More adventures in Chinese psychedelia + Beijing hardcore
+ An Elephant Sitting Still
Hello and welcome to Concrete Avalanche, a Substack about music from China. Thank you for reading.
On the bill this issue: Chinese psychedelia, uplifting electronica, punchy hardcore, Chinese post-rock performed by a European orchestra, one of my favourite soundtracks of all time, and a McDonald’s x Eason Chan-inspired thing.
Please consider hitting the share button above and helping this newsletter to grow if you think it’s worthy. If you like, you can also buy me a coffee / feed my Bandcamp habit here. Thank you to everyone who has done so so far, it’s very much appreciated.
And remember that there are Concrete Avalanche playlists here. I still haven’t worked out how to embed them properly into Substack, but they’re only a click away.
Recurring dream: Shanghai psych band Dream Can return
There was a lot of buzz around Dream Can when they first emerged on Shanghai’s indie band scene in 2014. The three young musicians, who would namecheck the likes of Acid Mothers Temple among their influences, delivered their cosmic rock with confidence, while also throwing themselves into the afterparties with abandon. Within a couple of years they’d become scene darlings and been signed to Maybe Mars. It felt like they were on the edge of something.
But then their progress appeared to stutter. The band started playing fewer shows and their debut album release kept getting delayed, eventually emerging in the summer of 2018. Although they notably toured Australia that winter and Maybe Mars founder Michael Pettis named their record Into Sparks as his favourite album of the year, things never seemed to quite catch fire for Dream Can in the way they’d expected.
But now they’re back. Or at least two-thirds of them are (with a rotating cast of collaborators, including Mirrors’ bassist Da Bai). New lineup, new (English) name: they’re now called Canned Dream, apparently, although it looks like it’s rendered as ‘Cannen Dream’ on their new album artwork.
Anyway. At the beginning of this month, Maybe Mars suddenly released new tracks from the band, followed by a full album, Family, on February 15. Lead single ‘Grandma’s Funeral’ also came with an atmospheric and lushly shot music video:
‘Grandma’s Funeral’ is no analogy, it opens with a mournful saxophone solo before the lyrics kick in with ‘My grandmama she’s dead / But she didn’t leave with satisfaction.’ It’s noisy, it’s emotional, it feels like a return to form.
Second single ‘Daddy’ is actually a song that the band have been toying with since before their last LP came out and is a follow-up of sorts to ‘Kill the Man’ (from their first album; video above), dealing with frontwoman A Re’s largely absent father. It feels a little stretched in places but there are some intricate, playful moments too, recorded under the watchful eye of Yangfan — no stranger to offbeat, quirky guitar music.
As with their debut album, the music and lyricism here suggest a blurring of the boundaries between dreams and reality, in time-honoured psychedelic style. And like dreams, the band’s sound can feel a bit disorderly and doesn’t always make sense, but it also comes with stark moments of clarity.
Family dropped a few hours before I sent this post out so I’m still digesting it (I was dreaming when I wrote this etcetera), but I certainly recommend giving it a listen. Sprawling instrumental track ‘Heart’ in particular feels like a stand out:
Canned Dream’s Family is out now on Maybe Mars. Scroll down for more psychedelia in the form of Purple Haze From East Vol 2.
Addressing the Elephant: Hu Bo’s incredible film (and Hualun’s soundtrack) turns five
February 16th marks five years since Hu Bo’s An Elephant Sitting Still screened at the 2018 Berlinale. It’s an extraordinary film, made all the more tragic by the fact that Hu committed suicide shortly after completing it in late 2017, aged just 29. If you’ve not seen the film, you should make time for it as soon as possible.
Not only is An Elephant Sitting Still visually arresting, but it also comes with an impeccably judged soundtrack by one of China’s finest bands: Hualun.
In the years since, they’ve created two other soundtracks (for Before Next Spring and Covid documentary Wuhan Wuhan) as well as a series of EPs with an undeniable cinematic quality to them. One member of the band, Rubey Hu, also produced the soundtrack for Niu Xiaoyu’s 2021 indie film Virgin Blue and last month bié Records added it to Bandcamp.
If you’re not familiar with Hualun’s back catalogue, I strongly encourage you to check out all of it. Seriously, all of it. There are some real gems in there. It’ll also stand you in good stead for their new (non-soundtrack) album, which is due at the end of March and is something of a departure for them sonically.
Commercial break and beats
Here’s a little thing of synth maestro Mengqi reworking a McDonald’s-referencing bit of music, just because:
“Chinese singer Eason Chan playfully changed the words of his love song to “Mcdonald‘s is fantastic” in a concert 16 years ago just for fun, and no-one-know-why it’s suddenly gone viral recently, with many singers of varied styles imitating and recreating it online but none of them representing synthesizer players! That‘s why I made this to get involved in this exciting game. 😂”
More adventures in Chinese psychedelia
Back in October, I wrote a bit about the Chinese psychedelia compilation Purple Haze From East Vol 1. As the title of that album suggested, it was just the beginning — and now we have Vol 2, with similarly rad artwork.
As with Vol 1, some of the recordings are a little roughshod and not every track is a winner, but it’s another fascinating rifle through Psyche Delta Productions’ psychedelic contact list. Aming, Rough Image, Blur Jesus and Cementin are among the scene stalwarts who return to grace Vol 2 after appearing on Vol 1, but there’s a host of new acts to dig into as well. Acid Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as their name suggests, drop an atmospheric acid number, Xi’an’s Nanshan Baths deliver a tripped-out slice of Japanese noise-influenced psych-rock and Wuhan’s Pre-Sleep Talk serve up a hypnotic slow-burning jam.
The new compilation is currently only available on CD in China, but hopefully it’ll make its way to Bandcamp eventually. In the meantime, WV Sorcerer — who did the honours with getting Vol 1 onto that platform — have released Worst of Cementin, an anti-greatest hits record from one of the most interesting bands on the first Purple Haze From East comp.
Readers in China can order the Vol 2 CD here. Vol 1 is on Bandcamp here. And Cementin’s Worst of can be found here.
The three EPs: a trio of records you should really listen to right now
Here are three new things that I don’t have a huge amount to say about, but that I urge you to check out — they’re really good!
Changsha post-rock act Summer Fades Away have released an EP of their songs performed by Prague’s FILMharmonic Orchestra. These strings-attached versions reinterpret tracks from the band’s decade-old Time Flies and Memory’s Cruel EP, but it doesn’t matter how (un)familiar you are with their back catalogue, their orchestral manoeuvres are beautiful to behold.
混天说 is an ‘unproduced’ four track EP from Luo Qinlin, one half of experimental group Jellyfish, who impressed me last year when I saw them open for Yepeng. Luo recorded this quartet of tracks in one take each, preserving any imperfections or glitches that emerged along the way. They range from ghostly ambient to glistening lo-fi electronica to ceremonial-like drumming, and one reminds me of UB40’s ‘(I Can’t Help) Falling in Love with You’ at one point, but maybe that’s just me.
Yangzhou-based producer DaYe released not one but two EPs just ahead of February’s Bandcamp Friday, appropriately entitled EP1 and EP2. Her sparkly electronica builds on her classical piano training and in places is reminiscent of Howie Lee’s brilliant Birdy Island. A strong addition to bié Records’ already impressive roster.
Exit music
Going out with a bang with this music video from Beijing hardcore act Return the Truth. Dropped at the end of January, it features cameos from a host of significant names in the China (and international) hardcore scene: Beijing’s Hell City, School Bar founder and Joyside stalwart Liu Hao, Guangzhou’s Bennu is a Heron, former Top Floor Circus guy Mei Er, Hong Kong’s King Ly Chee, US artist Machine Gun Mike, Japanese act Blind Side and lots more. It’s a nice show of community and support — and a fierce track to boot.
Wow…
Shared I did - Bon voyages!!