China's Best Music of 2024
Afrobeat Beijing funk and Buddhist electronic
To close out the year, we got Jake Newby, the author the China music substack Concrete Avalanche, to put together a radio hour introducing China’s best music from the past year. His set includes everything from Afrobeat-influenced Beijing funk to an electronic track crafted in a Tibetan monastery featuring Buddhist chanting.
What you should really do is listen to the mix on ChinaTalk’s podcast feed in your favorite podcast app! Here are the links for Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and every other podcast catcher.
1. Golden Seeds 黄金种子 by Sleeping Dogs
Jake Newby: This first song is called ‘Golden Seeds,’ and it’s by a band called Sleeping Dogs. They’re a Beijing bass group that put out a new four-track EP in November called Cliché, which was their first proper release since their debut album two years ago. But this track is actually from a compilation of songs from all across Asia that the Guruguru Brain label put together for their 10th anniversary. Gilles Peterson also played this track on his BBC Radio 6 music show.
2. Never Broken, Never Healed by Seon Ga 信鴿
Jake Newby: Speaking of compilations, this second track is from one of my favorite compilations of 2024. It's an ambient album put out by Beijing’s Seippelabel. The label is run by Brad Seippel, and it had a comeback in 2024 after a hiatus of about six years. They made up for lost time by releasing a bunch of excellent and interesting experimental electronic records.
‘Never Broken, Never Healed’ is the opening track of an especially beautiful ambient compilation. This song is by Seon Ga 信鴿, a duo comprised of Brad himself and the Guangzhou-based producer Yu Hein.
3. Aroma Compound by ayrtbh
Jake Newby: Our next song is from ayrtbh, also known as Wang Changcun 王长存. He’s a programmer and experimental musician based in Shanghai, and he’s been releasing interesting avant-garde computer music for around two decades now. ‘Aroma Compound’ is a track from his latest album, Bust Fossil, which is one of his most accessible works to date.
4. Stage Riot 舞台 by Carsick Cars
Jake Newby: Up next is another artist who's been around for a while. There was a time in 2007-2008 when Carsick Cars was the Chinese band known by overseas audiences. In 2007, they were planning to support Sonic Youth in China, but authorities stopped them from doing so at the last minute.
In 2009, they were featured in The New York Times and The Guardian. I wont recite the group's entire history right here, but it’s safe to say there have been a few ups and downs since then. Earlier this summer, the band made a comeback with the original lineup getting back together and recording a new album called Aha.
The first song released for that record is a beautiful track called ‘Farewell (告别)’ It’s a wistful reflection on the band’s youth and comes with a refrain of, “而你们还在吗？(Are you still there?)”
It almost felt like an end-of-a-career track. Fortunately, it was swiftly followed with a full new album. ‘Farewell’ is also definitely worth a listen — it’s in my end-of-year mix on Concrete Avalanche, but for today I selected a different song called ‘Stage Riot.’ It’s one of the livelier tracks from the album.
5. Hereditary Nightmare 遗传噩梦 by The Swan and Blossoms 天鹅与花朵
Jake Newby: “The Swan and Blossoms” sounds a bit like the name of an English country pub, but it’s actually a band from Chengdu. They put out their first album in five years (their second ever) at the end of November. A number of people — including the producer of the record, an established Chengdu indie rock musician in his own right called Uncle Hu (Hu Xike) — say that this is a record that requires a bit of time to get into. I feel like I’m still digesting it. But I wanted to include it here because it just feels so different. It’s an indication of how diverse music in China can be, which doesn't always come across in English language coverage of the Chinese music scene. This album was mixed by Mark Nevers, who's worked with the likes of Lambchop and Andrew Bird.
The record (entitled World Below the Moon 月下世界) has a lot going on. It makes use of interesting instrumentation and vocal flourishes, such as Chinese opera-style singing on one track. It moves between dark folk, quirky indie, and a range of other genres. It’s a fascinating listen.
6. Kagi 鍵 by Voision Xi
Jake Newby: Our next track is from an artist called Voision Xi, who put out her second solo full-length album just a few weeks ago, called Queen and Elf. She's been a key figure on the Shanghai jazz scene for years.
She used to work kind of behind the scenes at JZ Club — which is something of an institution in Shanghai — and then later she took to the stage herself. She's also a really skilled electronic music producer, and her interest in different forms of music is evident on this album. Although it's kind of rooted in jazz, she kind of also weaves in elements of instrumental hip hop, ambient, spoken word, and lots more. I’ve selected a track called Kagi 鍵 from that record.
7. 物件 (Object) by Mdprl & Git Bu$y Trio
Jake Newby: Mdprl & Git Bu$y Trio are from Guangdong, and they’re signed to the Space Fruity label. Their debut LP (called BA*) came out in August. It’s a fun, laid back, jazzy hip hop record with strong summery vibes.
8. Night Patrol by Fazi 法兹
Jake Newby: These next two tracks are pretty different. First, we have a band called Fazi 法兹, a post-punk band out of Xi’An. They’ve had a really interesting year — they went to South by Southwest in the spring, and were meant to go on a tour of North America after that, but only ended up playing a handful of the planned dates. They nevertheless put out a documentary about their time in the U.S. with clips where they were getting really up in the faces of the crowd in Texas and the smaller venues they played. At the end of the documentary, the band said they wished they could do that more in China, since they’ve been playling mostly bigger venues there since they were featured on the TV show The Big Band.
But then they booked a tour of smaller gig venues across China, which felt a bit contrived but actually did work. It seems to have given them a renewed kind of energy, and in November they put out an album where they took a bunch of their old songs and re-recorded them. This wasn't just a Taylor's Version-style release, they really did reinvent a lot of the tracks. The album is called Oriental 101 w Future Prairie, and the track I selected is called ‘Night Patrol.’
9. Mantra Of Buddha Akshobhya 不动佛心咒 by Howie Lee
Jake Newby: Howie Lee is one of the most interesting artists operating in China. It’s no surprise that his latest album was given a lot of attention by Jamz Supernova and Tom Ravenscroft on the BBC. The LP was recorded over two weeks at the Drolma Wesel-Ling Monastery in the mountains of northeastern Tibet. He combines Tibetan Buddhist singing with what the official introduction on Bandcamp called, “mutating bass/footwork science, glitched-out hyper-rhythms and sampled Chinese-Tibetan instrumentation.” I’m pretty sure it's unlike anything else you’ve heard all year.
10. Ghostbomb by Ghostmass 大鬼众
Jake Newby: One more track for you. But first, thank you for listening! Please support the artists if you can — all of this music is available on Bandcamp.
Our final track is a brutal one from a group called Ghost Mass. They’re a noise supergroup, uh, comprised of two members of Carsick Cars — Li Weisi 李维思 and Li Qing 李青, although they sound very different here — as well as the Chinese noise pioneer Yan Jun 颜峻. Together, they make these visceral, fascinating sounds. There’s not really a good way to describe it, but this is a track called Ghostbomb and you might want to adjust your volume accordingly.
For more Concrete Avalanche/ChinaTalk collabs, check out our Chinese shoegaze playlist, his best of 2023 playlist, H1 2024 roundup back in June. And subscribe to Jake’s excellent substack!
Here's a Spotify playlist! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5f40bWkbXcpPMjp5kHPwYA?si=082d80dade544d57
Excellent!