More Chinese ambient + new Sleeping Dogs
"Fresh, crisp, and chewy" Cantonese jazz rap + Torturing Nurse wrapped in plastic
Hello and welcome to Concrete Avalanche, a newsletter about music from China. Thanks very much for reading.
If you’d like to listen to lots of great music from China for free, all in one place, check out the Concrete Avalanche playlists here. Please support the artists if you can.
I also have tip jar running on Ko-fi, which you can contribute to here if you’d like:
In this issue: the Gilles Peterson and Guruguru Brain-endorsed Sleeping Dogs return, Chinese shoegaze and hip hop podcasts to check out, compilations of footwork and ambient from China, “chewy” chilled out rap from Guangdong, a typically out-there video from harsh noise act Torturing Nurse, and a new track from an artist who “whiplashes between old school rave music and contemporary rock'n'roll”.
Sleeping Dogs return with new EP
Have you ever wondered what Afrobeat, Latin funk, and jazz influences channelled through a group of talented Beijing musicians might sound like? Probably not. But either way, you should be listening to Sleeping Dogs, one of China’s best bands.
After releasing a new track via a Guruguru Brain compilation back in June — a song that was picked up and played by the legendary Gilles Peterson, no less — the group have now put out a new EP, Cliche.
That Guruguru Brain track aside, this is the band’s first new music since their debut full-length, Blunt Razor, came out in 2022. Before that, they’d focused on releasing EPs, and that’s what they’re back to here, a format that I feel works well for them.
Alongside their usual clutch of feel-good musical influences, this new EP sees them dabble in dub, something signposted right from the outset. ‘Dhila’ is probably the stand-out for me, but there’s plenty to enjoy across the four tracks.
If this is your first time hearing Sleeping Dogs, I heartily recommend exploring their back catalogue. Blunt Razor of course, but also their two other EPs on Space Fruity Records and the tracks that you can find on their old Bandcamp page.
Cliche is out now.
Putting in (foot)work: Seippelabel continue their run of releases with alt-club and ambient comps
After a five-ish year hiatus, Beijing-based Seippelabel has put out a flurry of releases in 2024. There was avant artist Sun Yizhou’s duì xiàng (Sun was recently featured in The Wire, incidentally), a new field recording-based release from Mind Fiber, and a wonderful ambient compilation, to mention just three.
And now, here are two more records. Two compilations, stylistically very different, but with the same keen eye for curation as Seippelabel’s previous multi-artist releases.
Vol. 12 is something of a successor to one of the last Seippelabel releases we were left with pre-hiatus, the footwork-focused Vol. 10: “The collection encapsulates the styles of juke, experimental, 160 electronic, and left-field club music that bubble around footwork as a genre.”
Vol. 13 is also a successor of sorts, this time to the aforementioned ambient compilation released earlier this year. The collection “highlights the diverse array of musicians the label has encountered over the years, presenting 11 tracks of bliss that will envelop you completely.”
Find these two records and browse Seippelabel’s back catalogue here.
ChinaTalk-ing heads: shoegaze and hip hop round-ups
Alexa Pan and I put together an hour of Chinese shoegaze for ChinaTalk recently. Listen to that here:
A few days later, they followed up with a run down of Chinese hip hop tracks. I don’t follow the more mainstream hip hop scene all that closely, but DuoDuoDiLiao has been commentating on it for years, so his thoughts on the state of Chinese rap (and the politics of it all) are always worth checking out:
Keep reading (or scroll down to this edition’s Exit music) if you want to hear some non-mainstream hip hop from China. And if you want more shoegaze, here’s this…
And now for something completely different: Torturing Nurse at Trigger in Shanghai
Always worth checking in on “harsh as fuck” noise act Torturing Nurse’s recent exploits (click for video)…
Sustaining: erstwhile Snapline frontman releases solo love song
In the heady mid-’00s era of a burgeoning Beijing scene and myriad Maybe Mars-signed acts, Snapline shot to iconic status. Their 2007 album Party is Over, Pornostar felt like an instant classic of the time, even if the band never seemed entirely comfortable with producer Martin Atkins’ take on their sound.
Having built a cult following in those early years, the band’s output became sporadic after frontman Chen Xi moved to the US due to his job with Big Tech. The other two points of the Snapline triangle, Li Weisi and Li Qing, focused their energies on other projects.
While his bandmates have pursued more experimental and noise work (and, of course, more recently returned to the Carsick Cars fold), Chen has taken a different path with his Late Troubles solo project, exploring experimental electro-folk and lo-fi electronica.
His new track, the first release under the Late Troubles name in four years, is called ‘Chinatown Cha-Cha’ in English and ‘Women’s World’ in Chinese. Neither title gives you much of a clue of what’s to come: a fragile, heartfelt song about a reluctant propensity for falling in love.
Check it out below, along with a version featuring Brooklyn-based artist Reonda Cheng:
Clarity just confuses me: a satisfying South Acid Mimi solo song
Another (seemingly) one-off track from a solo project here, this time in the form of South Acid Mimi’s Shi Shi. The Yunnanese electro-punk group that she’s a part of put out a great comeback album right at the tail-end of 2023, but as Shi Shi’s Demon she delivers solo work that blends Mimi-ish beats with grungier guitar riffs.
Here’s a better description, courtesy of the artist’s own blurb:
“ShiShi’s Demon whiplashes between old school rave music and contemporary rock'n'roll— depicting hell both in the present and the future — a place where we’re forced to ’amuse ourselves to death’.”
Exit music
“Jazzy, super laidback, and with strong summery vibes” was how I described Mdprl & Git Bu$y Trio’s debut LP when it came out earlier this year. “Fresh, crisp, and chewy” is how “China’s answer to Tiny Desk Concerts” Homegrown describe them in the title to this highly enjoyable video, set in Guangzhou clothing store / record shop / rehearsal space / recording studio Earth Good Garments:
And while we’re on the subject of Mdprl and co, their Space Fruity-released album has now made it to Bandcamp, so you can go and purchase it there should you wish:
So many great finds in here! Great picks!
Did Atkins produce the first Snapline album? I thought his involvement was on the second?