There isn't a thread about new Chinese music. Anyway, here's an article from the Wire to start with:

 

And read more about Ronez et al on here:

http://www.chinesenewear.com/gno/ind...buddha+machine

 

http://www.boomkat.com/article.cfm?id=3

Sugar Jar

Sugar Jar at 798
http://www.sugarjar.cn

 

Sugar Jar is a small but remarkable place to find independent music. (clwc)
Read the New York Times article about Sugar Jar (click on continue below)

Source: NYT (10/27/07):
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/27/ar...ic/27expe.html
Growing Underground Is Making Noise in China
By BEN SISARIO
BEIJING ‹ Down a short alley in the sprawling, tourist-mobbed 798 art
district here ‹ a complex of 1950s-era military factories converted into
galleries and studios ‹ is a tiny shop that serves as one of the centers of
China¹s small but thriving experimental music scene.
[Buddha 1 (mp3): http://graphics8.nytimes.com/audiosr.../buddha01.mp3]
The store, Sugar Jar, is barely big enough to accommodate a half-dozen
customers, and one wall displays all the essentials of the genre, from discs
of abstract electronica and brutal noise-rock to anthologies with bold
titles like ³China: The Sonic Avant-Garde.² Playing samples from his stock,
the proprietor, a lanky, soft-spoken man named Lao Yang, noted proudly that
his store is one of the only spots in all of Beijing to buy much of this
music.
Like Sugar Jar, avant-garde music occupies a minuscule niche in Chinese
society, overshadowed by the larger and vastly more lucrative world of
contemporary visual art. Only a few dozen musicians around the country make
up this circle, but their work has begun to attract international attention,
and over the last several years a steady stream of Western musicians,
including Brian Eno and the New York guitarist Elliott Sharp, have visited
and given their blessing.
³The feeling of the scene in Beijing is exciting and reminds me of New York
in 1979,² said Mr. Sharp, who last performed here in April. ³There¹s a
tangible sense of discovery and transgression.²
Though China may be in the beginnings of a new love affair with consumerism,
rigid cultural controls are still in place, and discovery and transgression
are values not widely held by the Communist government. Following President
Hu Jintao¹s call for moral purity in society, broadcasters have come under
increasing pressure lately to keep potentially subversive material ‹ which
means anything but sugary, shallow pop ‹ off the airwaves. At the end of the
Communist Party Congress in October, the official Chinese Music Association
denounced the ³vulgar² pop music reaching the nation¹s youth through the
Internet.
Growing out of rock and electronic music, and operating outside the
state-supported classical sphere, the experimental scene in China has
existed for barely a decade. Its hub is Beijing, with the electronic
performers Wang Fan, Sulumi, Yan Jun [see
http://mclc.osu.edu/rc/pubs/yanjun.htm] and FM3; Sun Wei, who creates sound
collages under the name 718; and Dou Wei, one of China¹s biggest rock stars,
whose solo career includes numerous spacey, dreamlike albums that
incorporate traditional instrumentation.
Shanghai has one of the most extreme noise groups, Torturing Nurse, which
sometimes performs with a female member in a nurse¹s uniform. Huanqing, from
Sichuan Province, makes field recordings from the hinterlands of China and
manipulates them with electronics.
Though Western styles have influenced them, the Chinese musicians have for
the most part developed in isolation, and their work is flush with the
excitement of creating a new kind of music with no previous national model.
³Chinese people don¹t know the best music system,² said Mr. Yan, who is also
an influential critic. ³There are no rules. No teacher. I can use this, I
can use that ‹ that¹s all interesting. In the West everything was created
already. But here we don¹t know that.²
In Beijing the subculture that surrounds this music is so small that most of
the major participants often turn up at a weekly concert and gathering at
2Kolegas, a bar inside a drive-in movie complex on the east side of town.
One recent night Mr. Yan led an audience-participation performance that
involved strips of plastic sound triggers laid on the floor, to be danced
on, stepped on or smacked.
It could have been a musical game of the kind that flourished in downtown
New York lofts in the 1970s, except for the overhead ambient music with
Chinese instrumentation that played through a sound system. Among those in
the crowd were the members of FM3, who frequently employ Chinese sound
elements, as well as Wu Na, who plays the zitherlike guqin.
Despite the new openness of Chinese society and its arts, the stultifying
influence of the state is still felt in mass entertainment like the candied
pop that fills the airwaves, and even in the often dull music coming out of
the universities.
Kenneth Fields, a professor of electronic music at the Central Conservatory
of Music in Beijing, complained of a lack of creativity and free thought
among students at his and other universities. The most exciting new music in
China, he said, comes from the underground.
³Media is very centrally controlled at the top; at the bottom it seems to be
a mirror of anarchy,² Professor Fields said. ³There¹s no innovation at the
top, but on the bottom there¹s a lot of informal freedoms.²
The experimental and underground rock musicians represent the most creative
contingent of Chinese music, and the scene has had its first bona fide
international hit: FM3¹s Buddha Machine, a device slightly bigger than an
iPod that plays nine electronic drones, has sold nearly 50,000 units around
the world and already spawned remix albums.
Christiaan Virant, an American-born musician who is half of FM3, arrived at
2Kolegas in a spiffy black suit with a while silk scarf and a white Panama
hat. (The other half is a Chinese man, Zhang Jian.) His new prosperity, he
said, is ³all 100 percent thanks to the Buddha Machine.²
But this music has received scant attention at home, from the marketplace
or, for good or ill, from the government. The Buddha Machine is not widely
available in China, because the low price demanded by the domestic market
would make the cost of distributing it prohibitive, Mr. Virant said. (It is,
of course, for sale at Sugar Jar.)
Like most pockets of avant-garde music, the Chinese musicians have no real
commercial prospects. And while relatively few links exist to contemporary
visual arts, that world and its moneyed clientele provide essential
ancillary income.
Artists who might have minimal record sales ‹ meaning hundreds of copies, or
even fewer ‹ can make money doing sound installations at galleries and,
increasingly, through commissions from real estate developers looking to add
a cool factor to their buildings by using sound art commissioned from
underground musicians.
³There are huge amounts of rich people in China who lavish huge amounts of
money on weird stuff,² Mr. Virant said.
The attention did not seem so lavish one recent afternoon at Sugar Jar. Over
a few hours several curious gallerygoers wandered into the shop and looked
around at the CDs for sale, though none bought anything. Mr. Lao said he
operates the store without a proper retail license ‹ that, he said, would
necessitate stocking music for mainstream tastes, an intolerable concession
‹ and until recently slept in the back.
He said he had no illusions that the music he sells will be accepted by a
mass audience. He added that what he hopes for most is support from the
government in the form of public festivals and other profile-raising events.
³Even though this music can¹t be accepted by most of the people,² he said,
³this is the real music of China.²
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/clyne003/art...ol_places.html

[demonrail666]

Well, in my local chinese takeaway last night they were playing some right old bollocks. The prawn balls were ok though, if a little low on actual prawn content. But you know, capitalism and all that...

Enough is enough is enough is enough is enough is enough is enough is enough.

Various Artists - Contemporary Chinese Experimental Music


Contemporary Chinese Experimental Music offers some truly unique sounds,. This Ubuweb compilation features ten avant garde compositions from 1997 to 2007 by Chinese composers. Unfortunately there are no liner notes for either the works or the artist. This is a mixed blessing. I would liked to have known about the composers, their compositions and how these pieces were created. especially Dajuin Yao’s oscillating wonder of an opening track. But it also forces me to open my ears and discover the music cold.

There is some very interesting listening here. I already mentioned Yao’s “Satisfaction of Oscillation” that sweeps you along with its twists and turns. I’m not sure why but I find Xu Chang’s electronic burps between moments of silence quite amusing. My award for funniest track goes Feng Hao’s brief intestinal delight “Pleasure”. I find Ronez’s “Fan #2″ pleasantly disturbing while Hitlike’s radio samplings is a bit too derivative of John Cage’s compositions for radio. The other tracks vary in quality but all will open your mind to new territories for modern music.


All tracks are available in 192kbps MP3.
Download

http://freealbums.blogsome.com/category/avant-garde/

Comprehensive website on Chinese rock etc: http://www.rockinchina.com/rockinchina/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=257&Item id=86

[gohleekwang]

 

http://www.britishcouncil.org/china-...ic-satc_yj.htm

[StevOK]

A few years ago I remember hearing a Chines punk band called Subs on NPR. They were pretty awesome.

[gohleekwang]

Originally Posted by StevOK

A few years ago I remember hearing a Chines punk band called Subs on NPR. They were pretty awesome.

SUBS is really AWESOME, too bad they sing in English (as the band from China).

Yeah Subs are cool. I'm trying to find a cd of a whole crop of 80's Chinese bands that I have somewhere, which I had downloaded off some website about 4 years ago. Some of them aren't all that, but there's some good stuff.

[Antagon]

"The Carsick Cars", an experimental rock band from Beijing. They were the support of Sonic Youth at their gig in Vienna last year.

Their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/carsickcars

[me.]

http://wiki.rockinchina.com/index.ph..._Rock_in_China

Interesting article, bit about Punk,avant garde...

Chaile Podcast #2


It took long enough, didn't it? Sometimes life gets in the way of my other plans. But today I had a spare half an hour, so you get a half hour of music.


Featured on today's podcast:
SUBS - "Red Hair" (unreleased demo)
美好药店 (Glorious Pharmacy) - "苍老虫" (请给我放大一张表妹的照片 [Please Enlarge My Cousin's Photograph])
B6 - "Little Absurdity" (Little 9 EP)
Double Fish - "Machine Man" (Hackers EP2)
U235 - "姥姥" (地下成都 [Underground Chengdu])
Cold Blooded Animal - "窗外 (Outside the Window)" (s/t)
718 - "执一 (One/The Funeral Song of Cosmos)" (非攻 [Nowise Assault])

chaile02.mp328.38 MB
http://www.chaile.org/content/chaile..._2#attachments

U235 and 718 are my favourite of that bunch.

Tinnitus Movement
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-aTUw-...eature=related

[Florya]

I have a couple of the FM3 Buddha Machines.
Waiting for couple of 'proper' ones to arrive from China, complete with Buddhist chant loops.

FM3 are cool.

2. Car-sick Cars–Rock ‘n’ Roll Hero
One of the great benefits of myspace.com, other then the free Macy’s gift card and the photos I can’t believe she would post them online, is the random friend requests from bands. I know you got 10 yesterday and they all sucked. Well I run a record label, which means I got 100 yesterday and they all sucked. Believe it or not, this particular post-punk reissue label is not interested in your heavy-metal emo trip-hop band from Moscow. But I try to take the time to check out the bands because for every clueless act that wants to get signed, there’s actually bands who are familiar with the music Acute has released, maybe they’re even fans.One day I received three friend requests from bands/acts in Beijing, China. A bit of research led me to realize the common thread was an artist named Shou Wang, who seems to be a central figure in what is being called the “No Beijing” scene. The three pages were for himself, a project called White and the Car-sick Cars. The range of influences listed on the White page and his own page are wide-ranging and faultlessly hip, not to mention very much in line with my own. Einsturzende Neubauten, TG, Glenn Branca, Steve Reich, La Monte Young, etc. The music on those two pages are an eclectic selection of noise and minimalist inspired pieces.
I was more excited, however, by Car-sick Cars, his “rock” band. This particular list of influences pretty much sums up a large selection of my record collection. Branca, The Clean, The Fall, Joy Division, Neu!, Sonic Youth, Suicide, Swell Maps, Theoretical Girls etc. The music they make is noisy indie-rock with the minimal, chiming riffing of the early 80s post-punk and NZ bands and big accessible hooks like Daydream-era Sonic Youth. According to his myspace page, Shou Wang has played with Glenn Branca, Elliot Sharp, Neubauten and Car-sick Cars even appropriately opened for Sonic Youth. Hopefully they’ll get a full-length out soon, maybe they’ll even come play in NY. Check out all their songs on the myspace page, they’re great.

 

http://acuterecords.com/blog/?p=33

[blunderbuss]

Right now, I am very excited by Li Jianhong, the guitar player in D!O!D!O!D! He's just released a new one on PSF, and I'm positively drooling in anticipation.

[blunderbuss]

AN ANTHOLOGY OF CHINESE EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC 1992-2008
Li Chin Sung aka Dickson Dee - Torturing Nurse - Wang Fan - Wang Changcun - D!O!D!O!D! / Li Jianhong + Huangjin - Yan Jun - Loga - Pei aka Liu Pei-Wen - Zenlu - Dajuin Yao - Bai Tian - Cheewei - Lim Giang - Ang Song Ming aka Circadian - Chung-Han Yao - Goh Lee Kwang - Wu Quan - Me:Mo - Wang Jong-Kuen - Dajuin Yao - Sun Dawei - Nara - WFDD - Stingrays - Dennis Wong aka Wong Chung-Fai - Fathmount aka Wilson Lee - PNF - Li Wen Tai aka Vince Li - Shenggy - Ronez aka Zhou Pei - Zhou Ri Sheng - Fish - Wuwei + Ulrich Morits - Xper. Xr. & The Orphic Orchestra - Hong Qile - Ying Fan - Dead J aka Shao Yanpeng - Z.S.L.O - Jedung Kying / Edging + Junky - Tats Lau - Li Jianhong - Dino - Eric Lin aka Lin Chi-Wei - Alice Hui-Sheng Chang - Shen Ching / Fuji Wang + Anes - Dancing Stone - Illuminated 6.6.6.- Juno aka Timmy Lok - Simon Ho
SR265

This anthology features 48 artists from within the Chinese area of influence. It is designed as a journey through what is currently happening underground, under extremely diverse forms. It also looks at the recent past and the key role of pioneers like Wang Fan, Dajuin Yao, and also Hong Kong-based Li Chin Sung aka Dickson Dee who, for almost two decades, has been spreading the word about Experimental music in Mainland China. This album was curated by Dickson Dee on Guy Marc Hinant's invitation. It includes an enlightening presentation on the short yet intense advent and history of the Chinese noise explosion, co-written by Zbigniew Karkowski and Yan Jun.

tracklisting
4 x CD

CD1
01. Li Chin Sung aka Dickson Dee (Hong Kong) / Somewhere (1994) / 10'33
02. Zenlu (Shenzhen) / Zen (2007) / 9'19
03. Bai Tian (Chengdu) / Wet (2007) / 4'05
04. Cheewei (Singapore) / Evening has arrived (2006) / 8'02
05. Lim Giang (Taipei) / "???" (2006) / 8'41
06. Ang Song Ming aka Circadian (Singapore) / Book radio mixer (2007) / 3'02
07. Chung-Han Yao (Taipei) / Untitled (2005) / 5'02
08. Goh Lee Kwang (Malaysia) / Frong spraying (2007) / 3'42
09. Wu Quan (Beijing) / Weather forest (2006) / 5'04
10. Me:Mo (Beijing) / pro.a (2007) / 4'30
11. Wang Jong-Kuen (Taipei) / Leaving (2006) / 5'40
12. Dajuin Yao (Zuoying) / Psycho Realm (2006) / 5'29


CD2
01. Sun Dawei (Beijing) / Crawing state (2007) / 4'14
02. Nara (Beijing) / Dream a little dream (2007) / 6'54
03. WFDD / Wang Fan + Dickson Dee (Beijing/Hong Kong) / Sin (2007) / 8'36
04. Stingrays (Singapore) / 061020 (2006) / 5'18
05. Dennis Wong aka Wong Chung-Fai (Hong Kong) / para_dot (2006) / 5'12
06. Fathmount aka Wilson Lee (Hong Kong) / A yoke of oxen (2007) / 4'56
07. PNF (Hong Kong) / Chi (1994) / 3'11
08. Li Wen Tai aka Vince Li (Hong Kong) / Eat (2007) / 4'57
09. Shenggy (Beijing) / Junggy 's decay (2007) / 3'05
10. Ronez aka Zhou Pei (Guilin) / Kikusui Back (2006) / 4'57
11. Zhou Ri Sheng (Shanxi) / Noise God (2006) / 7'22
12. Fish (Taipei) / Rusty Crane Keelong (2007) / 4'46


CD3
01.Torturing Nurse (Shanghai) / Fugitive (2006) / 14'46
02. Wang Fan (Beijing) / Zero (2006) / 6'28
03. Wuwei + Ulrich Morits (Shanghai/Berlin) / Toy Ships (2003) / 2'48
04. Xper. Xr. & The Orphic Orchestra (Hong Kong) Hickory Dickory Dock (1992) / 1'01
05. Hong Qile (Fuzhou) / j gmc (2007) / 8'00
06. Ying Fan (Taipei) / L2255 mix (2007) / 3'58
07. Dead J aka Shao Yanpeng (Beijing) / untitled (2007) / 3'49
08. Z.S.L.O (Taipei) / 422189 (1997) / 3'09
09. Jedung Kying / Edging + Junky (Guangzhou/Shanghai) Dabao (2007) / 3'01
10. Tats Lau (Hong Kong) / Face The Antagonish (1992) / 2'53
11. Li Jianhong (Hangzhou) / Sod (2007) / 5'32
12. Dino (Taipei) / untitled (2005) / 6'45


CD4
01. Wang Changcun (Harbin) Through the tide of faces (2007) / 4'59
02. D!O!D!O!D! / Li Jianhong + Huangjin (Hangzhou) A dark knife (2006) / 5'36
03. Yan Jun (Beijing) / Its more than enough (2006) / 5'35
04. Loga (Fuzhou) / 620 (2007) / 9'22
05. Pei aka Liu Pei-Wen (Taipei) / Bird lady (2007) / 7'43
06. Eric Lin aka Lin Chi-Wei (Taipei) / untitled (2007) / 3'10
07. Alice Hui-Sheng Chang (Taiwan) There she is, standing and walking on her own (2007) / 3'59
08. Ching Shen Ching (Taiwan) / V-zone (1997) / Fuji Wang + Anes: electronics / 7'25
09. Dancing Stone (Hong Kong) / Two (1995) / Nelson Hui: flute + Ling Lee: voice / 2'13
10. Illuminated 6.6.6. (Hong Kong) / Enjoy the silence (1992) / 6'06
11. Juno aka Timmy Lok (Hong Kong) / Possiblilities (1995) / 3'18
12. Simon Ho (Hong Kong) / 5 (2005) / 6'53


http://www.subrosa.net/online/main_d...php?AlbumID=78