Following on from our recent coverage of the Aussie scene, Faster Louder blog has shared a playlist by Sydney producer Flume (Harley Streten) that captures the ‘Australian Sound’. Having toured internationally for the past 6 months, he’s now convinced that Australia’s electronic music scene has something pretty exciting going for it – an identifiable sound that could take over, just like the French did back in 2006 with electro. You can listen to Flume’s playlist here.
We’ve got a bit of a paradoxical situation here in China. It’s impossible to say China’s electronic music scene doesn’t bring something unique to the table. The influence the language has on top-lines and extended lyrical content is clear, with domestic artists often drawing on English and Chinese to maintain appeal amongst local audiences. But then again, though there’s a lot of activity going on (last weekend is one of the busiest we’ve seen in a while, what with club openings and other big nights in Beijing taking place), it’s too early to say that China has a clearly identifiable sound (in the same sense Flume uses the term).
Heat Wolves recently published a guest post by Chris Russell that raises an interesting argument that ties in closely with the idea of developing a musical identity. For better or worse major cities like Shanghai and Beijing are metropolitan hives of foreign activity, permeated by the flows of foreign travellers, expats and waidiren (外地人). Media attention from the major press is focused almost squarely on the big foreign names that come over, but beyond the hype of the moment, the residual mark that’s left on the local scene isn’t clear. How are fleeting international appearances driving things forward?
What we need is more incubation; though we’re ever optimistic, we understand it takes a little time for things to concretise. The willingness of local venues to keep barriers low by experimenting with new line-ups is an important ingredient in this debate, but so too is the need to cater to local demand and not just quirky foreign tastes (which is where KTV failed). Evenly distributed press coverage is an ideal. It’s a chicken/egg scenario; good events get attention, but to establish a good event you need promotion. Promoters need to get more creative and venues need to take more risks. Depending on press coverage alone is old-school; foreigners with ideas need to employ the Chinese youth (interns or hires) and promote to the 95% of the population that will get the bills paid and dancefloors rammed.