Our live music picks for this weekend, picked by Will of LiveMusicChina.com
Steering more into the anthemic indie sound - with shades of jagged B-52-esque post-punk and what I can only describe as gothic chamber pop - Jump Goat, from Xi’an, return to Shanghai on their latest tour. With female and male vocals passing duties back and forth like a game of hot potato, and a cacophony of synths, chords, and effects engulfing listeners, it can often feel like it’s pulled in too many directions - a carnival ride overwhelming the senses. But rarely does it lose its grip or melodic charm - its idiosyncrasies cascading into something evocative, arcane, and poetic. Catch them at Cave Art Venue this Wednesday.
American Midwest emo and Japanese indie rock make fine bedfellows in the Tokyo-based band as a sketch pad - led by Andy Schueneman (of Worst Party Ever) alongside members of prominent Japanese underground acts like sans visage, Kudaranailnichi, and Anorak!. Catchy melodies, intricate and sometimes cutting guitar work - it’s emo music at its best - oscillating between raw, nostalgic emotional crescendos and clean, gentle indie-pop sensibilities. This is a bit of a Trojan Horse for bringing back Japanese bands - so knock on wood - should make for a combustible and chaotically gnarly show.
A decadent blackened metal feast to gouge on tonight at Cave Art Venue as some of the gnarliest black, death, and war metal acts join forces. Featured bands include visiting Thailand bands - legendary black metal band Surrender of Divinity who have been around for 30 years - and the more recent hellraisers Amorphouse Dominio. Representing China are Nanchang’s Muqali - who bridge sweeping Mongolian ethnic music with unyielding black metal - essentially trading in Viking history for tales of Mongol conquest. Also on hand, Wuhan bestial metal act Todesfuge, pagan black metal act Aldeke, and the mysterious and awesomely named GOATAPOTHEOSIS. Righteous.
Microwaves - the largest experimental music showcase is as hot as they come - 'bringing signals of different energies into violent collision within a confined space. Held at Cedar Land - who just officially kicked off their reign of beautiful chaos and sublime sounds over at C-Park it’s an exciting spread featuring GORZ - the abrasive cutecore harsh noise duo of Argentine sound artist Lara Alarcon and Swiss musician Cyrill Ferrari. Joining them will be Marseille-born, South Korean-based sound artist Rémi Klemensiewicz, who employs a range of both analog and digital tools to generate ambiguous textures. Yokohama-based musician DNS merges ambient, industrial, and drone, with the synthesizer as his primary instrument. Rounding out the troupe are sound and visual artists EAU and harsh noise pioneer Torturing Noise.
Traversing across prog rock, hard rock, neo folk, blues, and more, Changsha’s Shuixianyou is the latest band to blur the lines artistically as they compose on an unceasing canvas. Its opening old school guitar riffs might throw you off the scent, but you’ll soon be won back by the gravelly yet relaxed folksy interludes, before realizing we’re heading into the sort of evocative prog rock territory that Omnipotent Youth Society popularized. There’s an acute narrative thrust at the core of Shuixianyou’s sound that is too good to pass up. Catch the band swing through Yuyintown Basement.
Cream Club will sadly be closing its doors at the end of the month. A shame, as the Pudong-based venue located along the Huangpu River has been one of the city's best-kept secrets. So soak in the venue while you can this August - with shows like tonight’s one-two combo of tender indie kids EMO Open Day and Britpop disciplines Burley Quay, a crowd favorite.
