Beijing Label Out of Fashion Boys Brings Boxing to the Club on “Punch Drunk”

With the release of their second compilation album, Out of Fashion Boys founders Luxixi and TsingLung attempt to capture “the dizziness when fighters get rocked, [which] pretty much resembles the numbness after five or six Vodka shots.”

The Beijing label first released a compilation of music back in 2019, after they had evolved from a club night called THUVDR, with their purported aim being to highlight Beijing’s decay.

This new release has been almost six months in the making, when the pair first communicated the theme of the record to producers who appear on Punch Drunk. It features the likes of Hong Kong producers Alexmalism, ASJ (A Spiritual Journey) and Kelvin T, as well as Shanghai-based phenom Laughing Ears and founders of French label Abîme, Ytem and Chams, each of whom contributes their own interpretation on the theme.

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Standouts on the record include “Power Fisting,” by Alexmalism, ASJ and Kelvin T, which is a baroque, deconstructed club epic that takes the listener into a fun house of different musical textures, while 高桥 (Gao Qiao) contributes a slow-burning, spacey trance track.

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Inspiration for the boxing theme comes from Luxixi and TsingLung’s love for the “sweet science,” which both practice three or four times a week. The nine tracks on their new release attempt to capture the feeling of being momentarily rocked by music, with punchy bass lines throughout.

This sense of exhilaration in the music, is mixed with a slight sense of fear. “Sometimes we are scared of the feeling of being punch drunk, sometimes we look for it and enjoy it.” It’s best, then, when listening to Punch Drunk, to just dive in and allow the adrenaline-infused music to wash over you.

In the wake of their new release, Luxixi and TsingLung present us with our fifth china.wav mix, going back to back for almost two hours and mixing tracks from the likes of Canadian-American producer Sinjin Hawke, SVBKVLT-affiliated Tsuzing and Hodge, as well as dubstep producer Pangaea.

Cover image via Out of Fashion Boys