motel de moka

Wo ai ni: I Love You

That is one of the few things I learned to pronounce while in China, along with “cheaper, thank you, please, one cold water, white rice, too expensive, I would like to go to…. etc”.

This was my first trip ever to the Oriental side of our planet Earth, and let me say, I believe it is the best trip I have done up till now. I’m here now infront of my mother’s laptop (mine is still in the hospital) and I do not know where to begin in this post. I have almost 2 Gb in images and videos and 3 weeks worth of anecdotes of this most enchanting bizarre land.

China is… what word could adequately describe China? New? Antique? Gray? Colorful? Communist? Capitalist? I think no one word can fully describe China nowadays. The whole country is busting at the seams with history, dicotomies, yuxtapositions, old and news. After 4 days of having returned I’m still trying to make sense of how everything fits together in that tightly-wound society of Jasmine tea and 88 story high buildings. In China you can admire the new society from atop the world’s most modern buildings or hunker down in your private half a millenia old hutong complete with the ever-traditional center patio…. AND Room Service!

While in China I was able to travel through all of Beijing, Shanghai and visit Inner Mongolia and the Gobi Desert. I permitted myself to indulge in everything from the tourist “have to see’s” to a local party held in a museum turned nightclub for the evening. I feel as though I have to tell you EVERTYING about my trip, every detail and every anecdote, I know I can’t but I just feel like sharing! There’s too much to tell and too little space! I’m forced to SUMMARIZE!! NOOOOO!!!! Well.. I guess all that really matters here is the music, no? So I guess I’ll start with that, ok?

Not only is China’s physical appearance under remodelation, it’s youth is rapidly adjusting to the new resources available to them in every single way, businesses, clubs, bars, bands, art, literature, evrything is being woken up and exploded to it’s maximum potential.

Musically, China was truly encouraging. Local bands are popping up from under the rocks, bands such as The Subs’ (bio), Brain Failure (bio), Junglecat, Tang Dynasty, Reflector, among others to move the young ones into musical revolution, and what better way to start a revolution thank with Punk!? Punk is HUGE in China, youngsters walk the street singing high-speed Chinese punk lyrics while air-guitarring their favorite rifs, it’s just massive. The list for Chinese rock bands are now ENDLESS and it’s not just rock now, it’s all sorts of DJ’s, traditional Folk artists, Pop, Hip Hop, Heavy Metal, etc. etc. etc.

+Streamed Songs: Sorry guys, no available downloads just click on the song to begin streaming

1. Xu Wei - Every Moment Is Brand New
(Every Minute is Fresh, 2004)
2. Xu Wei - Let’s Drink Tea
(Every Minute is Fresh, 2004)

One night in Beijing, I was looking through a local magazine and ran across the delightful news of an Eletronicat concert in a small bar near the Worker’s Stadium called Yogun Yishan, of course I would not miss the chance to see the infamous Eletronicat in action! So I arrived at the bar and what was my surprise? Miss Le Bomb, all this Edinburgh born lady needs to rock your socks off is her laptop , her sensual, quirky -and most of the times- improvised lyrics, her mic and a willing crowd, I just ate her up. Eletronicat was a different story, that man is insane his sounds range from retro to glitch, mindboggling I can assure you! At the end of the night I was able to approach Miss Le Bomb and ask her for a demo CD, she was kind enough to give me an EP she burned from her very own laptop, she told me she was gonna e-mail me the name of the tracks, but I still have not received them :( .

+Downloadable: Enjoy

1. Miss Le Bomb - Track 03
(Unknown EP)
2. Miss Le Bomb - Track 05
(Unknown EP)
3. Traditional Chinese Opera - Treasure house of chinese folk music
4. The Subs - Drew the Line
5. Dou Wei - Hallucination
(Hallucination, 1999)
6. Dou Wei - Harvest
(Hallucination, 1999)
7. Wu Bai & China Blue 200 - 没有头
8. Wu Bai & China Blue 200 - 顽石的飞行

Love,

Lotus