Three-Body Problem rock + Shanghai Dreams
+ a journey into the "fuzzy womb" of baby sleep
Hello and welcome to Concrete Avalanche, a Substack about music from China. Thanks very much for reading. Please consider sharing this post if you like it — I appreciate any support in helping this thing grow.
In this edition: A Pilgrimage to the Realm of Deep Baby Sleep, music from the live-action Three-Body Problem adaptation everyone’s talking about, Lao Cui, a Chinese improvisational supergroup, plus a clip of live guqin-driven instrumental rock.
Also a reminder that it’s Bandcamp Friday again on February 3rd, meaning it’s a good time to buy music on the platform as more of your money goes to supporting the labels and artists. Most of the links in these newsletters are to Bandcamp because for now it seems to be the best deal for musicians. Please support them where you can.
And a reminder that Concrete Avalanche does playlists now, so you can listen to lots of the music discussed below all in one place.
Seven female electronic producers join forces for Shanghai Dreams
“Through scheduled workshops and label releases, Scandal encourages women to participate in the music scene, to express their creative desires and pursue their creative passions, and increase the representation of female musicians.” This is one of the early mission statements from Scandal, a “determined practitioner amidst the wave of global female empowerment” set up in Shanghai in late 2019. It’s the sort of statement of intent that you find yourself unconsciously nodding along too — an effect that’s also induced by their music.
After a slew of shows at venues across the city (primarily ALL and Elevator) and in the region (e.g. Hangzhou’s Loopy), Scandal dropped their first compilation in January 2021. Entitled Alexithymia, it featured Shanghai-based electronic music luminaries such as Laughing Ears alongside guests from other cities, and officially marked the establishment of Scandal as a label.
One year on, and we have their equally interesting follow up.
The new compilation once again features a group of young female producers from Scandal’s home base alongside guests from further afield, from Chengdu to the UK. It’s entitled Shanghai Dreams, with the description noting that this is “different from the so-called ‘American Dream’ and ‘Chinese Dream’ which are loaded yet energizing, ‘Shanghai Dream’ is way lighter, more alluring and deceiving.”
Skipping across jungle, techno and other less easily defined electronic sounds, the new offering features always interesting producers such as Cocoonics and Gouachi. LimboLimbs, whose fun EP It’s a fact.No! came out on Eating Music in the summer of 2021, returns to the fray with one of the stand out tracks, while BreezyC and Princess CC! are among the new additions, the latter having led a number of production workshops for Scandal in the past year. Rainsoft, whose Echoes from Afar album was released by bié Records late last year, also makes her Scandal label debut, as does Huizit, a DJ, producer and event organiser behind Chengdu-based LGBTQ+ collective Chilldo and a member of the TASTY! label.
Anyone who’s been to an alternative club night in Shanghai or Chengdu in the past couple of years will likely be familiar with at least some of those names. For everyone else: they represent an intriguing cross-section of China’s young independent electronic music scene and are clearly intent on making good things happen. Go support them.
Shanghai Dreams is available on Bandcamp for just $4.
Re-TROS return with Three-Body Problem theme
Rebuilding the Rights of Statues were one of the first Chinese bands I ever saw live. A few hundred people crammed into an un-airconditioned Yuyintang (Shanghai’s premier underground rock venue) to watch the post-punk trio play songs from their then just-released record Cut Off!. They delivered angular, Gang of Four-flavoured tracks with an assured stage presence in front of a rapturous, sweaty crowd. I loved it, I was hooked.
That was in 2005 or 2006 (yes I’m old). Over a decade and a half later, Re-TROS are one of the best-known rock acts in China, thanks to almost perpetual festival appearances for their label Modern Sky, a couple of follow-up records to Cut Off! (including the impressive Before the Applause) and their participation in the second season of iQIYI’s ‘Pop Idol for rock artists’ The Big Band, a show which they won.
They seem to have resisted any pressure to rush out an album in the wake of that TV appearance, instead sticking to more festival slots and the various commercial commitments that came with being crowned Big Band champions. They also played another gig in Shanghai, though this time it was to around 9,000 people (and with air conditioning) as part of their first ever headlining arena show.
Now we have the first proper new music from the band in about five and a half years. Their new track is called ‘THREE BODY’ (they love the caps lock) and was made for the Tencent Video live-action adaptation of Liu Cixin’s famous sci-fi trilogy Remembrance of Earth’s Past, more commonly referred to by the title of the first book, The Three-Body Problem.
It’s not exactly Re-TROS at their most energetic — I spent the duration of my first listen waiting for it to burst into life — but the brooding song, with its references to Blade Runner and lyrics about planetcide, feels appropriately ominous. Produced by Shanghai electronic music artist-turned-composer B6, ‘THREE BODY’ also has a surprise earworm quality to it; even after only listening to it a couple of times I found its warnings of the end of the world as we know it playing on loop in my head for days, like an indelible countdown to doom stamped on my field of vision. And I haven’t even watched the show yet.
There’s an undeniable arrogance to Re-TROS at times (something which they often play up) and the band aren’t without controversy. Recording of the aforementioned TV talent show was reportedly stalled for a while after a member of another band accused them of plagiarising Nick Cave’s ‘Red Right Hand’ for ‘Pigs in the River’. That same show also seemingly saw them switch up some of their lyrics to avoid political references and bypass censors. In one instance, frontman Hua Dong sang ‘sometimes I feel like I’m talking to a sun on the beach’, which… is not how I remember the original line going. Though of course, they’re not the only act who have had to play this game.
Regardless, they’re a talented trio and it’s interesting to see Re-TROS continue to enter the mainstream.
For the band at their best, watch the video above and check out Before the Applause, an album that led to lots of strong reviews and to Re-TROS remixes by Liars, Fujiya & Miyagi and Paul Frick. For the Three-Body theme, here’s how it looks on the show’s closing credits:
This is a Modern Sky release, which means no Bandcamp (for now at least). Their YouTube page seems to have fallen by the wayside a bit too, but they do at least still upload to Apple Music and Spotify.
The ‘Godfather of Chinese rock’ performs for NPR
NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, the US’s answer to Homegrown, recently held the third iteration of their collaboration with globalFEST, showcasing musicians from around the world. Alongside Khadija El Warzazia’s Bnat el Houariyat & Esraa Warda and Dakh Daughters was a participant from China: Cui Jian.
There’s lots to say about Lao Cui, but maybe we’ll leave that for another time. For now, you can hit play on the video above to watch the ‘godfather of Chinese rock’ growl and yelp his way through a trio of guqin-studded rock ‘n’ roll tracks. He’s backed by a full band featuring saxophonist Liu Yuan, whose East Shore jazz cafe in Beijing provides the venue.
Guqin-propelled post-rockers Zhaoze present a message of hope and healing for 2023
Back in December 2021, Guangzhou-based instrumental rock at Zhaoze, known for their use of an electrified guqin (a traditional Chinese string instrument), released a fascinating experiment. Entitled Summer Insects Talk About Ice, the record featured ten tracks lasting just 32 seconds each. (The project was inspired by PRSNT, an album where the likes of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Laurie Spiegel imposed similar time constraints on their music.)
While Summer Insects could also be consumed as a single five and a half minute piece, constructing distinct tracks within such a short timespan was a challenging concept for a band who’ve long demonstrated a predilection for grand, expansive post-rock. Their previous album — recorded in a forest in Belgium — comprised a single 43 and a half minute track.
Inevitably, when Zhaoze performed Summer Insects live, it became elongated. One result of this was a 15-minute live recording of the album. Another is the track ‘The Life of a Dayfly’, which extrapolates one of the main melodies from Summer Insects into a fuller eight minute piece. It’s quite beautiful.
The song was released on the last day of 2022 with a note from the band that touched on the personal grief experienced by members Hoy and Sean, who lost both their father and uncle over the course of the year.
“For so many people, the year 2022 was not an easy one. They have gone through hardships and tribulation, despair and confusion. No matter because of the war, the epidemic, the poverty, or diseases, the reasons might be different, but the taste is just so bitter.
“As the old year was passing away, and the new year was coming, Zhaoze was presenting this song. Music cannot turn back the time, but it may heal our inner wounds; music cannot build the future, but it may give us the courage and strength to move on. This is a memory of yesterday and a message for tomorrow.
“Floating life could be joyful, floating life could be sad, ‘Floating life looks back like a flying shadow’ (Peom from Wang Ling / Ming dynasty). So let's cherish the happiness of the old days, and look forward to the coming dawns.”
And here’s a clip of what electrified guqin-propelled post-rock is like live:
Sons d’hiver: three of China’s best experimental musicians join forces
This is a real treat. Les Trois Amis de l'hiver brings together three of the leading experimental musicians in the country: guitarist Li Jianhong, who celebrated Polish composer Zbigniew Karkowski once labelled “the best noise musician in China”; percussionist Deng Boyu, who late last year put out a solo record on the legendary Cafe OTO’s OTOroku imprint; and Wen Zhiyong, who you may know from his atmospheric collaborations with China’s post-punk godfather Yang Haisong or from his guest appearance on the latest Wang Wen album.
Together, they create swirling, bewitching soundscapes of guitars, trumpet, synth, flute and percussion punctuated by screeching psych-ish freak-outs on Les Trois Amis de l'hiver, a recording of an epic live improvised set at now defunct Beijing venue 24D Space.
“One year ago, in the midst of the epidemic and the lockdown in Beijing, we had the chance to record this unforgettable night,” says the introduction from label WV Sorcerer. “Three musicians who have never stopped exploring their respective fields, made this improvised music encounter and go to a new horizon with us.”
Les Trois Amis de l'hiver is out on February 3rd (just in time for Bandcamp Friday, nudge nudge); you can pre-order it right now.
Exit music
Signing off with a track from Li Daiguo’s new album Pilgrimage to the Realm of Deep Baby Sleep. Li is based near Dali, Yunnan (a “utopian city for exhausted city-dwellers”), and I once soundtracked much of a road trip around that province with 指花风影, a beautiful collaborative record incorporating pipa, lyre, cello and xiao made by him and Huan Qing.
On a far more relevant note, Li recently became a father, and Pilgrimage finds the multi-instrumentalist taking to the piano for a series of peaceful tracks composed with his newborn (and his newborn’s sleep) in mind.
Don’t sleep on Li’s new album: Pilgrimage to the Realm of Deep Baby Sleep is another Modern Sky release, but you can find it on Spotify and Apple Music.
Amazingly, the whole show 三体 is uploaded on YouTube with English subtitles.