And with that another year in the Chinese music scene wraps up! December has brought a number of new releases from hardworking veterans of the scene, whether refining what they do best (for example, Shanghai post rockers 21 Grams) or venturing into new territories (see Chinese Football guitarist Wang Bo‘s rambunctious, eclectic pop as 温柔D·BOY, or YEHAIYAHAN’s multiculti electronic project WildRide). But there’s fresh blood too: check out emerging producer 444theGod’s ambient album for Genome 6.66Mbp, a welcome local release by a label that has recently been focusing on international artists — Editor.　

温柔D•BOY – 游戏房间

Wang Bo, known to most as the guitarist for Chinese Football, shows off his audio toy collection on his side project 温柔D•BOY’s latest LP, 游戏房间 (Game Room). Inspired, playful, and expertly assembled, there’s a Beck-esque versatility in the production here. D•BOY gleefully mashes up chiptune, funk, electronica, rap, rock and more like a kid in a toy store. Unfolding like a Shibuya-kei fever dream inside a brightly-lit arcade emporium, it moves at a staggering pace, switching gears unrulily yet seamlessly, its rotating sonic plates never once collapsing. Some of the most fun you’ll have listening to a record this year. 

Dizkar – Tell Me, Woman 请问 

The latest from Kunming-raised artist Dizkar, whose penchant for neo-soul, hip hop, and R&B has made him one of the most sought-after producers in China today, is scrumptiously retro piece of breezy soulful pop straight from the 1970s. Neon-soaked, glitzy with just the right amount of grain, the music video for “Tell Me, Woman” is pastiche in full force, with special attention paid to costume design and that smeared Vaseline soft focus. This attention to detail extends to the whole production of his new LP Fake Soul Music, released via Chengdu label Mintone Records — he even went as far as recording on a reel-to-reel tape machine from the 1970s. 

Bad Sweetheart – Much Adon’t 你在窗帘睡着了

Wuhan’s Bad Sweetheart return with their full-length LP, Much Adon’t 你在窗帘睡着了, solidifying them as one of the indie pop scene’s finest. The band has that woozy Britpop swagger that makes them stand out from a lot of indie bands of their ilk, and the album is refined in its production yet scrappy in its demeanor, coasting on pulpy charm and instrumental chops. Its ballads don’t always hit their mark, but for every cloying ballad there’s an uproarious jangle-filled jam à la “Nature Nature’ and “I Do What I Wanna Do.” But “Rowing Race” might be the album’s true highlight, a perfect match for the band’s poetic lyricism. 

WildRide – What A Wild Ride 

Guizhou singer and producer YEHAIYAHAN (aka ChaCha), who has dabbled in everything — R&B, trip hop, reggae, and avant-garde witch house — over the past decade, teams up with two other musical nomads, the electronic duo Taiga, composed of Xi Leilei from Xinjiang and Husile from Mongolia. The supergroup, dubbed WildRide, presents a feverish blend of dub, psytrance, world music, ambient, and broken beats, all crisscrossed with ethnic music of China. It’s a nomadic migration across sonic borders that shows YEHAIYAHAN’s voice reach deeper into her roots, then pulls them straight onto the dance floor. 

CHILLGOGOG – Motivations TO-GO

Shanghai production duo CHILLGOGOG — consisting of LATENINE6 and FunkeeCookee — bring their animated and stimulating brew of electronica to full fruition on their debut LP, Motivations TO-GO. Sewn together by a fusion of ideas and styles both old and new, it relishes the building blocks of electronic music, as one flourish after another weaves its way into each track, turning seemingly simple jams into full-blown block parties. And with samples that range from nursery school rhymes to SpongeBob SquarePants, CHILLGOGOG never loses track of their idiosyncratic selves, giving their brand of alternative dance music a quirky IDM verve. A heck of a good time. 

21 Grams – The Day You Have is Better 勝昔

Shanghai post rock torchbearers 21 Grams bring an elegant maturity to their sound on their new album The Day You Have is Better, which features four of the band’s most cherished compositions, which they’ve been refining since 2017. Evocative and sincere, every song unfolds like a worn-in story, one that deepens with every retelling. While 21 Grams’ brand of post rock is lean and old school, stylistically they cover a lot of ground, from the spacey playful riff on “Memory Boy Will Be A New Toy” to the heartfelt proclamation of “Hana & Alice (I Love You Goodbye),” always managing to find the light at the end of the tunnel. 

The Swan and Blossoms – World Below the Moon

Neo folk supergroup The Swan and Blossoms, a motley crew of musicians scattered geographically across China and beyond, but centered around Beijing-based guitarist and songwriter Zhou Jian and Chengdu singer Yuan Tian (violinist Jia Zi and woodwind player Qing Xi are other key players), bring their poetic touch, lush orchestration and rich storytelling to their latest LP, World Below the Moon, released on Merrie Records. Akin to the changing seasons, their sound is both graceful and compelling, riding a gust of swelling violins, pounding drums, and piano one moment and gliding gently into a delicate melody the next. This is a full-bodied album with top-notch production and an atmospheric pull that grabs hold of you and doesn’t let go. 

Guzz – Botanical Garden of the Soul

Shanghai-based electronic producer Guzz, returns with another dazzling piece of Asian wanderlust — Botanical Garden of the Soul — self-described as a sonic “sanctuary” of “spiritual liberation.” Further expanding on his narratively lush Fantasia in the Wind from last year,  while at the same time reaching back to his Do Hits roots, the artist casts a delicate spell over his tracks, lulling you into its luminous greenhouse as one makes their way through its serene and ornamental audial agriculture. Dreamlike with a smooth jazzy undertone, it washes over you. 

444theGod – El Poema Inacabado

DJ and producer 444theGod steps back from the dance floor and turns inward on his album El Poema Inacabado, released on Genome 6.66Mbp. A collection of intriguingly unfinished-sounding pieces that lean toward the darker, grander, and more abstract corners of electronic music, on the album 444theGod uses soft piano and synthesizers to conjure an atmosphere that’s at once sedate and fraught with tension. Distorted vocals, white noise, heady drones, and unsettling glitch effects pull listeners into a “shadowy dream” of IDM, ambient, and deconstructed club.  

inactive committee 不行动 – inactive committee 不行动

Founded in 2021 and resurrected in 2024, inactive committee out of Beijing impress on their debut. Math rock, psychedelic rock, and some jazz for good measure — this evokes some of the indie highs of The Gar or a more rootsy version of Gatsby in a Daze (both bands share the same bassist). Its bleeding heart sentimentality elevate its brash bold instrumentation as its ear-catching riffs and prodding rhythms leading the charge. It doesn’t always come together — with singer Sun Muyuan’s vocals taking things a bridge too far at times — but at its core there’s a sincerity to the band’s rustic veneer that’ll stick with you. 

Banner image by Haedi Yue.