Global Noise Offline

This is the weirdest thing I’ve encountered today.

When combing through my RSS feeds, I came across a post on Free Albums Galore titled “Red Unit – several albums”, I paid special attention to it because the attached pic features a revolutionary woodcut drawing and four Chinese characters – 红色少女 (literally “Red Girl”), under which there are two English words – RED UNIT.

Because Free Albums Galore is hosted on a BSP which has been blocked in mainland China, I’ll quote a few words from the post:

Red Unit out of the Quiet Lounge netlabel is like that. The artists reside in Shanghai, China and produces dense Industrial Dance music. What sets Red Unit apart from other techno groups is that they used the music and sounds of China’s political past for their base.

That’s already enough to activate my curiosity, so I clicked on the label’s link and found a couple of strange things:

1. The characters on the frontpage are written in simplified Chinese, while the ones in the logo at the top of this page are in traditional Chinese.

2. There are some Japanese scattering around the site, such as the Creative Commons claim.

3. A quirky mixture of various Chinese elements can be found in the site, to name but a few: “Red”, “Maoism”, “Yam Cha”, “Shanghai”, “Commune”.

I don’t have much clue about the label but judging from their link page, it must have something to do with the Beijing breakcore/digital hardcore scene, as a few brand names of the scene (iLoop, Reconfiguration Records) were listed. Since Quiet Lounge is an online label, all the music can be downloaded for free, but it’s too late now so I’ll leave that for tomorrow. In the meantime, any information about the label is appreciated.

Add this post to del.icio.us

I’ll go on and translate some more blog entries from Junky (CAO Junjun) of Torturing Nurse. These might be trivial posts but they reflect the man and his music’s personality in a direct and effective way, this is something you won’t get in their English language interviews.

For original Chinese version of each post, just click on the respective titles.

Frances and seven sermones ad mortuos

17:28, Jan 17, 2006

Went to dzmz (1) and bought Jessica Lange’s award-winning film Frances, which I’ve watched in my very early years. A re-watching of the film has deepened my loathing towards establishment, now I understand why Kurt Cobain named his daughter after it.

Received email from Simone, he said the album Three’s a Crowd had been finished and he’ll send 10 copies to me this Friday or Saturday. Now Torturing Nurse already has releases in 6 countries: China, America, Britain, Australia, Belgium and Italy! Below is the cover and inner artwork (2), specially designed in the format of a DVD-case, released by the Italian noise label seven sermones ad mortuos!!

-

Incapacitants

13:28, Jan 18, 2006

Now playing their New Movements in Cmpd. I own 10 of their albums, plus one split with Two Assistant Deputy Mikawa, one split with Kazumoto Endo (Killer Bug), one collaboration with K2 and four live videos. They’re probably my second favorite Japanoise act (the first is Hijokaidan), totally schizophrenic sound, all kinds of sound waves clashing with each other. I love to see the charming twitching of middle-aged men on stage, with same level of devotion from offstage audience. I feel completely relaxed listening to this sound!

-

Weekend

20:26, Jan 20, 2006

Busy for the whole day in my office, in the evening the whole band went to Ben’s place for his African cuisine:) I like Carl Stone, very interesting sound, I’m really fascinated by unique, special sound, I really can’t live without music!

I must go to bed now, very tired, must save my energy for tomorrow’s recording session, will continue the recording for RRR tomorrow, and the 20 mins for the 3 ways split of Belgium!!

Congratulations to http://myspace.com/torturingnurse whose pageview has hit 100, and 41 noise artists have added us as friend. I think we would be better off living in America or Japan, I hate China!!!

Footnotes:

1. dzmz is the initial of Da ZiMingZhong, a well-known pirate market in Shanghai.
2. To see the artwork please refer to the original post.

Add this post to del.icio.us

Hangzhou-based noisician LI Jianhong blogged about his exposure on WFMU. The original Chinese version here.

Yesterday, Brian Turner from WFMU radio in America emailed me: “These discs are AMAZING and getting nice airplay on WFMU! Thank you and please keep us in mind for future releases!”

Not until then was I aware of their airing my album, and I went to their website to check, so it has already been aired four times. I wouldn’t know if he hadn’t notified me via email.

They boast to be the most influential independent radio in the States, indeed, they play many unpredictable music that you like. I used to be a regular listener of them and did get to listen to quite a few desired but inaccessible music. Later I spent less time with it, which nevertheless remains one of my favorite radio stations.

It is Alan Cummings from UK that hooked me up with WFMU. Cummings is distributing my albums and he recommended them to WFMU. In fact that happened in 2004, but I was too lazy and didn’t mail them the package until early September in 2005. (they’ve sent emails urging) It’s not by airmail and in the end of September Brian Tuner told me that he’s still expecting it, I thought it’s lost and so be it, never knew they already had the whole RTV-702 played through.

Those interested can follow these links for the four programmes. Click on the time codes to choose individual tracks:

1. Nov 6, 2005 (hosted by Mita)
2. Nov 14, 2005 (hosted by Hatch)
3. Nov 28, 2005 (hosted by John Allen)
4. Oct 25, 2005 (hosted by Brian Turner)

Previously about Li on GNO:

• Pics from GIFTS exhibition, Hangzhou (pic of a sound installation by Li)
• PSF’s Hideo Ikeezumi reviews Li’s debut solo album (in Chinese, English and Japanese)
• Li’s Selected Works 01 – 05 for free dl

Add this post to del.icio.us

(Correction Appended 9:53 am, Jan 19)

Zbigniew Karkowski has sent me the schedule of his grand China tour with LI Chin-sung (aka Dickson Dee) in February, reproduced here. This is a preliminary copy subjected to changes. Please bookmark this post and come back later for updates.

• Feb 18, Fringe Club, Hong Kong – Li solo 20 mins with video art, Karkowski solo 20 mins with video art, I666 solo 20 mins, UG + DJ Dee 15 mins, Karkowski + Li duo set 20 mins, maybe jam session 10 mins
• Feb 19, Ox House, Macau – Li solo 25 mins (w/ video), Karkowski solo 30 mins (w/ video), guest solo 20 mins, Karkowski + Li duo set 25 mins, maybe jam session 10 mins.
• Feb 24, Chengdu – 2 guests solo 20 mins each, Li solo 25 mins (w/ video), Karkowski solo 25 mins (w/ video), Karkowski + Li duo set 20 mins.
• Feb 25, Guangzhou – 2 guests solo 20 mins each, Li solo 25 mins, Karkowski solo 25 mins (w/ video), Karkowski + Li duo set 25 mins.
• Feb 26, Shenzhen -  Zenlu (LU Zheng) solo 20 mins, Li solo 25 mins (w/ video), Karkowski solo 25 mins (w/ video), Karkowski + Li duo set 25 mins.
• Feb 28 – Mar 2, Nanjing – Guest solo 20 mins, Li solo 25 mins (w/ video), Karkowski solo 25 mins (w/ video), Karkowski + Li duo set 25 mins, maybe jam session 10 mins.
• Mar 3, Zendai, Shanghai – Li solo 20 mins (w/ video), Torturing Nurse solo 20 mins, Aitar solo 20 mins, Xu Cheng solo 20 mins, Karkowski + Atsuko NOJIRI 30 mins (sound & video), Karkowski + Li + Nojiri 20 mins, Guy-marc Hinant – Subrosa Soundsystem 50 mins (w/ film). Followed by workshop.
• Mar 4, Duolun MoMA, Shanghai – Torturing Nurse solo 20 mins, DJ Dee + Xu Cheng duo set 20 mins (w/ video), Aitar solo 20 mins, Karkowski + Nojiri 30 mins (sound & video), Karkowski + Li + Nojiri 20 mins, Guy-marc Hinant – Subrosa soundsystem 50 mins (w/ film).
• Mar 5, location to be finalized, either Shanghai or Beijing
• Mar 6, lecture @ Central Conservatory, Beijing

• Mar 7, lecture @ Central Conservatory Peking University (daytime), concert at Waterland Kwanyin at night with Wang Fan, Kwanyin soundsystem (Yan Jun, Wang Fan, FM3, 718, etc.), DJ OK (Yan Jun + Christiaan Virant + Guy-marc Hinant)

• Mar 8, 798 South gate, Beijing – Tie Guanyin (Iron Kwanyin, Yan Jun + Christiaan Virant + Wu Quan + Zhang Jian) 30 mins, Li solo 25 mins (w/ video), Karkowski solo 25 mins (w/ video), Guy-marc Hinant – Subrosa soundsystem 50 mins (w/ film)

Among all the guest musicians, I’m curious to see I666 (one of the earliest industrial groups in Hong Kong, led by Dickson), Subrosa soundsystem (who will shoot a documentary about this tour, as previously reported by GNO) and Aitar (Shanghai-based industrial duo which had two albums out but remained silent afterwards, compoased of B6 & MHP). If possible, GNO would like to do a live coverage of the whole tour, stay tuned.

Related:

Karkowski and China

Add this post to del.icio.us

Translation of some of Junky’s posts on his new blog.

Recent projects | Jan 14, 2006

I’m recording for the following projects:

1). 200 tracks for RRR. Already recorded 100 tracks lasting 3 – 5 mins each, haven’t edited and mastered yet. The chance is 2/3 of these tracks will be used in the final release, which means there are still 150 to go.

2). A split with Mutant Ape, a harshnoise project from UK, this will be released by Shasha with very special packaging.

D!O!D!O!D!/Ronez/Torturing Nurse 3-way split | Jan 15, 2006

I’ve made a suggestion of a 3-way split release of real hardware/analog noise acts of China to the Belgium label Inacedb, they tend to make it 3 cassettes of 20 mins each. I’m kind of bored with CDR format and prefer analog releases such as cassette and vinyl. Can’t stop but keep putting out releases, but I like this kind of life :)

Listening | Jan 15, 2006

I’ve been listening to 30 noise/experimental albums in MP3 format sent to me by Dickson Dee recently. Enjoy Erratum #4 (3 CDs) and Astromero (Hiroshi Hasegawa + Damion Romero) – s/t very much. I love to listen to this kind of sound in the rainy days of south China, Hiroshi’s Astro has a more unified sound than C.C.C.C.. Sometimes I just want to indulge myself all day in this dedicated sonic force, like the sturdiness of rain falling on marble.

Exhausted day | Jan 16, 2006

Rushed home for dinner after work and started working on the RRR recordings, 90 tracks have been finished so far. I did some cutting at the beginning and the end of each track. This is a painstaking process. Btw, I still insist on performing with hardware only, never softwares, except for audio editing and mastering softwares during the post-production. I don’t like laptop-performance!

Add this post to del.icio.us

Okay guys, this place is NOT deserted, it’s just that I’ve been working my ass up on other things recently. Meanwhile, let me post an outline of the stuff in the pipeline so that you’ll come back regularly and my blog stat won’t look too miserable. ^_^

- GNO’s Chinese new music round-up 2005 (better late than never)

- Review of 3 brand new releases: v/a – emotions: from somewhere to nowhere; Zafka: 12 Hours – Sound Actions for Your Secret Lover; LIN Zhiying: Er

- More on the Bob Gluck thing.

- LI Jianhong & WANG Changcun’s review of 2pi Festival 2005 (better late than never)

I’ve taken off all the links on GNO that point to Bob Gluck’s article “Electronic Music in China”, since it’s has not been finalized yet. My posts about the article – which might be biased and unfair – will remain as they are.

Go here to check out Ken Fields’ response to my previous post. Well said, Ken. Some of them I agree with you some of them I don’t, more later.

Ken Fields has told me a thing or two about Bob Gluck’s endeavor of writing about electronic music in some of the less-exposed areas, including China. This is exactly what GNO is up to. Please accept my apology if you find my cynicism in the previous two posts offensive.

Ken has pointed out:

1. The article is not complete open to public yet.
2. It will be an on-going archiving process, with new materials added continuously.
3. Gluck copied from GNO and paste into his article all in a hurry, shortly before he went out of town.

He also sent a few more link of Gluck’s articles on the electronic music scene in Indonesia, Israel & Turkey. Which leads to another question: to what extent shall we take these articles seriously? I’m sure that there are a lot of labor involved in information gathering, names-checking, etc. And I do appreciate there are someone like Gluck who does bother to do the work. But somehow we have under-estimated the language barrier. Native English readers of GNO do not need to be reminded how difficult it is to remember the spelling of Chinese names like Lin Zhiying, Li Jianhong, Xu Cheng or Wang Changcun. But Dear Chinese readers, how many names of Thai directors/musicians can you correctly spell? This is only a tip of the language barrier iceberg. I fully understand the frustration of finding your way out among a bunch of names of musicians whose works you have hardly listened to.
So what is the conclusion? IMHO, the conclusion is obvious: the history of Chinese sound art has to be documented and written by Chinese, same with Israel, Turkey, Indonesia et al. That’s why I launched GNO, in the hope that five years from now, when looking back to the Chinese new music scene, we won’t be embarrassed by either the absence or the bias of historical discourse.

Don’t know what is this all about? Read these 2 posts for bg information:

Bob Gluck on Chinese new music

Bob Gluck again – GNO plagiarised!

Add this post to del.icio.us

Wang Changcun alerted me on Google Talk today that Bob Gluck’s article (hyperlink taken off as the article has not been finalized yet, see my previous post for background information) had been revised. Yes indeed, the false information about Chen Yuanlin were taken off. But the most interesting revision is that of the paragraph about non-academic experimental sound artists, I quote:

The recent appearance of numerous young experimental sound artists has been one of the more distinctive aspects of electronic music in China around the turn of the 21st century. The work of a number of these artists are included on the 2003 CD compilation, ‘CHINA: the Sonic Avant-Garde’, includes works by Wang Changcun, Jia Haiqing, Fu Yü, Zhou Pei, cy (Ding Dawen), Susuxx (Su Xin), Zoojoo (Zhang Jü) and Yoyofaye (Xiang Fei)], Zhou Pei, Xü Cheng, Zhang Jün’gang, Hu Mage, Jiang Yühui, Wang Changcun, Zhong Minjie, and various components of the China Sound Unit. Also, among those included are Zhang Jungang, who now focuses more on photography than music, and Intelligent Shanghai Mono University [B6 (Lou Nanli), which subsequently disbanded. Other recently prominant musicians, not represented on this compilation, include Jin Shan, Chen Wei, Zafka, Lin Zhiying, 21floor, Fm3, and Yan Jun. Kenneth Fields (correspondence, January 4, 2006) describes 21floor (formerly 21floor Sound Unit) as “a Guangzhou-based experimental group composed of Justin Zhong Minjie, LIN Zhiying & Zafka (Zhang Anding). Both Zhong & Lin have been working with sound for several years. Zhong already has two self-released albums and a series of live performances (including one at Nuit Blanche festival, Paris, 2004) on his portfolio, and Lin also has one album out and a wide exposure nationwide. Zhang used to be the lead guitarist of the Shanghai-based post-rock act Prague Spring, but he has been making sound art under the alias of Zafka for about a year now. These three are clearly the most prominent sound artists in the South China.” The group refers to itself as a multimedia group rather than just a soundart trio.

Please bear in mind the above quotation is a straight copy & paste from this article (hyperlink taken off as the article has not been finalized yet) circa 16:30, Jan. 5, 2006. There are no modifications except boldicization.

Now, it’s true that Global Noise Online is under Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5), but if you take a close look at the rules:

You’re free to copy, distribute, display and perform the work, as well as to make derivative works, UNDER THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS: 1. Attribution: you must attribute the work in manner specified by the author or licensor; 2. Noncommercial: you may not use this work for commercial purposes; 3. Share Alike: if you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one.

(The full license in legal English)

I suppose that Gluck’s article is noncommercial, however, it fails to meet condition 1 and 3.

Now let’s get down to business, in the above quotation of Gluck’s article, please pay special attention to the texts in boldface. The part about Zhang Jungang and Intelligent Shanghai Mono University was “built upon” a “transformed” comment of mine in this post. The large block of boldicized text at the end is “copied” from my post titled “Introducing the band – 21floor”, dated Nov. 29, 2005.

Do I get credited? No.
Is there a Creative Commons license on the page displaying Gluck’s article? No.

Please, Mr. Gluck, is it the way to do your job? Rules aside, how comes that you don’t even bother to make sure that the brackets match when doing copy & paste?

Here, let me provide more material for you to build your article upon:

1. Intelligent Shanghai Mono University is B6 (LOU Nanli), cy (DING Dawen), Susuxx (SU Xin) & Zoojoo (ZHANG Ju), period.

2. Among these four, Susuxx & Zoojoo have been silent in the scene for several years now. cy, who’s real job is newspaper editor, makes commercial electronica occasionally (like the soundtrack for commercial expos, etc.). B6 is the only one in the quartet that continue to make music, however, he’s not considered part of the sound art/experimental music scene since he is an electronica musician (a good one).

Here’s a Japanese blog post about B6’s new EP “My Post-rock Yard”.