Chinese Electronica Struggles to Travel

Michael Ohlsson, leader of Shanghai's own Antidote electronic music crew, describes Chinese electronica's struggles to travel abroad

0 Flares 0 Flares ×

Today, a guest post from Radar chum Michael Ohlsson.  Michael is a 7 year veteran of the Shanghai/ Chinese music scene.  He leads the Antidote crew, an electronic touring and booking collective, and has recently added Shanghai’s Dada Bar to his arsenal.


While Beijing’s indie rock scene has been acquiring (perhaps a bit too much) hype over the past couple years, the Chinese electronic music scene lags behind.   When I first arrived in China in the early half of last decade, I watched and listened to the independent music talents here and thought for sure it would be the other way around.

Rock bands face a lot more obstacles than DJs and solo music producers.  Bands here have language barriers with the lyrics, a lack of history and context with rock music and the culture surrounding it, a lack of rehearsal spaces or the funds to buy gear, and general discouragement from government, media, and society — and therefore even more of a challenge to find other Chinese kids crazy enough to form bands with.

DJs and electronic producers don’t have to worry about this — essentially any kid with a computer can start making non-lyrical electronic music, and there’s no shortage of well-equipped nightclubs across the country looking for DJs.  The kids are not lacking exposure — every weekend since the mid 2000’s the major cities in China have had international super star DJs, as well as more cutting-edge electronic acts, come through and play for audiences larger than any rock bands local or foreign.  TV adverts routinely incorporate fashionable clips of DJs in action.  Free music downloads are all over the internet in China.

So where are the home-grown rising star DJs who tour China, and then abroad? Where are the bedroom producers ready to release records internationally? So far there’s only been a few rare attempts.

Last month I traveled with a group of Chinese electronic producers booked to play 2 festivals in Europe. Shanghai synth-pop act IGO played at Berlin’s Worldtronics festival, alongside acts from around Asia and South America. Shanghai’s techno producer B6 and Beijing’s 8-bit/digital hardcore producers Sulumi and iLoop played Belgium’s multi-city China Express festival, alongside a long list of Chinese experimental music acts. There was clearly more buzz about the experimental acts — media and audiences seem to get their panties wet about experimental music coming out of China. Experimental acts have toured internationally far more than Chinese rock bands or DJs or even pop stars.

There’s still years to go before music acts from China can engage overseas, beyond arty-farty government-funded gallery gigs and “Oriental” showcases.

The only non-experimental act who engaged and continued on was B6, who played 6 dates including a set at the legendary Tresor techno club in Berlin. Sulumi and iLoop quietly packed up their laptops and went home. IGO returned home disbanded.

Meetings with venues, promoters, record labels and media in Europe led me to believe there’s a genuine growing interest in finding Chinese electronic music talents, and bringing them out for tours and record releases. But returning home and looking through my stacks of demos and douban artist pages (Chinese myspace equivalent) — who’s ready for it? Where are the cool kids? I’m not hearing anything promising, yet, and I’m getting impatient.

On a positive note, perhaps the news of tours like these, young Chinese producers will see the potential and step up.

– by Michael Ohlsson [Antidote]

0 Flares Twitter 0 Facebook 0 LinkedIn 0 Google+ 0 0 Flares ×