Chinese midwest emo + new DJ Gurl

+ 'Oriental psych' on a boat + woodblock cover art

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 clutch of Chinese midwest emo records to wallow in, the return of hyperpop hero DJ Gurl, experimental jazz from a post-punk pioneer, new dark club tracks from Hangzhou and Shanghai, ‘Oriental psych’ on a boat, and tracing the lines from revolutionary woodblock art to wood cut print album covers in China.

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Here comes a new challenger: new Chinese midwest emo bands to get into

There’s more to Chinese midwest emo than Chinese Football. The Wuhan band, who were influenced by American Football in their early days but have increasingly pushed into indie-rock territory, are rightly one of China’s most internationally-known bands. But they’re far from the only ones FFO Dashboard Confessional and The Get Up Kids, as a handful of new and notable Chinese emo releases demonstrate.

Guangdong four-piece Midwest Emo Mahjong released their first record back in July, just under a year after their formation. Following a series of singles such as ‘Always Sad’ and ‘Desolation’ that showed they very much understood the assignment when it came to emo track names, their first record proper landed with a slightly tongue-in-cheek title: I’m not from the Midwest.

“We’re absolutely not from the American midwest,” the band clarified when introducing the record on their WeChat account. “We’re not from there, [yet] you don’t have to be to understand the feeling you get upon first hearing emo music. We might be adults now, but we still feel like there are stories about the regrets of our youth that remain unfinished.”

While Midwest Emo Mahjong have referred to the release as an EP, at eight tracks long it feels not far off a full album. Their “unfinished” tales of youth and angst are delivered over a sparkling set of twinkle riffs, with lyrics about teenage memories and the world being “a fucking mess”. It’s not hard to pick out the band’s influences, but they deliver on the promise of understanding the midwest emo genre, despite being from a different part of the world.

Annoyingly, a few months on from the EP’s release, it’s still yet to make it to international platforms, but there are a few tracks from the band available on YouTube and via other music services (if you have an account on Chinese streaming service NetEase, you can hear the record here).

More widely available is the debut release from Hangzhou’s The Beneficial Society. A band with members still in their teens, they released their debut album jointly on Chinese label Happy Records and Japanese imprint Ungulates late last month, shortly before an October Golden Week tour of Japan. Describing themselves as an “emo/art-punk/screamo band”, the quintet tap into midwest emo’s typically engaging blend of catchy melodies and emotional lyrics, which are sung and occasionally shouted in English on their eponymous record, while sometimes pushing the sound toward its noisier extremes.

The release is a blast, with fast and furious guitar parts offset by bursts of clarinet and saxophone, screamo vocals counterbalanced by more sweetly sung hooks (and a nod to Cap’n Jazz). It’s little surprise that the act, who once played a random gig in an office building, have had rooms bouncing from Hangzhou to Tokyo.

Wrapping up our tour of midwest emo not from the midwest are Lanzhou-formed Diels-Alder, whose four track EP Backlash I mentioned a few issues back. They say the record deals with “a painful collective memory” and represents “a form of resistance against the pressures of life” — further proof that emo is alive and well in China.

Backlash is the follow-up to 2022’s Archives, a full-length concept album that comprised “ten songs [which] correspond to the small glimpses in the lives of ten ordinary travelers” on a long-distance train journey. The band members themselves have since undertaken some travel, with the trio now “scattered across different coordinates”, yet fortunately they “remain on the same frequency”, as demonstrated through this new EP and a series of recent gigs to promote it.

Teenage angst is nothing new of course, but at a time when Chinese youth face myriad challenges, hopefully midwest emo can help bring a little catharsis at least.

The Beneficial Society and Backlash are out now. You can listen to more Midwest Emo Mahjong here.

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Block party: read this piece on Chinese woodblock cover art

I recently had the pleasure of collaborating with the wonderful The Art of Cover Art on a piece about woodblock print album covers from China. Covers like this one by Tiemei for Dusty Ballz:

Check out some more deep cuts here:

The Visual Artists Behind China's Woodblock Album Covers

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Gurl talk: hyperpop master DJ Gurl returns

DJ Gurl is back with another head spinner. Six months after the startling 头7 demonstrated that rumours of the persona’s demise had been greatly exaggerated, Master of the Rhythm is another delirious record.

For the uninitiated, a bit of background: late last year, a previously unknown artist called DJ小女孩 (officially DJ Gurl in English) caused a stir with a trio of releases. Entitled Slave to the Rhythm I, II, and III, the records seemingly came out of nowhere, but presented a blistering, bewildering blend of genres, all backed by club-ready, sometimes ridiculously in-your-face beats. DJ Gurl turned out to be one of a number of personas from a Guizhou-based producer also known as Liè, and after the initial trio of records there were widespread rumours that the project was complete. Then, in April, DJ Gurl dropped 头7 and fans promptly lost their shit all over again.

And now we get Master. Whereas its predecessor was put together in just 12 days, this new release feels relatively considered. Master has more ‘complete’ tracks; ‘最天使’ in particular, which features previous collaborator DJ小男孩 (or DJ Little Boy, the naming inspiration for Gurl), feels like a consistent pop ballad. Perhaps this more ‘controlled’ sound is a reflection of going from ‘slave’ to ‘master’ of the rhythm.

Not that DJ Gurl has gone conventional — there are still discrepant moments where it feels like you’re listening to someone scrolling through their TikTok feed. After the album opens with a pair of pounding, but relatively easy-to-follow pieces, ‘爱我的请爱我’ is where things get especially interesting: the track skips through strings that echo Björk’s ‘Jóga’, traditional Chinese string instrument parts, and deconstructed club sounds, before, just as you think you’re settling into something, DJ Gurl pulls the rug right from underneath you with a sample of a rustic, erhu-driven folk track. It’s a reminder of DJ Gurl’s genre agnosticism and ability to weave a multitude of sounds together.

At times, their work can come off as brash, but it’s hard not to feel like it’s also knowing and at times tongue-in-cheek. And with one of Liè’s other personas, DJ Gonorrhea, recently providing production support on The Face favourite Billionhappy’s LP, they’re fast establishing themself as an indispensable part of China’s hyperpop scene.

Master of the Rhythm is out now.

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More dance music: driving beats and dark techno

Guan Boyang has been a key figure on the Hangzhou electronic music scene for a number of years now. Once a student at the China Academy of Art in the city, he co-founded cutting-edge label FunctionLab and was a regular at the dearly departed venue Loopy, appearing under his producer and DJ name GUAN.

FunctionLab has been mothballed for a while now, but GUAN’s latest releases see him lending his production talents to a new label with a likeminded mission, Hong Kong- and Beijing-based Nu-s3rvo. In mid-September they released Training in the Parking Lot, an EP of five lean, revved-up tracks that was followed less than a week later by a remix EP. Both are sharp, no-filler records that are worth a listen.

Another long-term presence on China’s alternative nightlife scene, techno collective VOID have brought the likes of Robert Hood and Juan Atkins to Shanghai over the course of nearly two decades embedded in the city’s underground. Set to celebrate their 18th birthday later this year, the group have finally launched their own label, with the first release coming from Scottish co-founder Cameron Wilson under his Prismatic Force moniker.

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What kind of wind is blowing: post-punk pioneer Yang Haisong joins jazz musicians for a new improvised album

Godfather of Chinese post-punk Yang Haisong’s experiments with more abstract, static-filled guitar works continue with this new release on Dansh, yet another sub-label from Chinese music behemoth Modern Sky. Yang’s work with yangqin player Wang Xiaofeng and cellist Song Zhao have resulted in some of his most interesting recordings in years, and this new four track collection continues in that vein, even if sonically it offers something a little different.

Recorded live at Beijing’s Omni Club in 2023, 刹那江湖 finds Yang pursuing similar textures to the aforementioned collaborations, but this time with Wen Zhiyong’s trumpet providing the more melodic details.

Indeed, while these tracks feel of a piece with much of Yang’s recent work, it’s Wen who often leads the way on 刹那江湖. Wen is a multi-instrumentalist and poet who co-founded the experimental-leaning STO Records with Yang, frequently works with hair metal rocker-turned-zen ambient maestro Dou Wei, and has played in bands such as improvisational jazz act 不一定. While he’s often the most prominent figure on the album, he’s not the only significant collaborator: also present are two well-established jazz musicians in Liu Xingyu and Wang Chenhuai.

Perhaps it’s these musicians’ shared jazz heritage, perhaps it’s Yang taking more of a back seat with his wall-of-static approach (though he does grab the mic part-way for some typically distorted staccato poetry), but the music feels a little freer here, allowing more space for Wen’s trumpet to meander. The result is an absorbing listen.

刹那江湖 is out now.

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Exit music

Leaving you with funky Wuhan ‘Oriental psych’ act A Wordless Orange performing on a boat, because why not?