u/MusicDish_China

I recently interviewed Michael Olsen, an American DJ and promoter whose journey took him from California's music industry to China's underground music scene.

What struck me most wasn't why he came to China, it was what he found here. After working in the U.S. music industry, he gradually became disillusioned with how commercial and data-driven it was becoming. When he first started spending time in Beijing and Shanghai in the early 2000s, there wasn't really a "scene" yet. No algorithms, no established network, just people making music, putting on parties, and finding each other one flyer or one conversation at a time.

We talked about how Antidote and DADA(two projects that became a big part of China's underground music scene in the 2000s) grew out of that environment, why Beijing and Shanghai developed such different nightlife cultures, and whether communities can still form that organically today.
One line from Michael has been stuck in my head ever since:
"It wasn't really a scene yet. It was just people doing things."

Wild Mushroom is a collective from Yunnan's Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, made up primarily of Hani and other ethnic minority musicians.

"Le Zuo" combines Hani vocal traditions with psychedelic rock, creating something that feels both deeply local and surprisingly modern.

One of the most unique tracks I've come across from China's underground scene recently.

Wild Mushroom - Le Zuo

Chengdu band RioInSchool blend grunge and noise rock with a strong 90s Seattle influence.
"Punk Rock Blasphemy" went through countless rewrites before becoming the thematic centerpiece of the album, exploring the tension between reality and idealism.
Thought some people here might enjoy this one.

RioInSchool / Illimitato – Punk Rock Blasphemy

Beijing-based band To Winston describe noise as their final form of resistance.
Inspired by Orwell's 1984, "Violent Abundance" uses abrasive guitars and walls of distortion to explore what remains when every other voice has been silenced.
One of the more interesting noise rock releases I've heard recently from China.

To Winston- Violent Abundance

I recently interviewed a Chinese indie musician named Zhong Ziyi, and her story felt like a fascinating glimpse into what growing up in China's independent music scene can look like.

She left home at 16 to move to Beijing, joined an all-girl rock band, spent years playing underground venues, later trained in Korea's idol system, appeared on a major music reality show, and eventually found her way back to songwriting and independent music.

One thing that stood out to me was how many times she came close to what most people would consider "success",yet the thing that kept pulling her forward was never fame or exposure, but simply making music.

I thought some people here might find her journey interesting as a window into China's indie scene and the experiences of musicians trying to build a career within it.
And if you're curious, I've also included her artist page here: Lay Lady Lay

Program Machine (程序机器) — The Flag of the Fathers (父辈旗帜)

The Flag of the Fathers is an industrial metal band from Shijiazhuang. After four years of silence, they returned with Program Machine, a track that combines industrial metal with modern electronic textures and futuristic sound design.
Inspired by the film Blackhat, the song focuses not on technology itself, but on the experiences and emotions of ordinary workers in contemporary China. Beneath its AI-era aesthetics is a surprisingly human story about shared struggles and everyday realities.

Disorder — Lee Yang / The Third Toe (李漾 / 第III脚趾)

Created for FAEfreeandeasy's 2025 Autumn/Winter collection, Disorder explores the relationship between order and chaos through generative synth sequences, techno rhythms, and constantly shifting textures.
Lee Yang, best known as a member of Shanghai post-punk band The Third Toe, describes the track as a living ecosystem where sounds continuously reshape themselves. The result feels both controlled and unpredictable at the same time, asking whether true order comes from control or coexistence.

Black Sweet Pillow (黑甜一枕头) — HTYZ (黑甜一枕)

HTYZ is a Hangzhou-based band blending post-punk, electronic textures, dream-pop, and trip-hop influences.
Black Sweet Pillow is built around themes of memory and loss. Written from the perspective of someone watching a sleeping infant, the song drifts through fragments of recollection, imagination, and emotion. Dreamy synths and warm basslines gradually give way to bursts of noise, creating a feeling that is both fragile and unsettling.
The band describes the song as an attempt to capture something difficult to hold onto: memories may fade, but the emotions they leave behind remain.

Most people outside China are familiar with Chinese post-punk through bands like Re-TROS or Omnipotent Youth Society.

But recently I've been exploring newer underground acts and came across a Wuhan band called Spring Hill Post Tide.

Their latest album blends psychedelic rock, math rock, post-punk, science fiction, and social observation in a way I haven't heard before.
One thing I found interesting is that despite all the cosmic imagery, the album keeps returning to very human questions about memory, identity, and belonging.

Beyond the tracks currently available on streaming services, Spring Hill Post Tide has released a wealth of music on Bandcamp, including experimental recordings, psychedelic explorations, and hidden gems that many listeners may have never encountered.

Click here to discover more from Spring Hill Post Tide →

• Release — East Cotton No.7 x XTX (Beijing)

A reinterpretation of a classic song by Chinese rock legend Xie Tianxiao. Instead of trying to recreate the original, the band completely flips its emotional structure, turning it into something both familiar and new.

• Forest of Confusion — Disordered Clay (Shanghai)

Psychedelic, cinematic, and slightly disorienting. The band describes it as wandering through a misty forest without knowing exactly where you're going, but continuing forward anyway.

• City Ulcer — The Left Street (Dalian)

A deeply personal response to a rapidly changing city. The song reflects on the relationship between people and the places they call home, and what gets lost along the way.

If you're interested in discovering contemporary Chinese indie music beyond the usual recommendations, these are worth checking out.

One of my favorite recent discoveries from China's underground scene. Built around the repeated line "love is an excuse for inferiority," the song drifts between melancholy and self-doubt without ever becoming dramatic. If you're into the softer side of Midwest emo or dreamier shoegaze, this might be worth a listen.

Love Is #2 – Jimi's Imagination

Not sure how many people here listen to Chinese indie music, but I've been exploring the scene recently and found three songs that really surprised me.

This track takes its name from The End of Evangelion. Originally inspired by "Come On Sweet Death," the band tried filtering that feeling through a shoegaze lens. The result is messy, nostalgic, and surprisingly charming, a glimpse into the early days of a young Chinese indie band that's still figuring itself out.

Truly for you - Acid Room

By Wuhan-based alternative rock band JorryPumpkins, whose sound blends indie rock with post-punk influences. The song reflects on stillness, unrealized potential, and the strange passage of time. First written in the band’s earliest days and refined through dozens of live performances, it eventually found its final form in this live recording from Future Club.

Rice Drop - JorryPumpkins

These have been on repeat this week:

Medicine(药) - Navel (Shanghai) — alt-rock with a drunken DIY energy, anxious and exhausting in the best way. Very "what do I do with all this feeling."

Lie(谎) - Elephant Grave (Nanning) — invisible moral systems and what it means to actually live on your own terms. Heavy without being heavy metal.

Amazing Grace in the Electrotherapy Room (电击疗房的奇异恩典) - The Step***（***Guangzhou) — this one was apparently written about school years, directly aimed at institutional hostility. Yang Yongxi's production gives it this reworked first-love-turned-confrontation feel.

Band recommends this week:

**Basement Queen(地下室女王）is a **two-piece alternative rock band from Beijing, blending garage rock, hard rock, and electronic influences. Inspired by bands like Muse, Queens of the Stone Age, and The White Stripes, the band combines heavy riffs with synthesizers and rhythmic experimentation, creating a sound that moves between raw rock energy and electronic textures.

Released by the Beijing band KyoYoko, the album is built around mirrors as conceptual devices, pulling identity, memory, ritual, and the gaze of others into the same fractured space.

If you are into post-punk that's actually thinking about something, this one's worth your full attention. Listen here: Mirror Chamber

I’ve been digging into Chinese indie lately and wanted to share a few songs from emerging bands that I am really enjoying. A lot of these feel like hidden gems that don’t get much visibility, so I figured I’d put them out here instead of letting them stay buried.

眼涡 - 草吠声
Eye Vortex (“眼涡,” literally “eyes like a whirlpool”) is a somewhat different track from the band’s new album Cocooned(“被茧”). The song is described as a kind of transitional breath connecting the new record to the band’s previous work.
The track reflects on the countless voices constantly demanding people take positions on society and current events. These pressures can come both from the outside world and from within ourselves, often leaving people trapped in confusion or contradiction between competing perspectives.
For the band, however, what matters is not simply making declarations or taking sides, but continuing to observe, think, and remember, refusing to avoid or ignore reality, while constantly reflecting and questioning.

Sad Song II — 环岛行驶Roundabout
As the second chapter in the band’s Sad Song series, Sad Song II was created as a bridge between the past and what comes next.
Unlike the more playful atmosphere of the first chapter, the song focuses on those moments in life that once felt impossible to move beyond. Yet with time, life itself reminds us that nothing is truly insurmountable, even if we still want to hold onto the fragile process of surviving it.

放火烧掉的诗Burning the Poems — 鲸鱼飞向天空
Burning the Poems (“放火烧掉的诗”) by 鲸鱼飞向天空Whale Flying Toward the Sky was inspired by the experience of having a private diary exposed during school years, an incident that left the songwriter with a lasting sense of shame and eventually led them to stop writing altogether.
The song transforms that memory into a quiet reflection on privacy, emotional vulnerability, and the desire to destroy parts of oneself before they can be misunderstood by others. Images of burning poems beneath a crimson sunset, dim streetlights, evening haze, and approaching storms run throughout the lyrics, creating a dreamlike atmosphere suspended between loneliness and comfort.

I’ve also been collecting these Chinese indie songs into a playlist, all from newer bands that emerged in the 2020s. If anyone wants to find something new: The Dragon Roars! | Chinese Indie Hits

I recently interviewed a musician from Changsha, China whose band unexpectedly blew up through Douyin (Chinese TikTok).

Something he said got me thinking, people in this generation don’t really believe in the whole “perfect your craft for 10 years first” mindset anymore. With TikTok/Douyin, indie musicians now have way more chances to get noticed and instantly put ideas out there.

It feels like that kind of exposure is changing the creative process itself: more spontaneous, more immediate, and sometimes more alive. Curious how other people here feel about this shift.

Interview here if anyone’s interested:
[ https://open.substack.com/pub/musicdishchina/p/wu-bubu-of-meng-tianda-the-self-made?r=4avho&utm_medium=ios ]

I recently interviewed a pioneer DJ in Beijing scene and she said this while talking about DJing, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

She described DJing less as “playing music” and more as understanding atmosphere, and emotional movement on a dance floor.

What I found interesting was the idea that even if you love a track, it still might not be the right track for that particular room, crowd, or moment.

Curious if other DJs here relate to that feeling.