2025 is already delivering great new music from China, some of which reflects a semi-global mood at the moment. Chengdu-based artist Xinwenyue Shi’s bilingual Sichuan-English hip hop single “Clouds,” for example, talks about the weather and adaptability in uncertain times. For a sunnier forecast, check out Guangzhou dream pop acts 想想XiangXiang and I’m Fine! Thank You! And You? — the two bands collaborated on a split release that captures the unique creative synergy of their local scene. Meanwhile, Wuhan’s Hardcore Raver in Tears delivers a PS2-era-inspired disco-punk anthem packaged as a vintage video game. Read on for all this plus shimmering guitar psych, a new release from Shanghai club mainstay Heimu, and several compilations casting a net on emerging bands and producers around China.
— Editor
Xinwenyue Shi 施鑫文月 – Clouds
Rapper, producer, and singer-songwriter Xinwenyue Shi, whose 2023 release Bashu Renaissance garnered quite a bit of attention, readies the release of his third studio album Gray Sun 灰太陽 with a new single. Continuing his signature brand of smooth, softhearted and breezy Sichuan-English bilingual hip hop, Clouds has the artist musing on the weather — and how sometimes one just needs to adapt to the situation at hand. A 2025 sentiment I’m sure anyone can relate to.
想想XiangXiang / I’m fine! Thank you! And you? – 玩玩你的 It’s Your Tune
Two emerging acts from the budding noise and dream pop scene in Guangzhou, I’m fine! Thank you! And you? and 想想XiangXiang (who released one of 2024’s best albums), play a bout of musical hot potato on their new spilt release, It’s Your Tune. A bet between the two bands to complete one another’s song, it’s a fascinating inside look at how musicians push one another, and one that results in two of the best new singles this year.
Hardcore Raver In Tears 白纸扇 (feat. Wen Zhaojie 文兆杰) – Self-titled
Wuhan’s new wave disco-punk outfit Hardcore Raver in Tears (led by Lu Yan of AV Okubo fame) pay tribute of the video games of yesteryear in their latest single and music video: a self-titled theme song. With graphics and thematics straight out of PS2-era Grand Theft Auto, Lu Yan and company (with the help of electro pop artist Wen Zhaojie) once again tap into our pop culture’s past to dizzying effect. The result is an open-world action-adventure game set in 1990s Hong Kong, chock full of “betrayal, transaction and fate through the perspectives of three characters”:
丘瑙底河 Khunathi – 潮 氣 吹 過 後 山 破 廟 時 Misty Mountain Pagoda
Full-blooded psychedelia with a flavor that keeps the vibes vigorous and audacious in their pursuit of nirvana, Khunathi, who cut their teeth in Shanghai before scattering about the region, are a force to be reckoned with on their debut, Misty Mountain Pagoda, released with avant-garde mainstay WV Sorcerer Productions. With the perfect balance of soothing rustic bliss and propulsive spiraling grooves, there aren’t many bands that can make their guitars sing like these guys. As the press release puts it: “shimmering with the metallic brilliance of ceremonial horns, and threading delicately with the bass to weave intricate bead curtains.” Lean, injected with a crisp psych blues sound, and cut with precision and heft, Khunathi are a great addition the swelling China psych scene.
Jellyeeee – FLOURISH
Modern Sky offshoot digi captures some of the music scene’s more esoteric offshoots of hip hop and pop music — namely the influx of hyperpop acts. digi returns with its first offering of the new year: FLOURISH From Guangzhou-raised experimental pop artist and producer Li Zitong, aka Jellyeeee. FLOURISH is a schizophrenic roller-coaster ride through the deconstructed musical trappings of the musician’s mind, one that huddles across glitch, avant pop, classical music, hard-hitting electronica, and more with reckless precision. Often coming across as a theater piece or installation art, it showcases an artist in complete control of atmosphere and mood.
Various Artists – Pear Club
Delivery Music, the hip hop cousin to Shanghai’s electronic imprint Eating Music, has steadily buildt its roster over the past five years, attracting a motley crew of bubbly light-on-their-feet rappers and producers with a knack for euphoric dance floor rhythms, supple synth work, and slick future pop. Now they’re ready for a proper welcoming party with Pear Club, the label’s first-ever compilation, with fourteen tracks to sink your teeth into. Highlights include LATENINE6 (one of the label’s founders), 彭喜悦TingTing, and Luts.
HEIMU 黑木 – De Luna Amour 月光爱人
One of the Shanghai club scene’s hardest-working DJs and producers, multi-disciplinary musician Heimu returns to his band roots with latest release De Luna Amour. Thrusting listeners into a world of industrial music, Heimu compiles his “love, hate and hatred”’” of the city into ten tracks of uncut cold wave and post punk, with his vocals front and center. It’s a surprisingly warm album considering the aesthetics, a disco-laced synth pop heart beating just beneath the surface.
Various Artists – A Love Letter to Yuck
2000s UK act Yuck were just one of many acts during the new century that revitalized the shoegaze and indie guitar rock of the early ’90s, evoking Sonic Youth, the Cure, My Bloody Valentine, and the Jesus and Mary Chain for a modern era. But their influence has been undeniable — and their mark crystallized — in part thanks to the band only surviving ten years past the release of their debut. Their long-reaching appeal is at the heart of this latest compilation, A Love Letter to Yuck, which features China’s budding indie rock talent paying tribute to the band not only with covers, but also original songs that look to evoke the band’s Midas touch. It’s a pretty amazing spread — a great starting point to discover some new bands, as well as a testament to the universal power of music in younger musical communities.
Various Artists – NU-S3RVO, Vol. 1
Explore the sounds of contemporary electronic music in East Asia with the first compilation from Beijing-based label NU-S3RVO. With a penchant for left-field techno, IDM, and bass, this release features seven producers from Beijing, Hong Kong, and Hangzhou, including GUAN, Heiyuen, and zip. Much like Do Hits! in its heyday, this compilation acts as a sonic survey of how club music has evolved in China, finding fresh and invigorating ways to “reinterpret cultural memories and historical traces from a new perspective.”
v是兔子wishtoday – Teng Tong Bu 疼痛部
The emo wave takes over the urban wasteland of Henan with v是兔子wishtoday, the latest band to excavate the arching pain of adolescence and wallow in the noisier elements of emo. The young band, who hail from the outskirts of Zhengzhou, give into their emotions on their powerful debut, a scrappy DIY descent into the void that swings from visceral emo noise to evocative slowcore like the mood swings of an young adult. A dagger to the heart that wipes its blood on it sleeve in defiance, wishtoday brings sincerity and gravitas to its angst.
StrawberryLust 梦莓 – StrawberryLust
Classic shoegaze with a pep of J-rock-inflicted dream pop, StrawberryLust out of Guangzhou are the latest band attempting to “‘”visualize dreams and tell stories of midnight fantasies.” Their self-titled debut is buzzy, wistful, and maybe just a tad too sugary for some palates. When it leans into its catchy rhythm sections and perky choruses a la “i hate rainy days!” or “Midnight Strange Feeling,” there’s nothing better.
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