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- [00:13]
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Hello, my name's Jake and I write a free newsletter about music from China called Concrete Avalanche. Over the next hour or so I'm going to be playing some of my favorite music to have come out of China in the first half of this year, beginning with this piece from Poo Poo Platter. This is the title track from the EP Undercurrent.
- [00:55]
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Sam. It.
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I can feel the pain. Away I hope you can get better. I can feel the pain in your heart There has nothing gone away. Hope you can get better. I can feel the pain in your heart the head's not gone away But I really hope you can get better. I can feel the pain in your heart that has not got away but may if you can get better.
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Sa. Teaching war My. Shi.
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Sa.
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Sleeping.
- [16:12]
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That was Legort Quartet with a song from their new album Through Voodoo Light to the Shore of Tomorrow. Lego Quartet featured Yang Hai Song and Shi Shudong of Chinese Post Punk pioneers PK14 alongside Sleeping Dogs drummer Li Zhichao and Ji Yi Nan of Chengdu post punk's High Person. The album was mostly recorded over the course of a few days that the band spent hold up in a house, small house up a mountain in Sichuan. Before that we had brilliant Sinjin band of Three Mice, whose debut full length album. Whereas My Mice is absolutely full of gems like that one that switch between angsty emo and sweetly slam indie rock melodies, It's a fantastic record and it's also pay what you want on Bandcamp, so you should definitely go and pick that up if you haven't already. Something a little different up next we're going to hear a song from Shinjamborn Kazakh multi instrumentalist Mara, whose latest album all the Joys, all the Pains features interpretations of classic Kazakh lullabies, traditional poems, laments for lost loved ones, 1980s radio hits before that. This is an excerpt from a piece by Gogo AKA Shangjie and Don Boyi, two stoics of the Chinese avant garde music scene. The pair, with Sheng on electric cello and Dung providing percussion, recorded two improvised takes based on the same structure and framework, but then couldn't decide which one they liked best, so simply released both. The result is this album which is called he or H e h. I'm not really sure how they're pronouncing it, but anyway, this is a bit of track B1 it.
- [19:27]
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Sa. It. Malam. Sam. Sa. Sam. It's.
- [28:20]
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That was Jang Xingchan Wuhan based singer songwriter who really blew up with a DIY album not no which merged rock, pop and more and tops a lot of the Best of the year lists in 2024. The track there was from her follow up full length record Catch My Boomerang and that track was called the well Is Dry Up. Next we're going to start in ambient territory with a track from Drawling, a figure who has played a major role in shaping Chengdu and China's musical landscape over the past two decades. Partly inspired by a UFO encounter she had as a child in Sutran, she released the EP Uncharted 2 at the end of March. The track you can hear coming in in the background right now is taken from the record and it's called Gaia's Breath. After this we'll hear a song from Cassette Player Romance before going somewhere else.
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Entire. Ram. Sam it's sam. Sa. Sa. Sa.
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Check.
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Check it down.
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Later. Sh.
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Alternative rap duo Yuan and Gui Nan, who caused a lot of buzz back in March with their album the Vortex Reconstruction Experiment, which blends youthful disenchantment and a swirl of samples featuring everyone from Mylena Shaw to Sam Wilkes. Before that we heard the one that sounds like Sweet Trip from Cassette Player Romance, who sound maybe a little different to the track that came after it, but who actually has strong links to the alternative alternative Chinese hip hop scene as well, producing beats under his alias Soul Looper. He's also a key figure in China's emo revival, playing in the bands Zhejiang 250 and the beneficial Society. Next up is another impressive solo act. Dead Trees is a one man black metal act from Lanzhou who is well worth paying attention to. His new album, which works in elements of free jazz alongside some punchy percussion, is called New World and this song is Extinguished City.
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Sam. Sa. Sa. Sat.
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Around about this time last year I was closing out a mid-2025 roundup for ChinaTalk with a track from Gweizhoul hyperpop producer known as DJ Girl. The artist behind that Persona put out a new album earlier this year, but it's something quite different. As Lear, he's picked up the mic and delivered an intimately confessional album discussing his upbringing, heartbreak and his sexuality, all in a heavy Guizhou accent that makes me think of the film Kylie Blues. Just before I go thank you to chinatalk for help having me back and thank you for listening. You can find lots more interesting music from China on Concrete Avalanche and if you've enjoyed any of the tracks that you've heard here, please follow the links to hear more and support the artists by buying their music. If you're able to playing us out. This is Lier with Let me fly.
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Like.
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Dance.
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Okay,
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Sa. Sam.