MP3 Monday: Shanshui 8-Bit'ers

1101110100011 - By Morgan Short, Sep 21, 09

MP3 Monday is a weekly SmartShanghai column, serving up mp3s from bands living and making music in China (or coming to China, or thinking about coming to China, or whatever). Right click on the links and choose "Save Link As..." to download 'em. Click play to rock 'em.

This weeks MP3s are from two releases from Beijing-based Shanshui Records. Shanshui (and Kill Club) is run by Beijing-based DJ Sulumi, who is one of the more well-known DJs in China, famous for being a total spazz when playing live and his crunched-out 8-bit Game Boy compositions. These two artists today have stuff on that label.

One of the featured artists, Baifan, just played at Not Me on Saturday, and so I was able to pick up his new CD. The other guy, Covox, is a Swedish composer who played Shanghai in 2007, and has his record distributed in China by Shanshui Records. Covox is also the guy whose drumbeats were lifted by super famous band Crystal Castles. They were used on a few unreleased songs and on the track "Love and Caring" from their Alice Pratice EP without him getting credited. For more on that, check out GameBoyGenius, who actually did some spectral analysis-type thing to prove it. It's pretty funny. The "plagiarism" controversy was picked up by larger music media (i.e. Pitchfork) and blown up into a pretty big deal. The end result was Covox getting a lot more exposure, which is good because this record Delete the Elite is a pretty amazing thing.

Anyways, both artists work loosely in 8-bit music, which to take a few steps back, is a reference to the "third generation" of 8-bit video game consoles in the mid '80s: (Classic) Nintendo, Game Boy, Sega Genesis, and the Atari 7800, among others. 8-bit music comes from the specific video game music and sound effects of these consoles, and re-invents and re-composes all those catchy arpeggios and hyper-melodic phrases for a modern club crowd. It comes across as an extremely happy, extremely catchy nostalgic reference to all those video games you grew up with.

Recent strains in the genre have seen some 8-bit and chiptune artists bringing in a more straight ahead electro sound, which Baifan seems to be doing more, as opposed to Sulumi in his heyday, which is straight-up Game Boy freak out music. From what I could see, on Saturday, Baifan was using midi controllers, Abelton Live and one of those Korg Electribe MX sequencer/synths, so if you want to get technical, it's "fakebit" -- 8-bit music created using emulators. Musically, while the hooks were coming from Game Boy riffs, the meat of the songs were definitely more electro and therefore more dance club friendly.

These MP3s, though, are from Baifan's CD Natural High released on Shanshui/ Kill Club and composed using Game Boy, Little Sound DJ (a Game Boy music editor), Protools, and a T.C. Electronic Finalizer. Neat-o.

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And here's an MP3 from Covox, from the astounding Delete the Elite album:

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Both of these records and loads more are available from Shanshui Records, so you should head off there and have a look at their wares. The man himself, Sulumi, returns to Shanghai on October 9 at The Shelter, joined by Zig Zag, Liman, and R3.

If you like this stuff don't miss that one.

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ty_canadian

Sep 21, 09

this is fantastic.

woofdine

Sep 23, 09

Absolutely brilliant, I've been wanting somewhere to see this stuff for a long time. Now all I have to is convince my friends that its actually cool...

morgan

Sep 24, 09

These ones are only teaser tracks. Sorry about that. I have both the discs on my desk, but couldn't figure out how to steal the songs. Thwarted by people who have a more advance knowledge of computer stuff than me.

If you're adverse to ordering these online, The Shelter has a few releases from Shanshui records available for purchase. Ask at the bar about their shop.