Gooooose & DJ Scotch Egg – JAC
Electronic label SVBKVLT unleash their latest dizzyingly good release – JAC – a collaboration between Shanghai’s Gooooose and Berlin-based DJ Scotch Egg (who met at the Nyege Nyege Festival in Uganda a year prior). A rollercoaster ride of feverish breakcore, footwork, and atmospheric jungle ambience, it displays the Shanghai virtuoso’s rigorous percussion and impeccable sound design. An invigorating contraption of grandiose world-building and razor-sharp details, it manages to be both playful and stirring, guiding listeners to new sonic frontiers. Besides featuring Swordman Kitala on guest vocals, the release also contains remixes from Slikback, Seven Orbits & TSVI.
The Sino Hearts – Mandarin A Go-Go
A wide-eyed spirited burst of punk, power pop, neo mod and garage rock – Beijing’s The Sino Heart, led by globe-trotting guitarist and singer Zhong, keeps thing riotous and righteously old school on their delightful sophomore release Mandarin A Go-Go – even going as far as to mix and master the ten-track release on a vintage analogue tape machine in Austria. That attention to detail and aim to capture the chaotic, rustic charm of 70s rock and roll is in full force here, as the band charges through one tightly wound hook after another, offering a sugar rush of unadulterated rock and roll sincerity that never feels cheap or unearned, leaping out of the stereo into your ears.
Supermarket 超级市场 – 9
Long-standing Beijing electronica outfit Supermarket, one of Modern Sky’s first signed acts, return with their ninth album, aptly named 9, and it finds the group digging into their deep bag of tricks, jumping back and forth between sprawling ambient filled instrument-lavished soundscapes and headier condescend acid techno jams. Deep rhythms, trip hop grooves, glitched-filled detours and other experimental flourishes – it’s an eclectic collection of tracks that choose atmosphere over substance, and one that feels refreshingly old school in its configuration.
Broken Thoughts – Hearing Ghosts
Producer and film composer Keju Luo, performing under the name Broken Thoughts, continues to explore the boundless electroacoustic possibilities on his latest – Hearing Ghosts – out on Merrie Records. The ghosts here refer to the ‘sampled public domain recordings of works by a wide range of composers from Marais to Liszt to Debussy’ whose works are contorted and blurred into sonic residue. And yet, their orchestral heft and melodic pull endure, combined with the cinematic electronic rhythms and evocative layering of its new creator, give way to an album rife with transfixing and often haunting ambience.
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