Dance music collides with traditional music, an airy indietronic debut, a frequency junkie’s delight, and some more post-emo rock to get nostalgic about – it’s the latest releases to storm our headspace including new takes from Jason Hou, Nocturnes, Liu Xinyu, and Chinese Football
‘This makes me cum’ – the top user review on the bandcamp page for Chinese Football’s latest – Here comes a new challenger! I wouldn’t go that far in praising the Wuhan four piece’s latest but it’s pretty damn satisfying. The EP finds the band, who broke out big here and aboard with their math rock infused emo rock smash debut, with a new drummer and four brand new songs that further solidifies the band’s tight musicianship and sound. I think it’s safe to say that Chinese Football are becoming less and less their (obvious) predecessor and are forging their own identify – effortlessly creating twinkly post emo rock jams that embrace their pop sensibilities with a gentle touch. Yeah – these kids are gonna go far. Bandcamp/Xiami
Indie-electronic duo Nocturnes soundtracks the claustrophobia of intimacy on their soulful, ethereal debut Dust Into Glory released on Cao Tai Records. The two artists, Leslie (on vocals and lyrics) and Da Wei (on production and melody) have always complemented each other perfectly and here there hoist each other’s best qualities even further – the fluid nuanced piano chords, the seamless blend of English and Chinese vocals that linger in the air – it’s a sleek sensual concoction with impeccably groomed arrangements. Melancholy has never been so easy to get wrapped up in. Bandcamp/Xiami
‘New species of dance music grooves is born in the forest of concrete and data’ – that’s a pretty apt summary of what Jason Hou accomplishes on the Do Hits latest solo outing – Sheng by the renegade Beijing based electronic producer. Fusing ‘traditional and dance music in the oriental context’ the artist takes a variety of sounds and textures from the Beijing’s vast cultural landscape – from opera to classical compositions courtesy of composer Jin Zhang even a sample of Beijing’s premier melodic metal band Frosty Eve and mutates it into something fresh, transfixing, and downright sexy. Bandcamp/Xiami
Liu Xinyu, the Beijing-based experimental musician (and guitarist of psych-rock band Chui Wan) gets down an array of frequencies on the feedback heavy no-input electro-acoustic improv performance release The Ear Choose Me. Recorded at the AM Art Space in Shanghai in the beginning of the year, the forty minute performance explores the artist’s fascination with marginal frequencies captured with a no-input mixer. And while you may need a pair of good headphones to really capture all the nooks and crannies of frequency here, whether or not you enjoy this kind of this is part of the fun as Liu Xinyu explains – ‘The performance is a dialectic process, an exploration, whether it is good or bad will be determined by audience’s ears.’ As a man who’s had his fun placing multiple Zoom recorders around a room I dig the cover art. Bandcamp
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