Semaine du 12 août 2008 / Week of August 12th, 2008
Cette chronique hebdomadaire sur la musique indépendante chinoise est diffusée à Radio Centre-Ville (102.3FM), les mardis entre 22h30 et 23h30. L’émission complète est disponible sur ce fichier MP3, à partir du lendemain de l’émission.
This weekly segment on independent Chinese music is broadcasted every Tuesday between 10:30PM and 11:30PM on Radio Centre-Ville (102.3FM). The full-length show is available at this MP3 file, starting from the day following the show.
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1. Trembling Stars (see artist website)
2. 10,000,000,000 Times, remixed by USK (see artist website)
3. Your Lips
It’s the Beijing Olympics, so I’ll be playing another artist from the Chinese capital. After presenting a number of rock bands, here is something different. Sun Dawei is better known as Sulumi, a chiptune artist living in Beijing. Chiptune, quésséssa? It’s basically the music of 8-bit, of Gameboy, the NES, and the rest of the so-called Third generation video consoles. In fact, Sulumi’s music often sounds like the soundtrack of your favourite Gameboy game…
I particularly like its very energetic songs. It’s perfect for a high-octane programming drive. I tried finding his latest album, “what has happened to me in this world”, but couldn’t find any place online selling it (there must be, because he’s one of the major names in Chinese electronic music circulating within my networks). Its first song, which I am playing tonight, is very good. Unfortunately, you can’t even pirate his CD, if you are desperate. One thing you can do is buy his 2006 album Stereo Chocolate on iTunes. (I really should’ve looked for it in Beijing…)
What I managed to buy in Hong Kong was his collab with Japanese chiptune artist USK, called “As Vivid As Your Lips”. The last song, Your Lips, is from it. It’s a slow saucy song, that feels like a French-kissing session.
Sulumi started Shanshui Records, a record label, which recently organized a tour with Chinese and Japanese electronica artists across East Asia in May and June 2008. It stopped at Videotage in Hong Kong, a venue/art space that was run by Ashley Wong, the next after next guest on Regarde les Chinois (I am moving this week, so don’t expect the next for until later next week…).