Quantcast
 Princess Stomper

5 bands from China you need to hear

Decrease Font Size Increase Font Size Text Size Print This Page

Snapline

By Princess Stomper

Beijing is to the world in 2012 what Brooklyn was in 2010 or Manchester was in 1989: where it’s fooking at, man. Only, people have better haircuts (and, in Brooklyn’s case, fewer beards). This isn’t entirely out of the blue – we’ve mentioned Guai Li and 8 Eye Spy and Ourself Beside Me before, and if you haven’t taken time to click on those links, we’ll come over to your house and beat up your cat.

If you did enjoy those acts – that raw, punky energy and sheer incendiary vitality – then here are a few more that you’ll love. I found them via Tenzenmen, whose Discover China compilation is a pretty good taster of this genuinely exciting hub of great music.

1. P.K.14

The obvious starting point is post-punk rock, but there’s a mournful violin in there that gives it quite an unexpected edge. It’s the only band that makes me think simultaneously of Sonic Youth and Wire. They’re taking overdone, tired references and putting them together in ways I haven’t quite heard before, and for that I give them kudos. In common with their Tenzenmen labelmates, P.K.14 aren’t immediately different but are just quirky enough to be fascinating. They’re not a hurricane like (latter-day) Sufjan Stevens, but they’re definitely a breath of fresh air.

2. Snapline

Spawned as a side-project of Carsick Cars, Snapline are one of China’s fastest-rising bands. Their first album was recorded in just two days with producer Martin Atkins, who also put together a split 7″ with Pigface a few years ago. They have a sort of motorik, jittery sound reminiscent of Factory Floor and Joy Division. [Nice. Incidentally, back in the day, we used to call this music ‘Suicide’ – Ed]

3. Carsick Cars

They have that sort of droning, Velvet Underground-y sound that soon saw them picked up to tour with Sonic Youth, but they also cite Steve Reich and and Glenn Branca as influences. Shou Wang is a founding member of White, whose first CD was produced by Blixa Bargeld. Qi Ling and Li Weisi have both performed with Martin Atkins‘ “supergroup” Pigface. [Fucking nice – Ed]

(continues overleaf)

Pages: 1 2

3 Responses to 5 bands from China you need to hear

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.