China's Best Music in 2026 (So Far)

**Jake Newby** (0:12)
Hello, my name is Jake, and I write a free newsletter about music from China called Concrete Avalanche.
Over the next hour or so, I'm going to be playing some of my favourite music to have come out of China in the first half of this year. Beginning with this piece from Poo Poo Plata. This is the title track from their EP, Undercurrent.
That was Lygort Quartet with a song from their new album, Through Voodoo Light to the Shore of Tomorrow. Lygort Quartet featured Yang Haishong and Xue Shudong of Chinese post-punk pioneers PK14, alongside Sleeping Dog's drummer Li Ziqiao, and Guo Yinan of Chengdu post-punk's Hi-Person. The album was mostly recorded over the course of a few days at the band's event Hold Up in a House, Small House, Upper Mountain, and Citroën. Before that we heard brilliant Shenzhen band The Three Mice, whose debut full-length album Where Is My Mice is absolutely full of gems like that one that switch between angsty emo and sweetly slung indie rock melodies. It's a fantastic record and it's also pay what you want on Bandcamp. So you should definitely go and pick that up if you have an album. Something a little different up next, we're going to hear a song from Shenzhen born Kazakh multi-instrumentalist Mamer, whose latest album. All the Joys, All the Pains, features interpretations of classic Kazakh lullabies, traditional poems, laments for lost loved ones, and 1980s radio hits. Before that, this is an excerpt from a piece by Gogoj, aka Sheng Jie and Deng Bo Yin, two stalwarts of the Chinese avant-garde music scene. The pair with Sheng on electric cello and Deng providing percussion, recorded two improvised takes based on the same structure and framework, but then couldn't decide which one they liked best. So, simply released both. The result is this album, which is called HEH, or H-E-H, I'm not really sure how they're pronouncing it. But anyway, this is a bit of track B1.
That was Zhang Xingchan, Wu Han-based singer-songwriter who really blew up with a DIY album, NoNo, which merged rock, pop and more, and topped a lot of the best of year lists in 2024 The track there was from her follow-up full-length record, Catch My Boomerang, and that track was called The World Is Dry. Up next, we're going to start in ambient territory with a track from Wu Zhuoling, a figure who has played a major role in shaping Chengdu and China's musical landscape over the past two decades. Partly inspired by a UFO encounter she had as a child in Sichuan, she released the EP Uncharted II at the end of March. The track you can hear coming in in the background right now is taken from the record, and it's called Gaia's Breath. After this, we will hear a song from cassette player Romance before going somewhere else entirely.
Anne, Alternative, Rap Duo Yuan and Guo Yinan, who caused a lot of buzz back in March with her album The Vortex Reconstruction Experiment, which blends youthful disenchantment and a swirl of samples, featuring everyone from Mylena Shaw to Sam Wilkes. Before that, we heard the one that sounds like Sweet Trip from cassette player Romance, who sound maybe a little different to the track that came after it, who actually has strong links to the alternative Chinese hip-hop scene as well, producing beats under his alias Soul Looper. He's also a key figure in China's emo revival, playing in the bands Zhejiang 250 and The Beneficial Society. Next up is another impressive solo act. Dead Trees is a one-man black metal act from Lan Zhou, who is well worth paying attention to. His new album, which works in elements of free jazz alongside some punchy percussion, is called New World, and this song is Extinguished City.
Intimately confessional album, discussing his upbringing, heartbreak, and his sexuality, all in a heavy Guizhou accent that makes me think of the film Kylie Blues. Just before I go, thank you to ChinaTalk for having me back, and thank you for listening. You can find lots more interesting music from China on Concrete Avalanche, and if you've enjoyed any of the tracks that you've heard here, please follow the links to hear more and support the artists by buying their music if you're able to. Playing us out, this is Lea with Let Me Fly.