Artist: Sipaningkah
Album: Langkah Suruik
Format: Digital / Tape
Cat.No: CHI050
Master: Justin Randel
Design: Saphy Vong 

Sipaningkah creates dense, trance-like compositions that are steeped in the Minangkabau culture of his home province of West Sumatra, Indonesia. Fusing elements of folk and avant- garde noise, his new Chinabot-released record Langkah Suruik calls on ancient musical traditions to create a new world, one that has a teeming, hypnotic energy, rich with textural depth.


Lagkah Suruik, which translates as “step back” in the Minangkabau language, comes from a concept in the Silat Harimau martial arts philosophy. “The Langkah Suruik is the wisest step, choosing to step back and not fight,” says Sipaningkah. “However, I interpret Langkah Suruik as a way to see, search for and relearn the roots of our personal traditions, so that we can then use them in reading the current world situation.”


On Langkah Suruik, the multi-instrumentalist Sipaningkah draws deeply from Minangkabau tradition while forging his own experimental path. It features an instrument he created himself, a “Tasauff” percussion instrument inspired by three traditional Minangkabau musical instruments: the Tasa drum, Talempong gong and Rabab string instrument.


He also plays traditional Minangkabau instruments on Langkah Suruik, including a pupuik soroang, a wind instrument inspired by the sound of elephants, as well as the Canang gong, a serunai flute, and a sampleong pipe. Sipaningkah uses this traditional repertoire in an eclectic and unexpected way, creating pummelling rhythms in non-traditional song structures.

The album is deeply concerned with the contemporary as well as the past. Dantuang, which translates as “boom” or “explosion,” is Sipaningkah’s response to the current situation in Gaza. It opens with a riot of flute sounds before a complex, hammering beat kicks in, insistent and dangerous, roiling the music up into a howl of pain. Folk meats raw noise again on Ranuang, a dirge that builds into a shimmering cataclysm of frenetic energy.


We don’t hear Sipaningkah’s voice until the final two tracks, which exorcise the tension of the rest of the record. Pangkaba, the peaceful album closer, reaches towards dreampop in its wistful loveliness, while remaining true to West Sumatera rhythm and improvisation. This remarkable record paradoxically uses a step back towards tradition to move forwards into new territory, creating something truly fresh and idiosyncratic.
 
About Sipaningkah:

Aldo Ahmad, a.k.a Sipaningkah, is a improviser, sound artist and instrument builder from Minangkabau, Based in Jakarta. His compositions draw from both Indonesian and Western traditions, producing a wide variety of works including electro-acoustic pieces, sound installations, scores for film, theatre, dance, and multi-disciplinary projects. Aldo studied Percussion at Yogyakarta State University and Music Composition at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts Surakarta. Currently, he is a member of the collective Total Perkusi. He is also the Program Director and Co Founder of Pasamoan Art Initiated, a DIY Platform of Sumatran Sound Artist and Experimental music,  and sits on the board of Kombo Improvisation Lab, a platform supporting improvisation and the spirit of experimentation in music and arts education.

Sipaningkah - Langkah Suruik

Artist: IN THE SUN 
Album: Dawn 
Format: Digital / Tape 
Cat.No: CHI049 
Master: IN THE SUN 
Artwork: Saphy Vong
Release Date: 24.09.24

Pounding traditional drums and grinding synths herald Dawn, the new album from post-industrial Tokyo duo IN THE SUN, their first release on Chinabot.

Dawn was inspired by the musical traditions and wild mountain landscapes of composer TIDEPOOL’s childhood in rural Japan. Layers of ethereal synthesizers and wailing saxophones by Kim Pueru evoke the mist and granite of mountains are beaten with rhythms that hit like shattering rocks.

The record “embodies a fusion of synthetic and percussive elements, evoking both mysticism and raw energy,” says TIDEPOOL. “The juxtaposition of dystopian undertones and the resilience of nature serves as a thematic backdrop, reflecting on societal shifts and personal introspection.”

Dawn’s instrumentation may be inspired by Japanese taiko drums and African percussion, but it remains extremely contemporary, with swirling rhythms of singeli, juke, footwork, gabber, and minimal to create an evil cacophony. The album also nods to the GORGE movement, which is experiencing a resurgence in Japan.

TIDEPOOL describes the record as an “epic poem.” This is evident on Twilight, where urgent synths and nimble per- cussion makes you wonder what Akira would have looked like set in on a mountain range instead of in Tokyo.

On Voidance, bells, drums and saxophone are whipped up onto a violent stormwhich builds and crashes repeatedly, a powerful statement of intent from one of Tokyo’s most exciting contemporary acts.

About IN THE SUN:

Organized by TIDEPOOL since 2011, IN THE SUN has a fluid lineup, with Kim Pueru joining on tenor saxophone for Dawn. TIDEPOOL utilizes ethnic drums, synthesizers, and laptops and is influenced and inspired by artists such as Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Throbbing Gristle, Geinoh Yamashirogumi, CAN, among others.
They supported Baltimore duo Matmos during their Japan tour and organized the party known as “RAW TEMPO” at Bushbash.

IN THE SUN - Dawn

Artist: Dayoung
EP: Latency
Format: Digital
Cat.No: CHI052
Master: Justin Randel
Artwork: Dayoung
Release Date: 25 October 2024

Baroque meets industrial techno on Latency, the latest EP from Seoul-based DJ and musician Dayoung. Through the pounding rhythms of taiko drums and dark swirling electronica, she creates a melancholic soundtrack to an existential crisis on the dancefloor.

Latency, her first release on Chinabot, comes after a period of self-realisation for Dayoung. “I aim to express emotions such anxiety and uneasiness into experimental, deconstructed sounds that are still more or less describable in dance-floor grammar,” she says. “Strong sounds and textures are a kind of release for me. Subversive music is an outlet. It screams out things I can't say in words.”

Building from the creeping, liquid sadness of the opening tracks, Strong/Weak, Dangerous fills in a slow BPM with distorted samples, including her own whispering voice, to create a stuttering whirlwind of repressed angst. “Sometimes you want to say something but it’s just not easy due to circumstances, and I wanted to reflect on this kind of situation,” Dayoung says.

On the next track, Disturbing Choir, heavy kicks and breakbeats turn the drama up a notch, driven by stacked melodies that interlace like a choir. An ominous feeling grows throughout the record, which ends with Expired, built around a Latin American tresillo rhythm bulked out with heavy bass and kicks. Leaving the listener with a sense of unease, it is characteristic of Dayoung’s refusal to provide any simple conclusions, preferring instead to draw us into the mist of the emotional moment.

Dayoung is a DJ and promoter based in Seoul who plays heavy bass, reggaeton, UK bass, breakbeat and more. She is also a member of the art collective Lost Air which archives and researches the underground electronic music scenes of (mostly) Seoul. In 2023, she launched a new Seoul-based collective, Fragmented Service, with fellow musician and DJ Jaeho Hwang. She has played with and supported artists like Dis Fig, Flora Yin Wong, NET GALA, and Salamanda. At the moment she is the promoter of her own party series [Girls Gone Wild] and is a monthly roster member of Visla.fm radio.

Dayoung - Latency

Japanese folk experimentalist KASAI returns for his third release on Chinabot with the emoji-titled . Continuing his exuberant exploration of traditional minyo, he incorporates the ancient form into the experience of life and labour in contemporary Japan. “There are many celebratory labour songs in minyo,” says KASAI. “Influenced by these aspects, I created my own minyo.”

Drawing on the events of his daily life,  reflects KASAI’s own work as a care worker, garbage disposal worker, father and hobbyist farmer. His creative methods reflect this humanistic impulse, showcasing the voice as a centrepiece; , written and pronounced as Iori-ten, references the musical notation used where the singer’s part begins in some forms of traditional Japanese music.

His stripped-back rhythms are often characterized by hand clapping on odd-numbered beats, where the influence of gorge and bass music is felt alongside taiko drumming. “Rather than melody, I focus on the rhythm and momentum of the words as they areuttered,” he says. “It is more important about the voicing than singing.” He credits the radio broadcasts of the Riyo Mountains, a DJ duo who research Japanese folk music, for influencing his vocal delivery.

On the album’s final track, ゴモク積み唄, which translates as ‘Piling-up Garbage Song’, KASAI sings about the care and attention the garbage collector pays to his job, over a clanging, workmanlike beat and backup chants from his real-life garbage disposal workmates.

Rhyming “piling up garbage” with “accumulating virtue” in Buddhism, he playfully lauds the sparkling moral cleanliness of the binman. On the video for the song, he’s joined by his workmates as they dance joyfully together. While ironic (“needless to say, we work for wages,” KASAI says), the song and video are also a powerful celebration of the vital physicality and unity of manual labour, which is often rewarded with neither social status nor high pay, leaving the worker to hope for reward in the next life instead.

On , KASAI often pushes against the social forces that keeps this essential work undervalued. Fourth track シン・自由節, or ‘Truly Free Chant’, recruits Tokyo-based artist Clark Naito for an indictment of neoliberalism, touching on everything from market fundamentalism to small government and increasing privatization. A bouncing back-and-forth flow between the two recalls hip-hop as much as minyo.

The following tracks 地団駄 (Throw A Tantrum) and めでたいな (Auspicious) revisits this social critique through the lens of fatherhood. 地団駄 (Throw A Tantrum)’s stomping beat mimics a toddler’s tantrum: “His steps resembled a high-speed dance,” says KASAI, who pays tribute to young children’s passionate resistance, believing adults too can learn from this spirit.

めでたいな (Auspicious) reflects another lesson he has learned from caring for his small child, that of interdependence. “Humans as defined by neoliberalism are calledhomo economicus,” he says. “Homo Economicus is a strange being that seems to have grown out of the rock all by itself, like a mushroom. Homo Economicus is told on the assumption that this being is capable of making rational decisions about everything. The birth and upbringing of my child showed me how ridiculous that assumption is.”

Like many people of the current era, KASAI has lived in different places in his life, mainly in suburbs. He does not see himself rooted in a hyper-local folk culture as a minyo artist would have been a hundred years ago (as he puts it, “I am not a person who embodies the local vibes.”) Yet authentically recenters minyo into its birthplace: the material reality of ordinary life, its timeless hardships and joys, making it a rare look into the life of the contemporary working-class in Japan.

KASAI - 〽

Multi-disciplinary artist Tanat Teeradakorn announces the release of his latest EP, NATIONAL OPERA COMPLEX, on 31st October 2025. In conjunction with the launch, Tanat will provide an exclusive preview of the new single, ACT-3-STARLIGHT OF FAITH, which will be streaming on 2nd October.

Originally commissioned for his acclaimed solo exhibition NATIONAL OPERA COMPLEX at Gasworks in London (2025), the EP is structured as a five-act opera that reflects on the pervasive influence of media on politics, economics, and culture. Drawing inspiration from five seminal songs pivotal in Thailand’s activist history—from compositions during the transition from feudalism to capitalism to revolutionary anthems written during the 1973 Thai uprising—the work explores the political agency of sound in shaping ideology, memory, and dissent.

Imagined as a soundtrack for a Ram-vong dance tutorial video, NATIONAL OPERA COMPLEX delves into how sound impacts the mind, body, and cultural identity—seeking to inspire unity, emotion, and solidarity amidst contestations over sound’s role in societal control and resistance.

In the contemporary landscape, music remains a powerful medium for collective memory and political expression. In Thailand, protest songs such as Puer Muan Chon (For the Masses) and Seang Dao Heng Sata (Starlight of Faith) have historically united diverse social groups in moments of upheaval and resistance, passing from one generation to the next while evolving in meaning and context. Tanat’s EP juxtaposes traditional Thai sonic elements like Pi, Gong, and Ching with diverse genres from Morlam and Sai-Yor to Hardcore, Gabber, Trance, and Pop, creating a sonic hybridity that mirrors the layered cultural production of contemporary Thailand.

NATIONAL OPERA COMPLEX offers a sonic portrait of time, representing the enduring stories of struggle, memory, and resilience embedded in Thai history. By reappropriating suppressed histories and amplifying marginalized voices, Tanat’s work underscores the power of sound to evoke collective emotion and document the ongoing fight for justice.

About Tanat Teeradakorn

Tanat Teeradakorn (b. 1991, Bangkok) is a Bangkok-based artist working across sound, music, performance, printmaking, installation, and graphic design. His work interrogates the circulation and construction of cultural narratives through fragments of biography, memory, data, and history, often blending traditional and contemporary sonic elements to explore cultural hybridity and social critique. Recent performances and exhibitions include CHAOS MANDALA: NATIONAL COLORATION COMPLEX at Bangkok CityCity Gallery, Gasworks London, Transmediale Berlin, and CTM Festival Berlin.

Tanat Teeradakorn - NATIONAL OPERA COMPLEX

Artist: Jap Kasai 
Album: OWN ℃ 
Format: Digital / Tape 
Cat.No: CHI028 
Master: Jap Kasai 
Artwork: Saphy Vong 
Release Date: 10th May 2021

Japanese folk, Juke and Footwork meet in a joyful, hook-filled union on Jap Kasai’s newest album, OWN ℃. Using the Japanese concept of 温故知新 (onko-chishin), meaning "developing new ideas based on study of the past," Jap Kasai finds a totally unique expression of Japanese Ondo and Minyo folk music infused with a hypnotic and exuberant modernity.

Jap Kasai has been experimenting with ancient folk styles since 2015. He later discovered Footwork and juke.

“They created a new groove by sampling old soul music. They use soulful voices effectively,” explains the Kyoto-based producer. “So, I decided to replace [the vocals] with Japanese Monyo folk songs, because it was said that Minyo was the soul music of the country where I was born. At first it was half a joke. But, I gradually felt the depth of Minyo.” 
The marriage of Minyo and footwork isn’t as strange as it might sound on paper. On OWN ℃, the rhythmic, distended vocal style of Minyo singers (often backed by Jap Kasai’s own vocals) and the skittish, loose architecture of footwork creates a compelling new style that honours both musical traditions. Tracks such as 酔鴨 yoi kamo build in a grooving, circular loop, driven onwards by a ramshackle undercurrent of complex beats.

“Juke is a relatively new rhythm, but somehow ancient,” says Jap Kasai. “And fast rhythms make you feel slow in a way. Curiously, I got the same feeling when listening to Japanese folk songs. It's often a mix of slow drum rhythms and fast, metallic rhythms. Voices are also used differently from the West. I found this very interesting.” 
The title OWN ℃ combines a number of his concerns as an artist. It is a nod to his grandmother, ヲウン or Woun. Also, as he explains, "OWN ℃ can be read as "Ondo" in Japanese. And also OWN ℃ means "own body temperature". It is important in coronavirus disasters. Therefore, a simple wordplay gets a strange meaning.”

Despite sampling music from the recent and distant past, OWN ℃ addresses some very timely concerns. “Now the division of labour is very advanced,” he says. “We often feel as if our mind and body have become separate by internet. There are positive aspects to these systems. But I also think it has become more difficult to empathize deeply with things and to feel raw realisation. We need to change our lifestyles based on a real sense of mind and body.” A jubilant, danceable record, OWN ℃ reminds us of our own warm materiality.  

About Jap Kasai:
Based in Kyoto, Daisuke Iijima has been making music since 2015. He runs the cassette label hoge tapes.

OWN ℃

酔鴨 Yoi Kamo

Jap Kasai - 酔鴨 Yoi Kamo

Artist: Pilgrim Raid
 Album: Anna Agenda 
Format: Digital / Tape 
Cat.No: CHI035 
Release Date: 01/10/2021
Master: Zach Sch

Uwu! Vietnamese EDM and experimental noise music is reimagined through the lens of internet culture in Anna Agenda, the first release from Vietnamese band Pilgrim Raid on Chinabot.

Distorted samples and frantic beats are unified by a rough, DIY aesthetic and an ear for maximalist pop melody. Noise, ambient, emo and dance are just some styles touched on by the electronic duo. "Our main concept is genre play," says the band. "We try to mash a lot of genres together and make it consistent and with personal expression, with samples calling back to Vietnamese culture and personal field recordings." Like Liars and early Hype Williams, Pilgrim Raid have a healthy irreverence and an interest in repurposing sounds to make new warped pop melodies.

The album is steeped in nostalgia for a childhood spent in 2000s Vietnam, with heavily reverbed and distorted archive samples creating a dreamlike ambience. "Those [samples are] old VTV (local state television) recordings which were a big part of our childhood," they say. "Especially the TV reporters' voices, they are the most memorable parts when I look back into those hazy childhood memories." Anna Agenda is a sound of teenagehood in the Vietnamese suburbs, the soundtrack to hours of making music in a bedroom after school followed by moto trips to the city.

Standout track Cardboard Creek nods to Vina House, the specific Vietnamese strain of bass-heavy, speedy EDM heard blasting from cafes and bars across the country, a kind of local answer to other popular European dance music. Pilgrim Raid lean into Vina House's brain-shaking, teeth-grinding euphoria, mixing in trance and ambient webs of melody which recalls Lorenzo Senni as much as DJ Hoang Anh.

Began in their hometown of Hà Nội, the album was completed after a trip to Saigon. "Saigon itself was like a breath of fresh air for us," says Long Trần, who makes up half of Pilgrim Raid alongside Vuong Thien. "We went there and recorded lots of sounds, mostly instruments, voices, and band rehearsals. I think that was the glue, like the final piece of puzzle. when we came back, me and her, we finished the album like instantly." Anna Agenda encapsulates the joyful sense of exploration felt by a new generation of Vietnamese artists.


About Pilgrim Raid Forming in the Hà Nội suburbs in 2019, Long Trần and Vuong Thien of Pilgrim Raid grew up in the local noise and electronic music scenes. Initially influenced by hip hop producers, regular shows in Ho Chi Minh City and Hà Nội began to develop a distinct performance and recorded sound. Textures reminiscent of James Ferraro and hooky melodies can be heard throughout, layering grand soundscapes and playful bursts of noise and rhythm. Joined on this album by frequent collaborator Thiện Vương, the pair now continue their work warping samples and synth lines into a tapestry of rich textures, melodies, and bass. They are also members of the band Mona Evie, whose track was released on the last Chinabot compilation.


Long Tran - production, composition, arrangement, field recordings, vocals (track 10), mixing
Thien Vuong - production, engineering, field recordings, vocals (track 10), mixing
Gia Duc - studio equipment
Spencer Nguyen - guitar (track 6,10), field recording (track 3,6), vocals (track 6,10)f
Zach Sch - additional production (track 1), mastering
Ha Anh - art direction, design
Tran Van Anh - photography

Anna Agenda

Pilgrim Raid - Cardboard Creek

Pilgrim Raid - Thiên Thần và Ác Quỷ

Pilgrim Raid - Nội Bài

2013-2021 Seoul

Far Away 멀리있어

Pal Hwang Dan - Far Away 멀리있어

If 만약

Pal Hwang Dan - If 만약

While Walking 걷다가

Pal Hwang Dan - While Walking 걷다가

Artist: Pal Hwang Dan
Album: 2013-2021 Seoul
Format: Digital / Tape
Cat.No: CHI036
Master: Pal Hwang Dan
Artwork: Saphy Vong
Release Date: 19 November 2021
'Usadan - Ro' Music Video: https://youtu.be/o1tuRV22kxM

Pop iconoclast Pal Hwang Dan returns for his third release on Chinabot, 2013-2021 Seoul. Through solid-gold synth-pop hooks and his deadpan, romantic vocal delivery, he paints a picture of life in modern-day Seoul filled with yearning, loneliness, absurdity and rampant consumerism.

It’s not just watertight song-writing which makes 2013-2021 Seoul is his most clear-eyed release yet. His vision is immediately clear in opening track Usadan-ro (우사단로), an irresistible slice of off-kilter hypnagogic pop. The accompanying music video shows Pal Hwang Dan dancing around his crappy, tiny Seoul apartment, playing like a child and eating maggots on avocado toast.

“There was no sunlight outside the window, only saw the Che Agency sign,” he sings over the propulsive, bittersweet melody. “The phone was dead, woke up, not knowing the time.” A defiant assertion of energy within the empty isolation of city life, Pal Hwang Dan shows his iconoclastic charisma as a modern Korean pop performer with a vision more in line with Parasite (2019) than K-Pop’s high glitz.

Alienation and consumerism are recurring themes in 2013-2021 Seoul. 19800 Won (19800원) is a melancholy, spoken-word and harmonica track reminiscent of early Dean Blunt. Named after a t-shirt he designed and sold for 19,800 Korean Won, the music video is positioned as a t-shirt advert shot through a surreal vapourwave lens. In a black suit, Pal Hwang Dan performs his song karaoke-style behind an ever-increasing frenzy of graphics in an advert gone horrible wrong.

He nonetheless retains a romantic wistfulness, his childlike, hooky melodies and soft vocals suggesting a wistful optimism. The video for Far Away (멀리있어) sees Pal Hwang Dan waiting on a beach to have a picnic, sketching the sea and holding a rose. His lover never comes, however - instead, we see naively hand-drawn adverts, ratings and prices for the picnic items, like Coca-Cola and Kleenex, a nod to the Korean obsession of rating consumer products. Far Away (멀리있어) has a savagely playful romanticism and cynicism reminiscent of Serge Gainsbourg.

Despite his strong pop sensibility, he never abandons a deeper sense of avant-guard strangeness. Jungchon Alpine Club 중촌 산악회 is about the Japanese nationalist writer Yukio Mishima who committed seppuku in 1970 after a failed coup, someone Pal Hwang Dan describes as “foolish but interesting”. His frantic, pitched repetitive vocals contrast with the dark experimental country underneath, creating a sense of creeping unease.

“I grew up in Anyang City,” says Pal Hwang Dan. “After I became an adult, I lived in Seoul for a long time. But Seoul has always felt foreign to me.” 2013-2021 Seoul is such a powerful depiction of disjointed urban life it is immediately recognisable to city-dwellers everywhere. A bold evolution of craft and vision, it cements Pal Hwang Dan as one of the most unique voices in pop music today.

“Pal Hwang Dan gleefully combines 1980s synths, video game music and crisp, melancholic synthpop into a sound as shiny and metallic as a Technicolour mecha battle royale” – The Wire

“Emanates an alluring darkness — like, somewhere, there is a disco apocalypse waiting for us… If that's what we're headed for, then sign me up” – The Fader

About the artist
Pal Hwang Dan, real name Pal Boche, is a musician living in Seoul, where he moved in 2013. He is inspired by industrial, K-pop and animation. He works as a composer for advertising and video game soundtracks. His first album with Chinabot, Saneopseonjip, was released in 2018, followed by A Length of Line in 2020.

Usadan - Ro 우사단로

Pal Hwang Dan - Usadan - Ro 우사단로

Artist: Bo Sedkid
Album: Goring
Cat.No: CHI040
Master: Bo Sedkid
Artwork: Bo Sedkid
Release Date: 1st September 2022

From Colombo-based avant-garde songwriter and visual artist Bo Sedkid comes a new album Goring, a wild ride through experimental hip-hop, Sri Lankan instrumentation and dream pop, which at once recalls the political collages of early M.I.A. and the dark experimentations of Yves Tumor.

The album’s title references animalistic violence, the act of stabbing with a horn or tusk. It’s also inspired by the 1971 Sri Lankan cinema classic Welikathara, which features a criminal antihero named Goring, evoking the analogue textures and gritty, sweeping emotions of 1970s cinema.

“Though Goring is the bad guy of the film I see him as an antihero who fights with style against authority,” says Bo Sedkid. “The title song, Goring, itself talks about local police brutality and political corruption.”

Moving between experimental hip-hop, Sinhalese spoken word, ambient and acoustic guitar, Goring is a searching, scouring look at darkness and corruption both externally and internally. The title of the song Manokamaya, a made-up Sinhalese word which best translates as ‘self-tripping’, finds beauty in nihilistic solitary dreaming; Bo Sedkid cites philosopher Emil Cioran as another strong influence on the album.

The song Full Dot turns this darkness on its head, using chopped and screwed vocals over a lilting beat to create a an anthemic, thrilling ode to fatalism. Hot on its heels comes Kavvandha, which combines Sinhalese drum patterns and a throbbing, fuzzed-out techno synths. An album made in turbulence, Goring embraces uncertainty and doubt, exploring the difficulty and contradictions of human nature and finding both joy and darkness.

About Bo Sedkid

Bo Sedkid (real name Muvindu Binoy, b.1989) is an independent filmmaker and multimedia artist from Sri Lanka. As with his collage-based artworks, he is known for recontextualising traditional Sinhalese sounds and stories in music, touching on everything from tales of Prince Siddhartha to Sri Lanka’s political strife.

Goring

Full Dot

BO SEDKID - Full Dot

“When you hear the sound system in the morning and smell a big hit from the chili and fish sauce, it means we have a ceremony happening,” says Pisitakun Kuantalaeng, remembering the local festivals that bring together every small town in his home country, Thailand. After moving from Bangkok to Porto in 2021, before eventually settling in Berlin, his new album on Chinabot acts as a wild, vertiginous, homesick ride through Thailand, as intensely flavoured as any of the food each track is named after.

This album “Kuantalaeng”, his third solo release on Chinabot, riffs on the Thai-language translation of his last name [ควรแถลง], which means “should make a statement”. As reflected in the playful tracklisting and album art, he imagines the album as a recreation of his homeland, showing real wistful longing while making a sly dig at the naive vision of Thailand as it’s understood in his new home in Europe.

“The image of Thailand is the food and the traveling,” he says. “Many times, when you have a conversation with your friend in another country, they will mention the food or the travels from Thailand. There are Thai restaurants everywhere in Europe that present this Thai image. But the thing that is in my mind is politics.” Thailand’s powerful tourism industry also works to eclipse its grim political reality, which recently saw a democratically elected political party get blocked from power by allies of the monarchy and military in the Senate.

“Kuantalaeng” seeks to balance this perception, facing its seemingly endless political problems head on while celebrating regional Thai culture. The album captures the joyful spirit of rural and suburban festivals, where you’ll find food stalls, religious ceremonies, traditional แตรวง, a kind of brass band, and huge, colourful trucks blasting รถแห่ “rod hare” music accompanied by dancers.

About Pisitakun:
Pisitakun Kuantalaeng (b.1986) graduated with a BFA in Sculpture, School of Architecture, Art, and Design – King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok, Thailand.

Pisitakun has been weaving traditional Thai instrumentation together with pounding rhythms and rugged samples, building post-industrial noisescape since 2014. A large part of his inspiration lies in a frustration at his country’s political life and censorship rules, forging these protest songs to turn noise into fiery expressions of hope – and anger.

He has performed at CTM Festival (Berlin), Asian Meeting Festival (Tokyo), MEIA (Aveiro), Schiev (Brussels), Rokolectiv (Bucharest) and Cafe OTO (London). His previous releases on Chinabot are SOSLEEP(2018) created shortly after the death of his father from cancer, and combined traditional mourning instruments with harsh noise and techno beats, wrapping them around intimate recordings of the hospital machinery that kept his father alive during his final days. and Absolute C.O.U.P. (2020). He also released Kongkraphan (2022) on Yes No Wave, toured with Gabber Modus Operandi in Thailand. He’s also part of the SHAPE Platform roaster of artists for 2022 and has performed with the likes of Meuko Meuko, Abadir, Evita Manji.

KUANTALAENG

Pisitakun - Pad Kra Pao Moo

Langkah Suruik

Langkah

Sipaningkah - Langkah

Ranuang

Sipaningkah - Ranuang

Hantaran

Sipaningkah - Hantaran

Nan Tongga

Sipaningkah - Nan Tongga

Imbau

Sipaningkah - Imbau

in all possible places at once

incoming

Liew Niyomkarn - incoming

Artist: IN THE SUN
Album: Dawn
Format: Digital / Tape
Cat.No: CHI049
Master: IN THE SUN
Artwork: Saphy Vong
Release Date: 24.09.24

Pounding traditional drums and grinding synths herald Dawn, the new album from post-industrial Tokyo duo IN THE SUN, their first release on Chinabot.

Dawn was inspired by the musical traditions and wild mountain landscapes of composer TIDEPOOL’s childhood in rural Japan. Layers of ethereal synthesizers and wailing saxophones by Kim Pueru evoke the mist and granite of mountains are beaten with rhythms that hit like shattering rocks.

The record “embodies a fusion of synthetic and percussive elements, evoking both mysticism and raw energy,” says TIDEPOOL. “The juxtaposition of dystopian undertones and the resilience of nature serves as a thematic backdrop, reflecting on societal shifts and personal introspection.”

Dawn’s instrumentation may be inspired by Japanese taiko drums and African percussion, but it remains extremely contemporary, with swirling rhythms of singeli, juke, footwork, gabber, and minimal to create an evil cacophony. The album also nods to the GORGE movement, which is experiencing a resurgence in Japan.

TIDEPOOL describes the record as an “epic poem.” This is evident on Twilight, where urgent synths and nimble per- cussion makes you wonder what Akira would have looked like set in on a mountain range instead of in Tokyo.

On Voidance, bells, drums and saxophone are whipped up onto a violent stormwhich builds and crashes repeatedly, a powerful statement of intent from one of Tokyo’s most exciting contemporary acts.

About IN THE SUN:

Organized by TIDEPOOL since 2011, IN THE SUN has a fluid lineup, with Kim Pueru joining on tenor saxophone for Dawn. TIDEPOOL utilizes ethnic drums, synthesizers, and laptops and is influenced and inspired by artists such as Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Throbbing Gristle, Geinoh Yamashirogumi, CAN, among others.
They supported Baltimore duo Matmos during their Japan tour and organized the party known as “RAW TEMPO” at Bushbash.

Dawn

Dance

Artist: IN THE SUN
Album: Dawn
Format: Digital / Tape
Cat.No: CHI049
Master: IN THE SUN
Artwork: Saphy Vong
Release Date: 27.09.24

Pounding traditional drums and grinding synths herald Dawn, the new album from post-industrial Tokyo duo IN THE SUN, their first release on Chinabot.

Dawn was inspired by the musical traditions and wild mountain landscapes of composer TIDEPOOL’s childhood in rural Japan. Layers of ethereal synthesizers and wailing saxophones by Kim Pueru evoke the mist and granite of mountains are beaten with rhythms that hit like shattering rocks.

The record “embodies a fusion of synthetic and percussive elements, evoking both mysticism and raw energy,” says TIDEPOOL. “The juxtaposition of dystopian undertones and the resilience of nature serves as a thematic backdrop, reflecting on societal shifts and personal introspection.”

Dawn’s instrumentation may be inspired by Japanese taiko drums and African percussion, but it remains extremely contemporary, with swirling rhythms of singeli, juke, footwork, gabber, and minimal to create an evil cacophony. The album also nods to the GORGE movement, which is experiencing a resurgence in Japan.

TIDEPOOL describes the record as an “epic poem.” This is evident on Twilight, where urgent synths and nimble per- cussion makes you wonder what Akira would have looked like set in on a mountain range instead of in Tokyo.

On Voidance, bells, drums and saxophone are whipped up onto a violent storm which builds and crashes repeatedly, a powerful statement of intent from one of Tokyo’s most exciting contemporary acts.

About IN THE SUN:

Organized by TIDEPOOL since 2011, IN THE SUN has a fluid lineup, with Kim Pueru joining on tenor saxophone for Dawn. TIDEPOOL utilizes ethnic drums, synthesizers, and laptops and is influenced and inspired by artists such as Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Throbbing Gristle, Geinoh Yamashirogumi, CAN, among others.
They supported Baltimore duo Matmos during their Japan tour and organized the party known as “RAW TEMPO” at Bushbash.

Voidance

Insecurity

Twilight

Collapse

Latency

Comes And Goes

Artist: Dayoung
EP: Latency
Format: Digital
Cat.No: CHI052
Master: Justin Randel
Artwork: Dayoung
Release Date: 25 October 2024

Baroque meets industrial techno on Latency, the latest EP from Seoul-based DJ and musician Dayoung. Through the pounding rhythms of taiko drums and dark swirling electronica, she creates a melancholic soundtrack to an existential crisis on the dancefloor.

Latency, her first release on Chinabot, comes after a period of self-realisation for Dayoung. “I aim to express emotions such anxiety and uneasiness into experimental, deconstructed sounds that are still more or less describable in dance-floor grammar,” she says. “Strong sounds and textures are a kind of release for me. Subversive music is an outlet. It screams out things I can't say in words.”

 

Building from the creeping, liquid sadness of the opening tracks, Strong/Weak, Dangerous fills in a slow BPM with distorted samples, including her own whispering voice, to create a stuttering whirlwind of repressed angst. “Sometimes you want to say something but it’s just not easy due to circumstances, and I wanted to reflect on this kind of situation,” Dayoung says.

 

On the next track, Disturbing Choir, heavy kicks and breakbeats turn the drama up a notch, driven by stacked melodies that interlace like a choir. An ominous feeling grows throughout the record, which ends with Expired, built around a Latin American tresillo rhythm bulked out with heavy bass and kicks. Leaving the listener with a sense of unease, it is characteristic of Dayoung’s refusal to provide any simple conclusions, preferring instead to draw us into the mist of the emotional moment.

Dayoung is a DJ and promoter based in Seoul who plays heavy bass, reggaeton, UK bass, breakbeat and more. She is also a member of the art collective Lost Air which archives and researches the underground electronic music scenes of (mostly) Seoul. In 2023, she launched a new Seoul-based collective, Fragmented Service, with fellow musician and DJ Jaeho Hwang. She has played with and supported artists like Dis Fig, Flora Yin Wong, NET GALA, and Salamanda. At the moment she is the promoter of her own party series [Girls Gone Wild] and is a monthly roster member of Visla.fm radio.

Disturbing Choir

Strong/Weak, Dangerous

Sentiments

Intro

地団駄

荷負い唄

シン・自由節 feat. クラーク内藤

いたわり節

土踏み唄

じゃんこじゃんこ

04. ACT-4 - PUER MUAN CHON [FOR THE MASSES]

NATIONAL OPERA COMPLEX

ACT-3 - STARLIGHT OF FAITH

03. ACT-3 - STARLIGHT OF FAITH

05. ACT-5 - DASI MANNAN SEGYE [INTO THE NEW WORLD]

07. CLUBPARASITE MEGA-MIXXX [BONUS TRACK]

02. ACT-2 - RAM WONG WAN-MAYDAY

01. ACT-1 - REMINISCENCE [PRELUDE]

06. INTERLUDE_[SOFT OPERA]

Saneopseonjip 산업선집

Buy Album

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https://chinabot.bandcamp.com/album/pal-hwang-dan-saneopseonjip

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