Yin: Sweet Beijing Psych Fuzz from “Bird to Otherside”

Yin (音, “music”) is a weekly RADII feature that looks at Chinese songs spanning hip-hop to folk to modern experimental, and everything in between. Drop us a line if you have a suggestion.

Well, we made it! Happy Record Store Day! I know that spare change is just burning a hole in your pocket. If you can’t join the record shopping in China spree we’ve been on all week in person, you’re in luck today, as one Record Store Day release from China is now up and streaming (and physically purchasable) online: Bird to Otherside.

This is a special, cassette-only release of B-sides and outtakes from two of Beijing’s finest noise/rock/psych bands, Birdstriking and Gate to Otherside. Each released an album last year on indie label Maybe Mars — Birdstriking their second, which I wrote up for RADII at the time, and Gate to Otherside their freewheeling debut. Both albums were produced by Ricky Maymi, an American musician who’s become enthralled with this particular corner of the Beijing rock scene, and was actually just in town jamming with a few of the members of these bands in a new project called White Tiger (白虎).

Ricky Maymi in the UK tour van with Birdstriking’s Wang Xinjiu (photo via Kiwese)

Anyway, Bird to Otherside catches these two bands fidgeting around with their late-20s ennui in interesting ways, and almost got left as scraps on the studio editing desk, but luckily for us fans of music on physical media, they’re now put down on magnetic tape for as long as that’ll last. If you like Beat Happening, psych rock, or bad trips, mainline this digitally (and find ordering instructions) here:

If that’s not quite your speed, Maybe Mars actually has a pretty impressive roster of Spring 2018 releases, so do also check the new or soon-to-drop albums from Demerit (punk/hardcore), Lonely Leary (cold post-punk), Hiperson (warm post-punk), and Dream Can (kinda hard to describe… Shanghai college rock but really good?), depending on your taste.

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Article Aug 17, 2017