New Music: Pinboard, Demerit, Deshengcun

Demerit 过失 – Out of the Fog 走出迷雾 

Demerit, one of the punk scene’s most renowned and respected outfits are back with their first album in ten years! The formerly Beijing based outfit, now residing out of Qingdao (where lead singer keeps the torch alive for the new generation of punks via the livehouse DMC). Known for mixing street punk and 1980s metal with pointed commentary on the social landscape, their latest finds room for just about everything – from Celtic punk inflicted ballads to reggae dazed jams. To quote Chinese rock commentator Sinomite: “The album feels less like a middle finger to establishment, and more like a celebration of Demerit’s history, and the history of punk in China.”

Bandcamp:https://demerit.bandcamp.com/album/out-of-the-fog-2

Xiami: https://www.xiami.com/album/2103561207

Pinboard 排插 – Shock!

Ska punk outfit Pinboard, infused with the charm and radiance that only southern China can offer, break through on their energetic, beaming debut LP Shock! That exclamation point is the perfect encapsulation of the Guangzhou’s band sound – a charged, bombastic, flailing stage dive into 80s/90s era punk rock that never lets up. And ridiculously fun. From the soundbites layered over the opening chords, to the crisp and robust production, to the devil may cry attitude that propels each of the band members to lay it all on the track, this is simply one of the best-sounding punk albums out there.

Bandcamp: https://pinboard.bandcamp.com/album/shock

Xiami: https://www.xiami.com/album/2103574811

Deshengcun 大神棍 – Bless Your Mother 你妈福

Off-kilter metal at its finest and most gleefully deranged – Deshengcun might just be for you. The extreme metal project from Beijing based musician Tong Liu, is a mischievous beast of an album. Categorizing itself as ‘funny metal’ there is certainly something shockingly hilarious of what Liu has done here – feverishly blending thrash metal, folklore, atmospheric electronic music, and carnivalesque delirium with a singer who presents himself as something of a shamanist minstrel, alternating between high and low pitches, as each track relishes in its numerous twists and turns. Consistently entertaining and endearingly mad. 

Bandcamp: https://dashengun.bandcamp.com/album/bless-your-mother

Netease: http://music.163.com/#/album?id=38076435