Skee Mask and North Americans turn unfinished guitar recordings into Final Circle, while Hong Kong singer-songwriter Serrini releases the digital edition of 小心女星 alongside her Album Con project. The Weeknd's Faye Wong-sampling "Hong Kong" reaches streaming services. Elsewhere, upsammy and Piezo, Dark Paradise Records, Ahn Dayoung, Atrice and Jeff Mills release collaborations, complete records and previously unavailable archive material.
A guide to listening, pure and simple. Beyond time and place, across genres, regardless of length. Open the editors’ listening notebook.
Yoyo Sham has released "古董相機", composed by waa wei, while A_Root have announced Okinawa and Tokyo dates and Hedigan's are planning a year-end show in Enoshima. Seimei and Carpainter mark twenty years since discovering dance music with a joint release, and Fontaines D.C.'s fifth album is out. Several touring musicians have also spoken out following Geordie Greep's response to sexual misconduct allegations.
Quadeca has long been one of the most compelling musicians working today. He started out as a YouTube rapper, then kept broadening his musical palate. He has released several highly ambitious, concept-driven records with cinematic storytelling. life 1 is the definitive entry point into Quadeca's catalogue. Having fully mastered electronic production, he takes an art-pop direction on life 1, with more tenderness and more humour. Quadeca is still eccentric, but now he's endearing too.
FORD TRIO, a three-piece band from Thailand, define their sound as "Neo Thai Funk," exploring endless sonic possibilities through vibrant, energetic funk grooves. From blues, funk, and psychedelia to international collaborations and the shared rituals of live performance, they continuously reinvent themselves through their music and on stage.Journeying together since their university days, this close group of music-loving friends has stayed true to their roots, carrying their creations to audiences near and far. Performing in Hong Kong for the very first time, they invite everyone to let loose and share in the pure joy and freedom of the moment—just like old friends.
Yoyo Sham has released "古董相機", composed by waa wei, while A_Root have announced Okinawa and Tokyo dates and Hedigan's are planning a year-end show in Enoshima. Seimei and Carpainter mark twenty years since discovering dance music with a joint release, and Fontaines D.C.'s fifth album is out. Several touring musicians have also spoken out following Geordie Greep's response to sexual misconduct allegations.
I suddenly realised that words are, in fact, merely an analysis of my own state of being. In the world of language, I dissect myself just as one would dissect a corpse; everything I have experienced, felt and depicted is, in fact, a record of my present self, achieved through the portrayal of others. It was also at a recent BlindCat gig that I began to realise that music and live performances are the connecting points between my various present moments; these moments are not disjointed, but are linked together in stages. I have often felt the urge to write more about the BlindCat independent music gigs I’ve been attending, but I am not the sort of person who can string music together with regular, objective prose. Rather than providing an introduction or a summary for each live performance, it seems I can only express the feelings I’ve experienced and internalised at the conclusion of a particular phase of my own journey. For instance, after many past gigs had ended, I’ve felt somewhat at a loss as to how to continue writing, even suffering from a sort of ‘writer’s block’ at times, until on those rare occasions when I’ve occasionally felt as though I’d finally found the way home whilst clutching a ‘toy’ I’d unearthed—yet when I actually put pen to paper, I’ve had no idea where to begin. For a while, I wanted to offer a very positive summary of this phase; both myself and the world around me have been submerged for far too long—would a joyful celebration of emotions be all we need? The answer is clearly no.
“Mountain after mountain, and in another mountain there is one group of people, then another. They might all live in completely different ways.” A stream of nimble piano notes moves forward, accompanied by a soft female voice repeating the same notes, as if calling out across a valley and carrying a quiet prayer into the distance. Synthesizer tones linger and drift in the background. This is “Calling,” the opening track of Xiaofan Sun’s album *Not Grand Love*. “I imagined the quiet, winding mountain roads of southwestern China, and the forests around them,” Xiaofan says. She spent nearly five years living in Sichuan. Those mountains stretching one after another, and the thought of different groups of people living among them, were also part of how she first imagined anthropology, the subject she would later study. Traces of those years have since seeped into her work.
Hayley Williams、keshi 與 Slowdive 將於 12 月登上 Clockenflap；翌年 1 月的 DaguerreoPhonic'27 則公布包括 Parannoul、my dead girlfriend 與 Lucid Express 在內的十組陣容。東京方面，toe 確認參演 mouse on the keys 二十周年公演；REJAY、claire rousay 與 Marina Herlop 各有新作正式推出。
A guide to listening, pure and simple. Beyond time and place, across genres, regardless of length. Open the editors’ listening notebook.
A few months ago, invited by the German Consulate General in Hong Kong, southern German indie musician Levin goes lightly made his debut trip to Asia, performing two live shows at the Hong Kong Fringe Club and Eaton HK.For Hong Kong music fans, it became a romantic trans-Eurasian dialogue on queer identity, underground music, and German-language poetry.
Entering the 2010s, Japanese shoegaze reached another wave of development built upon the foundation accumulated over the previous two decades. At the same time, online platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Bandcamp gradually became essential media for musicians to publish works, find listeners, and connect with one another. Musicians who were originally scattered across different regions began to connect through the internet, allowing the Japanese shoegaze scene to display a far more diverse landscape than ever before.
This edition looks ahead to Vulgar Savior's Halloween show in Hong Kong and back at Janice Laujan's recently concluded Memory & Punishment. We also cover PER SE ticket sales, Elephant Gym's Busan plans and releases from Kabanagu, Ryley Walker and Klein, bringing together seven stories across live music, independent bands and experimental sound.
Brockhampton’s ethereal vocalist Bearface, after years of silence, has re-emerged under a new identity: Ciarán. Paying homage to his Northern Irish roots, he has announced his debut album Róisín, set for release on November 6, and has already unveiled the lead single “K-Bar.”
A guide to listening, pure and simple. Beyond time and place, across genres, regardless of length. Open the editors’ listening notebook.
