Carsick Cars’ 'Farewell' + a fresh Chinese shoegaze compilation
+ a coffee shop soundtrack that’s actually good + a 'synthetic weather report'
Hello and welcome to Concrete Avalanche, a newsletter about music from China. Thanks very much for reading.
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In this issue: new music from Carsick Cars 10 years on from their last album, Chinese post-punk’s new guard, a lively live album from Birdstriking, a coffee shop beat tape, a shoegaze compilation record, Legless Horse, and more.
Whoever and whoever: Muzzy Mum continue China’s post-punk tradition on new LP
It wasn’t long ago that this newsletter was celebrating the legacy of Yang Haisong, the Godfather of Chinese post-punk. Few artists demonstrate his influence quite so clearly as Muzzy Mum. Formed in 2011, three years after Yang’s main band PK14 had released their fourth LP, the younger act just released a new record that bears a lot of the hallmarks of a PK14 album.
To say that Muzzy Mum’s sound is heavily indebted to PK14 seems like an understatement. There are even times on the Henan group’s new album where it seems as though Yang himself is on the mic (at the very least he was behind the mixing desk for the record).
None of this is necessarily a bad thing. And the new LP is an enjoyable listen, whether or not Yang and PK14 mean much to you as reference points.
The album — which of course is on Maybe Mars, the label whose sound has been partly shaped by Yang — is Muzzy Mum’s third, and sees the band broadening their sonic horizons. It’s still anchored by the angular post-punk of their first two efforts, but they’ve added experimental excursions into no wave, noise, and jazz. While their previous albums were big on energy and attitude, this one adds a little more artistry — and is the better for it.
The lyrics are direct, less poetic than PK14’s, and you don’t have to dig too deep to understand what’s inspired some of the songs. ‘Let’s Get Used to Stopping the Discussion’ features lines such as “Their names were forgotten as planned”, for example, while the album title is echoed on lyrics such as “Countless pairs of eyes are watching your every move in a small space” on ‘Summer’. The writing style may be different, but the delivery is strongly reminiscent of Yang.
It almost feels like a passing of the baton moment. Except that PK14 themselves just kicked off a 12 city tour of the country. Is there another album from China’s post-punk pioneers on the way? Time will tell. Meanwhile, this Muzzy Mum record is a worthy stop gap.
The Ninethousandth Pair of Eyes is out now.
When birds cry: indie rockers Birdstriking celebrate 15 years together with first live album
As they embark upon a nationwide tour of their own, Beijing rockers Birdstriking have released the live recording of their 15th anniversary set from the capital’s Omni Space venue.
It’s maybe more of a record for fans given the unvarnished nature of many of the tracks, but it also nicely captures how the band’s sound has matured over their decade and a half in existence. Plus, it offers a little glimpse of what’s coming next: there are a couple of unreleased new tracks in the mix, including one taking aim at AI.
It rounds off with a great one-two-three: a cover of Jesus and Mary Chain track ‘I Hate Rock ’n’ Roll’, the anthemic ‘25’, and one of my personal favourites from their back catalogue, the pogo-inducing ‘Get Up’.
The spoken introduction declares they’ll be playing 20 songs, though only 18 make it to the record. Were they unhappy with how a couple of them were performed on the night? Or were they cut for other reasons (their early track ‘Monkey Snake’, for example features lines such as “You can control the media, but you can’t control my mind”)?
It’s not clear, but let’s not dwell on that. Instead, hit play, kick back, close your eyes and imagine yourself bouncing around in Beijing.
B1RD5TRIKING is out now.
Read this: Xiaowang on Bandcamp Daily
Speaking of the Beijing scene, here’s a fantastic piece by Josh Feola on how Xiaowang are “spitting in the face” of a lot of the current (worrying) trends in the Chinese capital as they look to forge a space for feminist, DIY music in an all-too-often hostile environment.
Here’s this newsletter’s not-so-well-written bit on the band:
To here knows when: Chinese compilation Kind of Shoegaze Vol. 1 is getting an international release
When I did a run-down of Chinese shoegaze acts a few months back, it felt like a lot of them were pulled from the past. Some of the artists on that list are still active, but there wasn’t a lot of young blood there.
Coincidentally released around the same time, Kind of Shoegaze Vol. 1: Noisy Bedroom shows that there’s plenty of life in the genre in China yet, with ten tracks by a collection of young acts from across the country.
Originally only available within China, Indonesian label Gerpfast Records have decided to bring the compilation to a wider audience. You’ll have to wait until September for it, and note that this isn’t a full digital release, but here’s a little taste of the very limited cassette tape they’re putting out:
Kind of Shoegaze Vol. 1: Noisy Bedroom is out in September, but if you want one of those tapes, I’d buy one now.
Artisanal arsenal: Yunnanese singer Dizkar travels from the Seine to the Emirates Stadium on new mixtape
I’ve never really been much of a food writer — my palate isn’t sophisticated enough to do much more than ‘the city’s spiciest dishes!!!’ or maybe chip in on a best pizza feature. But back when I used to write the occasional restaurant review for Time Out Shanghai, and certainly when I used to do bar reviews, I’d regularly mention the music policy at the establishment in question. If the music is wrong, my enjoyment of a meal, even a drink, will be significantly diminished.
Dizkar, an RnB singer from Kunming, Yunnan, gets where I’m coming from. He recently found himself bemoaning the state of a local coffee shop’s playlist — and resolved to do something about it.
At this point you might be thinking he recorded an album of smooth, easily consumed RnB and pop tracks, but no — he decided to put together an old-school-style beat tape.
Rational Loop is the result and sees him blending cuts from the likes of Action Bronson and Westside Gunn alongside laidback soul samples and chilled electronic sounds.
There’s nothing too jaw-dropping here, but then I suppose that’s the point of a coffee shop soundtrack. It’s good background music; lo-fi beats to sup to.
Rational Loop is out now.
New noise: tasty tracks from Oishi, Legless Horse, and ayrtbh
Oishi is a Japanese word meaning delicious, and also a famous Filipino food brand. And also, a London-based Chinese noise duo comprising Zheng Hao and Ren Shang. They’re prolific.
Discoishi, two tracks of around 20 minutes each, came out in late May on Finland’s Artsy Records. A few weeks later, Zheng — who is also one half of another experimental project, ECM — put out Harmonium II on Bezirk Records, where she “manipulates feedback into clumps of pure tone and interruptions of chirping, chirruping high frequencies.”
While Zheng is a rising figure in contemporary Chinese noise, a new release on Beijing’s Zoomin’ Nights puts the spotlight on an earlier, pioneering act: MTDM (an English acronym for the group’s Chinese name that translates as Legless Horse). Made up of Tao Yi on drums and trumpet, and Jun-Y Ciao playing woodwinds, saxophone and clarinet, MTDM first performed in China around 2008, a time when, “Seeing a free jazz group live was rare enough. A Chinese free jazz group was almost unheard of.”
The group’s origins lay in Europe, having formed in Düsseldorf in 2005. This release, harkens back to that time with two cassette sides’ worth of early recordings. Be sure to head to the Bandcamp page for MTDM’s full bio and lots more background to this release.
New releases from Wang Changcun, aka ayrtbh, are always worth paying attention to. The Shanghai-based experimental musician and software writer has two new pieces out on Sun Yizhou’s Aloe Records:
“Track 1 unfolds slowly like a rain shower, from soft and delicate sweet bubbles to overloaded dark and dangerous clouds, from far away to in front of you, where the raindrops will hit you. Track 2 has a musique concrète tradition, consisting entirely of vocal samples, as if amplifying Alvin Lucier's stuttering moments over and over again.”
Exit music
Carsick Cars — one of the key bands of China’s indie rock explosion in the mid-’00s — are bidding ‘Farewell’. That’s the name of their new song, they’re not actually calling it a day, thankfully.
The track — which was released 10 years on from the band’s last album — has quite a different sound to their previous material, having been composed in a minor key (a first for them). It’s a slower, reflective number.
“The band hopes to express its nostalgia for lost memories with a relaxed and soft voice […] The song talks about the feelings of the band when on tour, some friends who have drifted away, and the impossible-to-repeat things they’ve done together.”
Despite the name, ‘Farewell’ marks something of a new beginning for the band, who are now back with their original line-up and have a new album — Aha — on the way on July 18th. This newsletter will, of course, be diving into that next time out.
And for anyone worried that ‘Farewell’ is a harbinger of a slower, less energetic direction for the trio, I can reassure you now that the track immediately after it on the album comes with a gloriously noisy intro, and the rest of the record has plenty to enjoy for long-time fans.
But again, more on that in the next issue.
UPDATE: here’s another new track from the album, ‘Stage Riot’.
Cover photo: Muzzy Mum by Wang Zhenhua.