Through the looking glass: Beijing Inventory

From Rock in China Wiki

Through the looking glass: Beijing Inventory

A stage two in our declaration of independence

Read first: Why No Beijing and D-22 are not worth the hype!

Having discussed and talked about the hype of D-22, it is time to have a closer and more refined look into the Beijing scene; an inventory of the scene, to find out what is the Beijing Rock, what is the Beijing scene like and do we actually have only one or many?

Back in time, the good old days?

Many years ago, it was a closed scene, a scene, that only friends knew and in which concerts were hold at hotels and small bars within the embassy area at San Li Tun. That was the time of Cui Jian and his friends, the time of early Tang Dynasty, the time of Black Panther and those legends of rock, of which most have disbanded or found new ways to entertain their life.

Then came the time of lonely clubs, the Scream Bar punk scene, the early Get Lucky Bar nights, until the new millenia not only brought numerous new bands in the capital, but also a multitude of bars and clubs and venues and locations to dance and rock and mosh and just get cheap beer with bad sounds of a distorted guitar. We are talking about the times of New Get Lucky, of Yugong Yishan, of Mao Livehouse, of Yunmeng Bar (remember, once been a CD Cafe), of the rise of 2 Kolegas, the opening of 13 Club in WuDaoKou and the later opening of D-22, the coming (and going) of Nameless Highland. Each venue had its distinct location, its distinct base of bands rocking in and rocking out, its distinct crowd of fans coming to the gigs on a regular basis. As much as Get Lucky Bar was a synonym for metal, so as much was the Nameless Highland a heaven for punks. And as much as the 13 Club became a haven for metalheads, so the D-22 became the club for garage rock and indie punk.

The labels, the labels, and the rise of Beijing

When Josef Conrad let Kurtz speak the words "The Horror! The Horror!" on the verge of death, so have many bands utterly cried "The labels! The labels!" in their grief and anger on unfair treatment and harsh contracts! Yet in Beijing, it had been the labels that fostered the fame of the capital as a mecca of rock! Modern Sky and Scream Records pushed through with the first nation-wide distribution scheme of Beijing rockers, making names such as Sober, Yaksa and The Fly known all over the country. And whereas Modern Sky was concentrating on the more rock-orientated artists, Scream Records focussed on the more alternative ones, the rapcore, the techno and hiphop. Soon later, metal-heavy Mort Production entered the scene, So Rock! Records tried its first walk (even though without coming too far), Subjam & Kwanyin were born, later 13 Moon Records, Hotpot Music and Pilot Records appeared! And finally... finally also Maybe Mars was there! At present, each of these record labels has their following, their bands, their records, their little scene (an island) in the ocean of Beijing.

Rocking it hard times, emo, scremo, punk that still kicks ass: HotPot Music

Established only in 2007 by Paul Huang, Hotpot Music is ultimately associated with the harder forms of alternative rock, the screamo bands of Beijing, the emo and harder indie rock, the hardcore of the capital. Closely associated are Tookoo and their offspring Black Town Twin Brothers alongside their own record label Kingsize China! We are talking about bands such as Alt Senior, King Ly Chee, The Reason, The Raving Radio, Surprise, The Lovesong, Bigger Bang!, Last Chance of Youth and many others. They stick together, they hold concerts together and they release their own compilation records. A circle of friends making music, rocking hard, and representing the sound of Beijing Core.

Gore, Grind, Death and Black Metal: Mort Productions

Nevertheless the runts and shackels in the metal scene of 2004 and 2005 with Areadeath Productions tasting the temperature in Beijing's label pool, they quickly pulled back their feet and gave way for the capital's strongest record label in the metal field: Mort Productions! Started shortly after the establishment of the Painkiller Heavy Music Magazine, they have fostered the bands, promoted shows and distributed the metallic sounds of Beijing over the whole nation, still growing strong! Though not all of Beijing's metal legends (think Spring Autumn, think Tang Dynasty, think Voodoo Kungfu, think Suffocated) are part of the labels vast coverage, the imminent core of Beijing's heavier music is tight to Mort Productions. With their Resurrections Series they have shown China, what Beijing's double bass bands are made of. The only thing actually missing is shows, as Mort Productions is not hosting!

So one has to turn the head and look at where most of the shows in the darker part of rock are happening: The 13 Club. Even though they try to re-shift their focus towards underground music since 2009, it is a grown fact that 13 Club is and was the home for many a metalhead in Beijing. With the 13 Club Metal Extravaganza happening straight for three years (and more), this metal concerto is only matched by the New Get Lucky Bar's March 30th birthday party of Kouyu Zheng, legendary guitarist of Suffocated and Spring Autumn! Though with their move in 2004 & 2005 to the new location, the New Get Lucky Bar had lost much of its power that it had accumulated in the past and much of it had been transferred when one of the guys of Ordnance opened his own place of choice! Summing it up: What is the sound of Beijing metal? Mort & 13 Club!

Noise, Harsh, Electro, Minimal: The 2 Kolegas

A scene as avantgarde as their music has established around the former music critic and poet Yan Jun: The electro scene, not in the terms of DJing and Techno music, but in the terms of pushing the boundaries for sounds and definitions of music, the thin red line between noise as willingful instrumented arrangement and noise as pure harsh distortion! With his Waterland Kwanyin series started in the Mid-2000s and his establishment of Mini Midi, he has built a firm base around the 2 Kolegas bar and has brought numerous foreign artists and noise-makers to the capital. What Antidote is for Shanghai, Yan Jun is for Beijing: the Beijing Noise!

Who needs a dead Elvis, if you have alive Hellcats?

Rockabilly, Psychobilly and Ska are three variants of a very dancable version of rock'n'roll that started to form in Beijing in the years 2007/2008. Not as hard, but still funky is the jazz scene with is vibrant mix of trios, quartets and bands as well as mix projects such as Junglecat. At present, 2010, the most famous and popular representative of this part of the Beijing music world is DH & Chinese Hellcats, a swing and dance capella that stops at nothing and had been mostly performing in the MAO Livehouse before the same was closed. Who needs a Dead Elvis if you have the Hellcats? Beijing Rockabilly.

Thou shall not forget

The Beijing scene has witnessed several mininova waves and fashion, such as HipHop with CMCB and Dragon Tongue, Nu Metal à la Yaksa and Twisted Machine, Grunge with XTX and Meat Tree, Brit Rock veterans Sophias Garden or Billows Fairy Tale etc. until the indie pop flu broke out when it became quite impossible for individuals to still keep track of the scene as one unit. Now what? Ska, Rockabilly, Drum'n'Bass, TripHop, Post Rock ... even Jazz and Blues became the lates fashion for some young musicians to go for. That's Beijing, and the true Beijing sound lies in the mix and ongoing spirit. And with the ever latest fashion of Festivals spreading like a wild fire everywhere in the nation when front riders and main providers Midi and Modern Sky went beyond the geographical border of Beijing over bring the Beijing rock mass ritual to all fellow country men, this spirit of Beijing rock is seeded for a greater futur of China rock era to come!

But is this all that there is to be said about Chinese underground music? We would not be called "Rock in China" if Beijing would be the center of all things to be! There is more to the world of Chinese music than Beijing Rock!

Completing the Trio Infernale: Running in the shades of Beijing: Regional Scenes of China

--Azchael 13:45, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

References

Mentioned bands

• Those old ones: Cui Jian | Tang Dynasty | Black Panther
• The new age: Sober, Yaksa and The Fly
• The emo ones: Alt Senior, King Ly Chee, The Reason, The Raving Radio, Surprise, The Lovesong, Bigger Bang, Last Chance of Youth
• The rockabilly scene: DH & Chinese Hellcats | Lady Flame

Copyright

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