Chinese psychedelia + a Wuhan punk in Portugal + Halloween tunes
+ BCD profile of one of China's best independent record labels
Welcome back to Concrete Avalanche and thank you for reading.
Below: harsh noise, psychedelia, folk punk and a few tracks to (pumpkin) spice up your All Hallows’ Eve playlist.
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Not letting it lie: Sleeping Dogs’ debut album is now available and is very good
In the previous newsletter I got over excited and wrote about Sleeping Dogs’ new album before it was properly out. But now Blunt Razor has arrived in full and is up on international platforms. Don’t mind the name, it’s a super smooth record. Highly recommended.
Here’s the video for ‘Agora Bar’ featuring a chess game tour through various hutongs and parks of Beijing:
Far out east: Purple Haze compilation showcases Chinese psychedelia
On with the new new stuff.
Every time Bandcamp Friday rolls around I have a load of music cued up in my basket good to go… and then comes a flood of new releases on the day itself to mess with my shopping plans / bank balance. For October’s Bandcamp Friday, the new release that I wasn’t expecting but immediately went back to the check out for was Purple Haze From East Vol 1, a tripped out compilation of psychedelia originally released in February by Shanghai’s Psyche Delta Productions and now brought to the wider world courtesy of WV Sorcerer.
Billed as “a journey through the realm of reality and imaginary,” the record brings together ten artists from across China who have variously fallen into the orbit of Xu Di and Tata’s Psyche Delta Festivals, the first of which was held in 2017. Among those featured are Wuhan free-form drone outfit Acid Lumo, Dongbei (northeast) psych trio Rough Image, and Shanghai-based experimentalist Aming, who is also one third of psych-rock band Mirrors and re-appears on this compilation as part of Blur Jesus with Midori.
I can’t remember definitively whether I was at the first Psyche Delta Festival in 2017 (I think I was… too many gigs and not enough brain cells), but I was certainly at the second in 2018. I distinctly remember it for being in cramped jazz hang out Chair Club in Shanghai, which didn’t really have much of a stage, was absolutely packed and provided the bands with a backdrop of out-there arthouse films. It was great. The act who left the deepest impression that night were Cementin, led by Xu Di himself, and they’re one of the main highlights on this compilation too (though Aming’s ‘Western Twister’ is a strong contender for my favourite track).
If you’re similarly smitten with Cementin’s material, their 20-track Worst of… compilation, which also came out in February, is available within China.
Overall, not every track hits the mark here, but this compilation is an interesting introduction to one corner of China’s psych scene, taking a two hour tour through lots of psych-rock riffs, some psy-trance flavoured beats and plenty of meandering meditative instrumentation.
A renowned Chinese punk adjusts to life in Europe
Look at this image. SMZB frontman Wu Wei looks thoroughly chilled out on the cover of his new solo album. Kind of makes you want to go join him in Portugal.
After years of fearlessly leading Wuhan’s punk scene — both with SMZB and through his Wuhan Prison bar — Wu Wei recently relocated to Europe. He’s settled down, has started a family, and by the looks of that picture is enjoying life.
So has he shed his political skin? Of course not.
There are politically-charged moments here for those looking for them. But beyond this there are also honest, wry reflections on missing home (and eating reganmian, the classic Wuhan noodle dish, on the Atlantic coast), adapting to life in a new country and becoming a father. Wu’s unvarnished vocals won’t be for everyone, but to some ears his delivery, with every jerked syllable, only serves to add more emotional weight to his lyrics.
While he hasn’t gone full-on fado, the largely pared back album does reflect Wu’s new surroundings, sometimes intimately: at one point we hear a baby’s cries and gurgles. But even with a sparser sound and a number of stark ballads, The Man on the Atlantic Coast is still characterised by Wu Wei’s punk spirit. The short burst of ‘Obrigado’, for example, isn’t going to win any awards for its lyrical litheness (Wu just repeats the one word throughout), but there’s little denying its energy, with Wu attacking the strings with a folk punk intensity.
If you’re not familiar with Wuhan’s punk scene, this isn’t the record to start with. Start here and listen to Nathanel Amar on the subject instead. But if you’re a fan of SMZB or are interested in what happens to an “old punk” attempting a new beginning far from home while remaining concerned at what they’ve left behind, The Man on the Atlantic Coast is worth a listen.
Noisey: A quick look at recent releases from the experimental fringes
There’ve been a string of notable releases from China’s noise and experimental scenes in the last few weeks. Here’s a quick-fire round-up of some recent noise / experimental releases by Chinese artists that have stood out to me:
Sun Yizhou and Zhu Wenbo put out an abstract “call and response” record on Tokyo label Zappak. The latter’s Zoomin Nights imprint also recently released an album of noisy, experimental rock from Luxinpei.
Ever-prolific harsh noise act Torturing Nurse is among the artists on this visually pretty Swiss-Chinese experimental compilation.
One-time Torturing Nurse member Xu Cheng also pops up as part of this experimental / noise supergroup with Jun-Y Ciao and Mai Mai (of Muscle Snog) who are not to be confused with a major fast food chain, just in case you thought that was likely.
Sun Yizhou again, this time presenting a “haptic noise improvisation” on UK label Brachliegen Tapes, in which they use “their own body as a resistor in a circuit of faulty and misfiring equipment to create searing surges of electrical noise.” This one’s not out until the first week of November but you can pre-order and hear two tracks above.
For more “body music” there’s also this new release from renowned sound artist Yan Jun, who I once saw do a live show where he cracked and ate sunflower seeds into a microphone for about half an hour. (Not his only sunflower seed-related work either.) This new piece is also about stamina, in a way.
You might also like…
“We started in Beijing, but we very much want to be in a global context,” says Meng Jinhui, founder of bié Records, at the start of this label profile on Bandcamp Daily by James Gui. bié is the record label arm of BIE, an excellent youth culture-focused platform which emerged from the ashes of VICE China. They’ve been in operation less than two years but already have some fantastic releases on their discography, including Hualun’s Wuhan Wuhan soundtrack, Yu Su’s Yellow River Blue and the Random Walk in the Park compilation which features Otay:onii, Wu Zhuoling, Yangfan and others doing tracks themed around park life.
Read the profile here. And expect bié to be a pretty regular fixture in this newsletter.
Exit music 🎃
With Halloween just around the corner, here are some non-party tunes from China to supplement your #spookyseason playlist:
A pair of epic tracks from China’s best black metal band. (Check out what their live shows look like as well.)
Haunting freak folk (recently reissued on vinyl) from “the abandoned industrial ruins of Dagang Oilfield.”
Atmospheric out-there sounds from Yunnan-based experimentalist Liang Yiyuan, released via Unexplained Sounds Group.
As a Phish fan and armchair China Watcher I have been asking about searching for Chinese jambands for years, today was the day my search ended! Thanks so much for this!!