon string guitar. A largely contemplative, gentle set of songs from a true master.
This Chengdu band railed against AI in a note accompanying their latest album, yet the record itself is a mellow, pleasing blend of math-rock, funk, jazz, and hip hop influences.
wu na and yan jun — wu na and yan jun
Renowned experimentalist Yan Jun plays foil capsules and a thermos on this release, but surprisingly he also adds his own vocals to Wu Na’s gentle guqin parts. This improvised set is one of Yan’s most accessible recordings to date.
The Beneficial Society — The Beneficial Society
Part of China’s midwest emo revival, The Beneficial Society hail from Hangzhou and mix screamo, punk, brass and string elements into their sound, as you can hear on their debut album, released jointly on Chinese label Happy Records and Japanese imprint Ungulates.
Just like listmas…
I was fortunate enough to be invited to contribute a few entries from China to the brilliant zensounds’ end of year ambient list. I chose three not-entirely-ambient releases, sorry Stephan.
不一定乐队 — tiger is on point! Couldn't find the track on Spotify but the artist is there.
Can I run this on ChinaTalk??