Cynical psychobilly-folk from Yunnan + Tibetan minority ballads
+ reimagined Kazakh classics + a traditional Chinese instrument x post-rock x strings
Hello and welcome to Concrete Avalanche, a newsletter about music from China. Thanks very much for reading.
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In this issue: an accordion-powered psychobilly-influenced folk act, not one but three great new experimental cassettes, new South Acid Mimi, a Qingdao drinking song, archive tracks from Buddha Machine makers FM3, and what happens when a post-rock act with an electrified traditional Chinese instrument meets a string quartet.
Accordion laments: psychobilly-influenced Yunnanese act Instinkto Industrio return
Put on an Instinkto Industrio track and it’s hard not to feel like you should be in a bar somewhere. Not a sleek cocktail joint, but a rough and ready, salt of the earth-type pub — the sort of place where they still actually pull pints and they come served in a tankard as standard. There’s a distinct rowdiness to the Yunnan band’s music.
Unsurprisingly, there’s a rowdiness to their live shows too. Frontman Bokai used to be in a punk band, while the musicians he plays with are plucked from psychobilly act The Lighthouse Stranger, and that gives you a strong idea of the sort of energy they bring to their shows. Their recorded output to date feels like an understandable attempt to capture that feeling in a studio.
In 2023, they released Blackout of the Century through storied Beijing label Maybe Mars. The album quickly took on cult status thanks to its wry, somewhat cryptic lyrics about how modern life is rubbish, which were paired with Soviet-style chug-along rhythms. In fact, when a physical release for their follow up 烈日独行 (Walking Alone in the Blazing Sun) was recently announced, the corresponding WeChat post’s comments section was full of people asking for a physical version of Blackout too.
On 烈日独行, which was playfully released on April Fool’s Day, Instinkto Industrio double down on the formula that made Blackout so popular. Accordion and stand-up bass propel the album along its slightly ramshackle path, with that punkish energy still prominent and Bokai’s gruff vocals delivering more observations on contemporary China. (The Soviet-era flavour has been strengthened too, with Russian translations of the band name appearing at recent live shows and on gig posters.)
The repeated mining of the same sonic seam that made their name may be the band’s undoing however — it’s a fun sound on record for a few tracks, but two whole albums of it may well lead to most listeners feeling a little fatigued. Still, Instinkto Industrio’s output sounds like little else in China right now, and those involved seemingly have enough talent to eventually pull clear of the traps of repetition.
烈日独行 is out now.
Also, check out this interview with Instinkto Industrio’s Japanese flautist by Toma Verlaine.
Mixed tapes: a trio of fascinating cassette releases from Dusty Ballz
Dusty Ballz are back — and how. The noise and experimental-focused cassette label blessed us with not one but three releases for Bandcamp Friday at the start of May.
Awlaⱪta / Afar 离 is an archive live recording from Xinjiang-born Kazakh musician Mamer, a figure regular readers of this newsletter will be familiar with. It dates from December 2021, when he played a series of 14 shows in 15 days at Shenzhen’s Old Heaven Books, a venue which has since become something of a regular stomping ground for him. Much of his output during this run of intimate gigs — each with its own theme, announced on the day — was experimental.
“On the fifth night, however, the audience found Mamer sitting alone with a nylon string guitar, delivering what would become one of his quietest public performances of the past decade. The night started gently with a reinterpretation of “Love”, a 90s ballad by Kazakhstani rock group Roksonaki, and it went on placidly, releasing into the air melodies from both folk songs and pieces originally composed for traditional Kazakh instruments.”
Mamer’s experimental tendencies do eventually burst through on Awlaⱪta, but the album is generally contemplative and gentle. As its title suggests meanwhile, Noising Sheng 噪笙 is louder right from the off. The record “documents Zhang Meng’s attempt to reinvent the Chinese sheng into a noise instrument,” turning what is traditionally meant to “sound steady, modest, and eminently decorous” into something quite different.
Zhang has played with folk-rock icons Wutiaoren and internationally-renowned composer Tan Dun, who have also put their own spins on traditional forms. Providing context for this release, which was recorded at Shanghai’s Trigger venue last year, Zhang says he wants to challenge accepted ideas of the sheng.
“Nowadays, this implication of ‘harmony’ of the sheng inevitably strikes me as ironic… as a sound-producing medium, the sheng can sound dirty and raw, it should be able to 'curse'.”
Finally, there’s Taipei, Beijing 臺北 北京 from Hong Kong-based experimentalist Xu Shaoyang. The record documents performances from Xu’s Asia tour back in 2019, when “he performed two gigs in Beijing and Taipei with two small ensembles of local musicians, both taking place in a pedestrian underpass. For this journey, Xu Shaoyang prepared a songbook of 30 tunes he conjured while putting his newborn child to sleep.”
In Beijing, this led to collaborations with scene stalwart Zhu Wenbo, while in Taipei Xu met with Jyun-Ao Caesar and La-La Reich, with the “lullabies turned into childish plays of bouncy melodic chaos, unrefined, unsettled, and cheerfully unconcerned”.
All three releases are available on Bandcamp as digital downloads and on cassette. Dusty Ballz’s back catalogue has also been recently added to Cafe Oto’s digital shop — a sure sign of quality when it comes to experimental sounds.
See also: four more experimental releases
While we’re on the subject of noise and experimental music, here’s a quick look at four more releases that are worth your time:
The aforementioned Zhu Wenbo, self-taught musician and Zoomin’ Night founder, has a new release out on Sun Yizhou’s Aloe Records.
Trigger regulars Shanghai Free Music Collective last month released an album of 69 not love songs, with most tracks just a few seconds long.
Yan Jun — who also recently put out a new record with his pan-Asian experimental group FEN — has a new piece as part of the Audio Postcard series on South Carolina’s Fifteen Minutes of Anonymity label.
Free jazz and traditional Chinese instrumentalist Lao Dan has a new album out on New York’s Relative Pitch Records.
Of angels and angles: guqin-meets-post-rock act Zhaoze release string-laden live album
As strong as guqin-infused post-rock act Zhaoze are on record, it’s live where they’re really at the height of their powers. Happily for those who’ve not had the fortune of witnessing them perform, the band recently released a live album. Even better, the show recorded for the album — in their hometown of Shenzhen — saw them incorporate a string quartet, adding a third dimension to their traditional Chinese instrument and post-rock sounds; hence its title, The Triangle.
The album covers much of their 26-year career, encompassing tracks from 2023’s No Answer Blowin’ in the Wind and 2018’s Belgian forest-recorded Birds Contending, along with the full suite of movements from their epic 2011 album 1911. The intensity of a Zhaoze live show comes through strongly, while the addition of two violins, a viola and a cello imbues the pieces with a new depth. Closing number ‘Fear’ is the weakest of the bunch, but it makes up such a small portion of the record it’s easily forgivable.
And to think, we nearly didn’t get here: Zhaoze announced they were disbanding in December 2023, but thankfully they reversed the decision a few months later. The Triangle proves they still have a lot to offer.
The Triangle is out now.
Ambience Sinica: Buddha Machine makers FM3’s early 2000s tracks come to Bandcamp
Back in February, I wrote about Buddha Machine makers FM3 releasing a vinyl record. For those who missed out on the physical LP, you can now enjoy the tracks digitally on the duo’s Bandcamp page:
“This 25th anniversary release of Ambience Sinica features six tracks which were used as source material for the most iconic loops on the original FM3 Buddha Machine,” explains FM3’s Christiaan Virant. “In early 2000, I started work on an album concept aiming to combine traditional acoustic Chinese instruments with (then) state-of-the art digital sound processing. Over a 6 month period, Zhang Jian and I recorded a host of musicians in various locations around Beijing. Those recordings were developed into more than 10 tracks which became our foundation for live shows around China and Europe in the early 2000s.”
As ever, if you want to read more about the Brian Eno, David Byrne, and Philip Glass endorsed Buddha Machine, I direct you to the definitive origin story from renowned writer, DJ and presenter Steve Barker in The Wire.
Ambience Sinica is out now.
Related:
Just briefly: Tibetan folk, Hoplites speaks, and new South Acid Mimi
Here’s a peaceful collection of three Tibetan songs in the Amdo Ballad tradition, making use of the dranyen (Tibetan lute) and captured by Lige for the See & Sea Culture Foundation, a US-based “non-profit dedicated to preserving and promoting the cultural heritage of Asian minority groups”. The performers are Dorje Tsering, Kalzang Samdrub, Rmachu Dordze, Rmachu Tratse, Rmachu Phünko, Bagtse Kyab, and Tsering Döndrub. There’s a nice digital booklet with photos and lyrics here.
Been waiting on this one for a while, but Josh Feola’s interview with the masterful one-man metal machine Liu Zhenyang (aka Ὁπλίτης (Hoplites), Vitriolic Sage, and Smiqra) has been published in the latest issue of The Wire. When Liu first came to international attention via Ὁπλίτης, I wrote that there was little known about the artist, so it’s great to have Josh’s piece out in the world.
Over in Yunnan, the always intriguing South Acid Mimi have been brewing new music. ‘Lovers of Highway’ largely picks up where their 圣代元音 album left off: unpredictable electronic rhythms mixed with sultry vocal hooks.
Exit music
Retro rock act The Bootlegs is teasing a new album on Shengjian Records, with ‘Vacillating & Staggering’ his latest single to be released. “Don’t think about tomorrow, I’m staggering alone,” sings Zhao Hong, the Qingdao-based musician behind the project, on a track themed around drinking away your troubles.
thanks again for the Ambience Sinica shout out!!