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 - 〽

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

Anna Agenda

Pilgrim Raid - Snow Peak

2013-2021 Seoul

Far Away 멀리있어

Pal Hwang Dan - Far Away 멀리있어

If 만약

Pal Hwang Dan - If 만약

13 Years 13년

Pal Hwang Dan - 13 Years 13년

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: V/A
Album: 5
Format: Digital / Tape
Cat.No: CHI042
Master: Justin Randel
Artwork: Saphy Vong
Release Date: 23rd November 2022

Celebrating five years of the experimental music label Chinabot, longtime collaborators and new acts join together for 5, Chinabot’s latest compilation release on cassette and digital.
The 12-track compilation features music from key artists who have defined Chinabot as a label, such as Jaeho Hwang, Sabiwa, Sarah Haras, Ayankoko, JPN Kasai and Pal Hwang Dan. The mix also looks to the future of the label with new artists Nanzhen Yang, Papaphilia, Chooc Ly and more.

Leaning into the label’s experimental tendencies, 5 journeys through fractured club tunes from Papaphilia, the experimental electronic project of queer Sri Lankan-Australian sound and visual artist Fjorn Bastos, hardcore rave from Jaeho Hwang, percussive broken beats and percussive broken beats and cinematic soundscapes from QwentyZ, and Beijing field recordings (described by the artist as “blurred memories”) from Nanzhen Yang.
It continues the hyper-eclectic vision which has become synonymous with the label, which seeks to take risks and promote the work of exciting emerging producers. The record features Ondo footwork from JPN Kasai, whorecently changed his artist name from Jap Kasai following the racist discrimination against a friend in Europe (“‘Jap’ is a derogatory term for Japanese people,” he says. “I used to dare to use it, but I have changed my mind. I don’t want to encourage discrimination against Japanese people.”) Like the compilation, his track, 早苗 唄 hayanae uta, is about the emergence of the new in this case, growth of rice shoots and the “happiness of harvest.”

Growth and experimentation remain key in the track from new Chinabot artist Papaphilia, who is due to release a full album next year. Inspired in part by the voracious learning of her newborn, ‘no path is forged over the abyss without meeting at the altar’ expresses the “leaps into the unknown that forging radical new meaning requires.”

The new compilation, with artwork by Saphy Vong, pays tribute to London’s experimental music scene, showcasing producers Chooc Ly, Yewen Jin and Nanzhen Yang who have performed at Chinabot’s events in the city over the years.

Album credits:

Track 3:

Name: no path is forged over the abyss without meeting at the altar
Written by: Papaphilia
Production: Kuya Neil

Track 4:

Name: Exaltation Onirique
Written by: Chooc Ly
Production: Alia Pathan

Brooch Killer

Pal Hwang Dan - Brooch Killer

Artist: V/A
Album: 5
Format: Digital / Tape
Cat.No: CHI042
Master: Justin Randel
Artwork: Saphy Vong
Release Date: 23rd November 2022

Celebrating five years of the experimental music label Chinabot, longtime collaborators and new acts join together for 5, Chinabot’s latest compilation release on cassette and digital.

The 12-track compilation features music from key artists who have defined Chinabot as a label, such as Jaeho Hwang, Sabiwa, Sarah Haras, Ayankoko, JPN Kasai and Pal Hwang Dan. The mix also looks to the future of the label with new artists Nanzhen Yang, Papaphilia, Chooc Ly and more.

Leaning into the label’s experimental tendencies, 5 journeys through fractured club tunes from Papaphilia, the experimental electronic project of queer Sri Lankan-Australian sound and visual artist Fjorn Bastos, hardcore rave from Jaeho Hwang, percussive broken beats and percussive broken beats and cinematic soundscapes from QwentyZ, and Beijing field recordings (described by the artist as “blurred memories”) from Nanzhen Yang. It continues the hyper-eclectic vision which has become synonymous with the label, which seeks to take risks and promote the work of exciting emerging producers. The record features Ondo footwork from JPN Kasai, who recently changed his artist name from Jap Kasai following the racist discrimination against a friend in Europe(“‘Jap’ is a derogatory term for Japanese people,” he says. “I used to dare to use it, but I have changed my mind. I don’t want to encourage discrimination against Japanese people.”) Like the compilation, his track, 早苗 唄 hayanae uta, is about the emergence of the new in this case, growth of rice shoots and the “happiness of harvest.”

Growth and experimentation remain key in the track from new Chinabot artist Papaphilia, who is due to release a full album next year. Inspired in part by the voracious learning of her newborn, ‘no path is forged over the abyss without meeting at the altar’ expresses the “leaps into the unknown that forging radical new meaning requires.”

The new compilation, with artwork by Saphy Vong, pays tribute to London’s experimental music scene, showcasing producers Chooc Ly, Yewen Jin and Nanzhen Yang who have performed at Chinabot’s events in the city over the years.

I Was Called

Jaeho Hwang - I Was Called

“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

Kuantalaeng

Pisitakun - Gaeng Massaman Gai

Langkah Suruik

Langkah

Sipaningkah - Langkah

Ranuang

Sipaningkah - Ranuang

Hantaran

Sipaningkah - Hantaran

Nan Tongga

Sipaningkah - Nan Tongga

Imbau

Sipaningkah - Imbau

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

めでたいな

ゴモク積み唄 feat. 地元有志

金は天下のまわりもの

高槻の田植え唄

土踏み唄

じゃんこじゃんこ

Saneopseonjip 산업선집

Buy Album

Pal Hwang Dan - Dead Man 죽은사람

Pal Hwang Dan - Blue Light 파란등

“Saneopseonjip 산업선집” is the first darkly disorienting industrial dream-pop album from the South Korean artist Pal Hwang Dan from Jungchon.

"This album is a mix of experimentations, pop songs and soundtracks for animations, all of which have a cold feeling, I hate winter in Seoul. That is why I am inspired by the cold.. Many of my songs have a metallic texture. The actual metal objects were recorded instead of percussion, and synthesized, Drawing from industrial, Hypnagogic pop and video game music, it conjures up a world of uneasy futurism, where despair lurks behind a shiny pop sensibility with dancefloor experiments.. "

His high-energy beats are a nod to contemporary K-Pop, while warm, melancholy synths recall John Maus, James ferraro, Molly Nilsson, Dean Blunt or Jaakko Eino Kalevi, as well as catchy 80s Korean pop hits or anime soundtracks.

The album title translates as “Industrial Selections,” a nod to the album’s language of distorted beats and lo-fi experimentation. Yet this is counterbalanced by his irresistible melodic sense and whispered vocals, creating a record at once aggressive and vulnerable.

Pal Hwang Dan - Outside Forest Mathematics 숲밖수학

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

Pal Hwang Dan - First Winter 첫 겨울

Pal Hwang Dan - Kim Wansun 김완선

Pal Hwang Dan - Screaming of sea cucumber (feat. WTFMAN) 팔보채속 해삼의 외침

FAUXE - GAUT

A new release from the Singaporean artist Fauxe. 
‘I K H L A S’ was created after an eight-month visit to Malaysia last year, and mixes traditional samples from that country with the distorted bounce of hip hop grooves. Singapore acrimoniously seceded from Malaysia in 1965 and their relations have since been fractious, yet the two countries have a deeply-held shared history. "Singapore and Malaysia to me had always been two different places," says Fauxe. "Right now it feels like we have always been one. I hope the music brings about a certain understanding and appreciation of what both countries share." Named after the Bahasa Melayu word for ‘sincerity’, ‘I K H L A S’ serves as an ode to Malaysia and its sonic legacy. 

For this release, Fauxe worked with samples from traditional Malaysian Tamil and Hawaiian Malay music. This fusion reflects the musical globalisation Fauxe sees both in Malaysia and his home country. "Right now, it’s hip-hop that’s blossoming in popular consciousness; trap is an element that even someone living in my neighbourhood would be into," he says. "Hip-hop has become accessible to most young youth here. This album incorporates a lot of modern hip-hop elements, but also incorporates a lot of dance music vibes I was experiencing, hanging out with the crew from SaturdaySelects whose music output features more dance/remix/halftime incorporated grooves." Above all floats an irresistible pop sensibility; breezing through 16 songs into thirty minutes, ‘I K H L A S’ is a joyful, danceable exploration of the Kuala Lumpar music scene

I K H L A S

FAUXE - CHAI

Artist: Pisitakun
Album: Absolute C.O.U.P.
Format: Digital / Tape 
Cat.No: CHI022
Master: John Hannon
Artwork: Pisitakun
Release Date: 29 July 2020

The tourist board might try to paint Thailand as the Land of Smiles, but in reality, democracy and free expression for Thai citizens seem a far-off dream. The Southeast Asian country has undergone 13 military coups d’états following the Siamese Revolution in 1932, the most in modern history than any other country. “Since I was born I witnessed three different coups: in 1991, 2006 and 2014,” says Thai artist Pisitakun. “The question is stuck in my mind: Why do we have so many coups?”

Pisitakun explores this question on Absolute C.O.U.P. , his second release on Chinabot following 2018’s SOSLEEP. A whirl of hard techno, molam, military marching beats, Thai Pop and traditional Thai instrumentation, the seven-track record is a maximalist tour through the Thai political and psychic landscape, never sacrificing its wicked sense of fun in its pursuit of political justice.

Pisitakun is among the young Thai artists who use oblique playfulness to challenge the ruling powers in the face of censorship and prosecution. “I’m trying to collect the sounds, voices, samples or songs that relates to the coup and make songs from those sources. Each song represents the part of structure that supports the coup,” he says.

Opening track MoMoNarNarChy interpolates Pleng Sansern Phra Baramee, the Thai royal anthem. Played by Pisitikun on the phin, a lute from the marginalised Isan region of northern Thailand, he transfers the anthem through his analogue synthesizer to create a dissonant, unfamiliar version of the song, wrapped in techno beats and skittish distortions.

“This album was mix of different classes of music, from local to royal music, “ says Pisitakun of the album’s palimpsest of samples and tempo changes. “I try to put a lot of unstable parts into the song so that you never know when it will change, when it will be fun when it will be sad. It is like a coup in that you never know what will happen in the future. Only the one that makes the coup can know.”

Driven by military marching drums, ArArMyMy samples the Thai pop song Poor Soldier, a ballad about low solider wages, as well as the speech given in 2014 by the wealthy General Prayut Chan-o-cha shortly after his successful coup. Prayut, who implemented a number of anti-democracy and censorship laws, remains in power today.



As the world erupts in protest at police oppression, Pisitakun reminds us of the profound loss of human freedoms under a police state. His energetic defiance imagines an expressive, aggressive and deeply joyful world where the strata of power have been upended - a kind of coup in itself against the structures of hierarchy in Thailand.

The album includes three remixes from Gabber Modus Operandi, MSHR and ELVIN BRANDHI. It will be available to buy as a cassette or as a gold bullet-shaped USB stick—a typically subversive nod to the power and wealth of the Thai military elite. A visual artist as well as a musician, Pisitakun has made a painting for each song, which will be included as stickers with the physical release.


About PISITAKUN

Pisitakun Kuntalang is a visual artist and musician living in Bangkok. He released SOSLEEP, his first album with Chinabot, in 2018 and appeared on a number of other splits and compilations.

He questions fundamental and increasingly universal values without merely decrying the fact of corruption or offering neat palliatives. His works are based on political speculation and the external and internal frustrations artists are subject to.
He has performed at CTM Festival (Berlin, Germany), Asian Meeting Festival (Tokyo, Japan), WSK NUSASONIC (Manila, Philippines), Spaziomusica Festival (Cagliari, Italy) and Cafe OTO (London, UK).

Absolute C.O.U.P.

MONn - AARCHhE - EAT- JACKAAAL [ELVIN BRANDHI REMIX]

Pisitakun - MONn - AARCHhE - EAT- JACKAAAL [ELVIN BRANDHI Remix]

Artist: Bamboo Mystics
Album: Swara Suci
Format: Digital / Tape
Cat.No: CHI027
Master: Justin randel
Artwork: Saphy Vong
Release Date: 12th February 2021

Languid psychedelia and meditative earth tones dominate on Swara Suci, the new album from Indian artist Bamboo Mystics. Using gamelan instruments, bamboo flutes, Jal tarang (Indian Water bowls), Kacapi (Indonesian Harp) and his voice, the New Dehli-based artist explores the linked musical traditions of India and Java, adding field recordings and African rhythms to make a warm, glowing ambient soundscape. Swara Suci is an intelligent addition to the recent revival of New Age sounds for the digital era, recalling the measured, spiritual experimentations of Jozef Van Wissem or Laraaji.

Holding a post-graduate degree specialising in the tabla, the pair of twin hand drums from the Indian subcontinent, Bamboo Mystics utilises his love of traditional instrumentation on Swara Suci. On the lush, dreamlike opening track, Pelog baru, he plays the kacapi, an Indonesian harp, in a composition inspired by classical Indonesian gamelan music.

Driven by the African djembe drum, the hypnotic Rainbow Mother uses percussive instruments from the Indonesian gamelan – the kendang sunda and bonang. On Air Suci, he uses jal tarang, Indian ceramic melodic water cups, finely tuned to connect with the rhythm of water. He maintains a meditative but generous textural atmosphere throughout the record, with vocals and field recordings anchoring the complex instrumentation into lived reality.

Bamboo Mystics, whose birth name is Rahul Jigyasu, is deeply inspired by the natural world across the Asian continent. “Swara Suci means pure notes in Bahasa Indonesia,” says Jigyasu. “The album is called Swara Suci because it is a pure acoustic and vibrant sound, reflecting the sound of nature.”

All the tracks are solo works except ‘Lucid Hunter’ (duo as Musica Medicina) and ‘Rainbow Mother’ (duo as Irama sounds)

About Bamboo Mystics:

Hailing from New Delhi, India, Rahul Jigyasu holds a post-graduate degree in music from Khairagarh University in Chhattisgarh. A student of the Western Indian Nathdwara tradition, he has an ear for melody and complex rhythms. The connection between the ancient and contemporary gave him in-depth knowledge of world rhythms.
In 2015, he finished a yearlong music fellowship in Java, Indonesia, learning classical gamelan. During this time, he also learned to make instruments with bamboo, and he now conducts bamboo music and crafting workshops, as well as teaching tabla and other instruments. This is his first release with Chinabot.

Swara Suci

Pelog Baru

Bamboo Mystics - Pelog Baru

Artist: Sarah Haras
Album: Mirage
Format: Digital / Tape
Cat.No: CHI026
Master: John Hannon
Artwork: Sarah haras
Release Date: 5th March 2020

Bahraini experimental musician Sarah Haras is releasing her latest album, Mirage, on Chinabot. Mirage explores traditional Khaleeji folk music, adding her own unique blend of warped drums, granular drone, noise, post-industrial and musique concrète.

Haras builds rough textures and skittering rhythms to articulate an ethereal sense of both wonder and dread. Her unique perspective as an Arab woman embodies her work with a unique sensibility and cultural touchstones, while remaining raw and avant garde in its outlook. 

She pays homage to Khaleeji folk music on the tracks Sahra and Mutated Samri, the former of which is driven by a hypnotic rhythm which gradually crests with intensity. Khaleeji folk music, which originates in central and eastern Arabia but is also influenced by African migration, centres on chanting and drumming and is found at celebrations across Bahrain.

Haras is also influenced by Bahraini nature, with tracks like Mta Bnroo7 and Euphoria recalling the punishing rush of hot air across a flat landscape. With Wish That I, the influence of club and dancehall music is expressed through the glitchy rhythm and melody. Mirage sees Haras refine her perspective to a still sharper point, giving us a visceral and deeply textured exploration of the point where tradition meets modernity.


About Sarah Haras:

Sarah Haras is an experimental music producer based in Bahrain. She aims to represent Arab women’s experience through music. Taking inspiration from Bahraini landscape and culture, she has captured the essence of the modern-day Bahraini experience into a tangible yet abstract form. Mirage is Sarah Haras' third album, and her first on Chinabot. She is also a resident DJ at Ma3azef.

Mirage

Sahra

Sarah Haras - Sahra

Artist: Neo Geodesia
Album: 2562 Neon Flames
Format: Digital / Tape /LP
Cat.No: CHI030
Master: John Hannon
Artwork: Saphy Vong
Release Date: 11th April 2020

The razor-sharp edge of life, death and rebirth is explored with an almost hallucinatory intensity in Saphy Vong’s new album 2562 Neon Flames, his first under the name Neo Geodesia. The album, which is dedicated to his mother Chun Leng and released two years after her death, revisits her sudden, tragic, shocking loss during the celebration of Khmer New Year 2562. It was made during a particularly trauma and cathartic time.

The compositions are sonic tales synchronously decoding and regenerating customary patterns of thought in nature; aural designs of crisis and harmony where contemporary meets folklore, orchestrating an artificial saga with a variety of illuminations and analysis. A matrix of dazzling sequencers, warped vocal samples, synthetic instruments, Khmer Melismatic Smot, Kantoam Ming (Funeral Orchestra), Beksloy, Karaoke DVDs, Abstract electronic and personal archives are arranged into holograms of dreams. Through digital superimposition processes, instruments mutate and take on new forms of articulation. Crystalline organs, mourning voices and insistent Bamboo flutes dance with metal drums and traditional Angkorian percussion as compositional schizophrenia or absurd fusion.

Saphy was due to return to Cambodia in April 2020, a trip which was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak in another cycle of bad luck, displacement, missed connection and sickness. This album is for all diaspora who struggle to return to a country, and for all parents like Chun Leng, who balance life between returning and helping relatives and making a new life for herself and her family. It is for everyone who has searched for a country, lost a parent, or found joy and new life in the bitter ashes of grief. Most of all, it is for Chun Leng.

The album release is accompanied by the self-directed video for Venomesis, a surreal, colourful animation full of mythology – both ancient Cambodian and from modern pop culture. Venomesis pairs the traditional Angkorian Khmer percussions skor samphor and skor daey with off-kilter syncopated rhythms and Roam Vong 90’s karaoke melodies. Kla klouk video game app sounds, growling creatures, and pulsating chaos grows into a cacophony of erratic beats and surreal cartoonish samples, creating a space where balance and chaos co-exist in a hyperkinetic, abstract electronic landscape.
The music video explores life, death, poison and evolution – the rapid flux of growth and decay which is accelerated in Cambodia as development and climate change transform the country. “The video takes place in a flooded seaside town after the impact of a typhoon, as people get ready for celebrating Khmer New Year,” explains Saphy.
“It shows a disaster at the end of the harvesting season, when farmers enjoy the fruits of their labour before the rainy season begins. Khmer people set up altars to offer sacrifices to the sky deities, or devodas, who are believed to make their way to the Mount Meru of legend at this time of year.” Games are a core part of New Year celebrations. In his surreal video, aquatic zombies evolve into humans after winning games, while humans die after losing. People eat tarantulas, a traditional Khmer snack which are defanged before consumption, a food which remains taboo in the West but helped the people to survive during Pol Pot Regime..
At the heart of the video is the paradox of poison best expressed by Paracelsus - "All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison." Venomesis explores this maxim within the context of Saphy’s deeply personal experience of loss, as well as the intense changes happening in contemporary Cambodia.

Watch VENOMESIS - Music Video https://youtu.be/iBeMbWSqv3U
Read: https://couvrexchefs.com/neo-geodesia-chinabot-venomesis-2562-neon-flames/

2562 Neon Flames

Venomesis

Buy LP/Tape

Neo Geodesia - Venomesis

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