chaile 拆了 - Downloads

Hey!!! Let's Break - NetWav Records Back Online

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 05:25:28 -0500

After a short hiatus due to legal/hosting issues, Double Fish's Netwav Records, the netlabel counterpart to Reconfiguration Records, has its files back online. Each of the releases deserve a full review, but I suggest starting with Hey!!! Let's Break section one, a compilation of breakcore from around the world. China is represented by iLoop, Double Fish himself, and Panda Twin, who contribute an awesome track called "Jazz Princess and Spirit." Also on the release is Jason Forrest, aka "Donna Summer," and Municiple.

If that's not enough free music for you, check out Beats Gratis, Municiple's fantastic blog about netlabels from around the world. There's enough great free music there to last quite a while.

Update: Oh, and because I'm obsessive-compulsive about my music metadata, I've entered all the track info on MusicBrainz for this album. You can grab one of their tools to set the metadata for you, which I recommend if you're anal or if you're using Last.fm/Audioscrobbler.

Notes from around the web

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 22:12:51 -0500

Global Noise Online is an excellent blog about sound art and new media art, "with an emphasis on China and other developing areas in the world." They have regularly covered noise and electronic music from China, including translations of blog posts by artists, reviews, and news. If you have the slightest interest in what's going on in those scenes, consider GNO essential. (Until recently their site was at globalnoiseonline.wordpress.com, but they've since moved to Chinese New Ear).

Azchael from Rock in China has posted several times on the forums here, and I don't hesitate to label his site essential, as well. Covering all aspects of rock (loosely defined here to include electronic music as well), with a special emphasis on metal. And while I've been remiss in linking to his site before, I am forever in his debt for his post about B6's new EP, My Post-Rock Yard (with a link to B6's original post on his blog). The download link is bad at B6's place, but Azchael rehosted the four MP3s.

Mothers Against Noise vol. 1 is a free online compilation created as a response to the Mothers Against Noise "anti-noise" organization (which has since been outed as a marketing gimmick. Never mind the gimmick, just grab the free comp, which features Crno Klank (a Belgian collective featuring cdrk) and B6, who submitted a three minute wall of noise, "Chill Out Muzik [POP mix]", under the name Bizix.

Prefuse 73 with Ghostface and El-P

Tue, 22 Mar 2005 10:44:26 -0500

Look, it says at the top that this is about Beijing music. Or at least music in China. But some things are too cool to pass up, this being one of them. Prefuse 73's new track, "Hideyaface," features Ghostface and El-p:

With his track "Hideyaface" already in rotation on New York's Hot 97, the biggest hip-hop station in the country, it looks as though Prefuse 73's Scott Herren is poised to infiltrate mainstream hip-hop, sneaking in shielded by the considerable brawn of Ghostface. That's a thrill, because Herren's glitchy, IDM-ish, sometimes just this side of incomprehensibly abstract beats are like nothing else out there.

I agree. To this day, Vocal Studies + Up-rock Narratives is one of my most listened to albums, and his work as Savath + Savalas is excellent, too. Now Herren's getting recognition, and his new album has collaborations with Books, Beans, and other greats. So what are you waiting for? Yeah, you've got to watch a little commercial or click through some ad about how great a credit card is, but this MP3 is worth it.

Waiguo Yinyue Monday: Bedroom Beats

Mon, 14 Mar 2005 09:25:08 -0500

This past Saturday I ventured out to the New Get Lucky to see Rebuilding the Rights of Statues. I try not to miss their shows; the band is consistenly good, and they seem to draw a slightly larger crowd each time. This show was a bit different from the norm. Instead of being placed with Ourself Beside Me or own of Beijing's punk bands, they shared the billing with Convenience Store, Midnight Flight, and a duo I had never heard before, 牛奶和咖啡 (Milk & Coffee).

A young woman sang pop music KTV-style, while a dour Robert Smith lookalike provided beats and keyboard lines. They only played three songs, and while the music didn't affect me greatly, I wanted to run up and tell the boy that he didn't need to be so sad. "Other people have been through this," I'd say, "take this Her Space Holiday CD."

One of the sidelines to the ascendancy of PC culture and the growth of indie rock and punk to emo and beyond is the proliferation of bedroom producers. Instead of weeping over their acoustic guitars and four tracks, they weep over their Powerbooks and Pro Tools instances. And just like the lo-fi rockers that came before, and despite all of the easy jokes, many of these solitary producer/musicians have made some incredible music.

And despite the loner pedigree, what many of them have made is pop music, in the most expansive meaning of the word. Marc Bianchi is one of the prime examples. Under the name Her Space Holiday he's produced some of the most accessibly melancholy music of the last few years. The production is layered with strings, synths, and electric guitars, while Bianchi's limited, yet appropriate voice tells stories of heartache and longing.

And few artists have had the success of Jimmy Tamborello, a.k.a. DNTEL, much less in the crossroads of American indie rock and electronica. But after the release of Life Is Full of Possibilities, featuring the absolutely incredible "The Dream of Evan and Chan." Tamborello also collaborated with Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard in The Postal Service, which is perhaps the most succesfully nerdy album ever in the history of nerds and music.

When I saw Milk & Coffee, I wanted to tell the keyboardist that there was more beyond what he'd heard; I wanted to tell him that there was something beyond pop music ready for him. But as I this this, I wonder how much is musical goodwill, and how much is a form of imperialism? What do I know of these kids or their fans? Perhaps they genuinely like what I deride as KTV pop. And after all, this guy has some talent, and is actually playing music while I just drink beer and write about it.

Her Space Holiday have a few albums out. The last was The Young Machines, but my favorite was Manic Expressive.
You can download mp3s from Her Space Holiday at the offical site (flash + music).
DNTEL is involved in many projects. DNTEL mp3s are avialable at Epitonic, as are songs from another project, Figurine, and Sub Pop Records has a few downloads for The Postal Service.

CDRK/C-drík

Thu, 10 Mar 2005 22:02:48 -0500

Thanks to a helpful pointer from FM3, my Google-fu has improved, and I can tell you a bit more about the tonight's headlining artist:

CDRK has many recordings.
CDRK has one mp3/ogg for download from an upcoming album.
CDRK has a livejournal.

Massive MP3 torrent from SXSW

Tue, 08 Mar 2005 23:25:26 -0500

Every year in Austin, Texas, an enormous number of bands arrive for five days of music for the South By Southwest festival. We're in Beijing, so we'll never know the glory of SXSW, right? Perhaps, but we can get close. This year SXSW has provided a bittorrent of 750 high quality mp3s of the bands that will play next week.

Yeah, 750 songs. 2.6 freaking gigabytes.

I'm glad I have DSL.