What was China listening to in 2024? + a shoegaze double-bill
+ Kim Gordon-endorsed harsh noise act Torturing Nurse’s 500th release + a trip on a pear-shaped spaceship
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In this issue: a look at Douban’s end of year charts, pagan dark ambient, dreampop, shoegaze, harsh noise act Torturing Nurse’s 500th release, a concert where traditional Chinese instrumentation-meets-post-rock, and a hip hop mixtape themed around a pear-shaped spaceship.
What was China Douban listening to in 2024?
The last couple of years, I’ve done a run-down of the end of year lists from China’s major streaming platforms (see 2022 here and 2023 here). I was going to do the same this year, but honestly, it’s just not as interesting as it was 12 months ago. Also, in an apparent drive for interactivity, Tencent made their 2024 list very annoying to navigate, which didn’t help with putting this together.
Instead, here’s a quick look at some of the charts on hard-to-please user reviews platform Douban. This, of course, is very much not representative of the whole of China, but really, with 1.3 billion people, it’s always going to be hard to capture ‘what China was listening to’ in any given moment.
Anyway, here’s Douban’s top 10 highest-rated albums from the year:
Don’t ask me why an 8.7-rated album can be ranked behind an 8.4 album — I didn’t know last year and I don’t know this year; presumably it’s related to the number of reviews or something.
When it comes to the most ‘followed’ rock albums of the year on Douban, it’s similarly dominated by non-Chinese acts, but at least sitting pretty at the top is Zhang Xingchan, whose No, No! album also topped Mando Gap’s end of year list and generally got a lot of buzz last year with its heady blend of pop, jazz, rock, and electronica influences.
Billie Eilish topped the pop list, Clairo took top spot on the folk chart, and Khalil Fong was number one on Douban’s R&B run-down (just ahead of Tyla and Kali Uchis). Tyler, the Creator headed up the hip hop chart, with Kendrick in second, Wang Yitai in third, and Kim Gordon making an appearance in eighth.
Douban also has a section on albums from x decades ago in its end of year list. So if you’re wondering which albums that community thinks were the best releases of 1974, wonder no more:
Before we move on, here’s one non-Douban end of year chart. Apple Music is not hugely relevant based on its reported market share, but it’s still funny to check in on their list of “the most played hits in Mainland China” on its platform in 2024. The reason it’s amusing? Jay Chou absolutely dominates it. No other artist even appears in the top 10. The top 15 only has one other name in there (JJ Lin). Taylor Swift pops up in 17th place with ‘Cruel Summer’, but the entire top 100 is basically a Jay-fest with a smattering of other artists from that era (yes yes, he’s timeless I know, but I’m talking Mayday, Eason Chan, GEM).
This is nothing new of course. In fact the top 10 is largely unchanged from last year, just a few differences in ordering (number one and two are exactly the same). The top track, ‘七里香’, turned 20 years old in 2024. Long live the king, I suppose.
Diviner intervention: a pagan-influenced dark electronics double-bill
Shiren (Diviner) is an artist who’s been on my list to write about for a while. They’ve featured on a number of playlists in the past, but for various reasons I’ve never managed to make room for them in the newsletter. It’s time to rectify that — especially in light of their most recent two albums, Death and An Illusory Community, both released last year and representing their most accomplished work to date.
“PowerElectronics / HarshNoise / Ambient / BlackMetal / Pagan”. These are the tags with which Shiren describes their work, and all of them feel present on both records, though the harsh noise is used sparingly. There’s a darkness that pervades the two records (no surprises there, when one LP is called Death), but also a real sense of texture — a mood reflected in Shiren’s use of abstract, often monochrome artworks for their releases.
Where An Illusory Community feels more electronics-focused and is laced with black metal vocals, Death features more percussion and traditional Chinese instrument-like sounds layered with throat-singing. They’re both immense.
Biographical information on the artist is hard to come by at the moment, something that feels intentional. And to be honest, that sense of enigma fits well with the music.
An Illusory Community and Death are both available digitally now. The latter is due to get a CD release via Pest Productions very soon.
Pears in space: Delivery Music serve up a fun, out-there hip hop mixtape
And now for something completely different. Delivery Music is a sort of spin-off label from long-running, community-minded imprint Eating Music. The two labels share not just members and founders, but plenty of other bits of DNA: in particular, there’s a penchant for fun, food-referencing, collaborative releases. The label’s output to date has been patchy, but a new compilation brings all of their best features together.
Pear Club is a dizzying hip hop and club music record that feels like a house party or a feast with friends, with a rotating cast of characters dropping in to talk you through the drinks list, reflect on social media, and moan about the pains of winter. It’s all set to some bouncy beats and spun together like a mixtape, with random samples (such as that ubiquitous-in-China ‘May I have your attention please?’ announcement), conversational clips, and remixes of previous releases all part of the melee.
Oh, and the whole idea is that the artists — including TingTing, LATENINE6, and CHILLGOGOG (whose similarly quirky debut album I just never found time to write about last year) — inhabit a pear-shaped spaceship that recently landed on asteroid #70B72C!.
“With a diverse group of travelers aboard, the pear-shaped spaceship set out to find a colorful and livable green planet. And now, we’ve arrived. This planet has air, water, and life—mission complete!”
Sure, why not?
It’s a bit weird and it’s a bit all over the shop. But while it could all easily go pear-shaped, it turns out the record is the best thing this label has done so far.
Pear Club is out now.
Still dreaming: Ecke Wu drops new dreampop LP as shoegazers Chocland.doc release debut EP
Ecke Wu is one half of one of China’s longest-running shoegaze acts, Forsaken Autumn. Her solo material drifts more toward the dreampop end of the spectrum — and that’s what we get on The Unwaking Dream, the new record that’s she’s written, composed, performed, produced, and mastered.
Wu takes the dream theme to something of an extreme, declaring The Unwaking Dream “an album themed around dreams, recorded in the music style closest to dreams: dreampop.”
“Being closest to dreams also means being farthest from reality,” she continues, in the introduction to the record. “Dreams are like scattered oases in the vast desert of reality, blossoming with fleeting beauty. The nine songs in the album each represent a different dream, or can be seen as different stages of the same dream.”
While Wu has been on the scene for years now, Hebei band Chocland.doc are just starting out. After featuring on the first Kind of Shoegaze compilation last year, the group have now released their debut studio record, Fall.
It’s a little rough around the edges, with the band themselves admitting it’s something of a “test piece”. That’s as you’d expect from a young act’s first effort — but there’s still some nice moments and it shows plenty of potential.
The Unwaking Dream and Fall are out now.
Still “harsh as fuck”: noise act Torturing Nurse’s 500th release
I recently wrote about Junkyard, the early ’00s Shanghai band that spawned techno artist MHP, electronic music-turned-soundtrack specialist B6, and Chinese harsh noise flag bearer Torturing Nurse. That last act — who were once the subject of one of Kim Gordon’s Noise Paintings — just released its 500th record, hot on the heels of a Japan tour.
For his 500th release, Torturing Nurse’s Junky has chosen a radical change of direction, with soothing ambient… nah, just kidding. Released on Arizona’s Outsider Industries, Idiot Index is a typically uncompromising blast of self-described “harsh as fuck noise” from an artist who shows no signs of mellowing any time soon. Long may it continue.
Idiot Index is out now.
Exit music
Around this time last year, this section of the newsletter was mourning the end of Zhaoze after 25 years together. Thankfully, the electric guqin-powered post-rock act’s break up didn’t last too long and late last year they put on a special show in their hometown of Shenzhen, embellishing their stirring songs by performing with a string quartet.
You can watch a recording of the whole concert here:
So many great finds to unpack this weekend. The few Ecke Wu I played have struck my fancy already.