Deep, Dark, and Mysterious Sets to Descend on Yue Space, Aug 25

It’s about to get weird, atmospheric, and boundary-pushing at Yue Space this Saturday, as a trio of deep, haunting, and enigmatic DJs and producers compile their shadowiest horror-flick-worthy sets. Self-explanatorily dubbed “Invalid Everything: Chinese Dark Electronic Music Live + Cult Movie Party” the Aug 25 Yue Space party will consist of experimental DJ sets by Zaliva-D (pictured in the lead image above), Noise&Noise, and Nous following the screening of Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1973 cult classic La Montaña Sagrada A.K.A. The Holy Mountain.

Noise&Noise (real name Zhang Xuefeng) – whose repertoire includes tracks like the peppy synth-punctuated, dystopic rhythmed “Nonlinear”, and dissonant, feedback-drenched “Palingenesis”, the title track from his 2017 LP of the same name – says Beijingers should be excited about the this Saturday’s show “Because it's not a boring electronic music show, it's an accident in science lab, a pagan sacrifice, or a necromancy scene.”

Their label head at Dying Art Productions, who goes by the nickname Murk, has a less metaphorical take on the proceedings. He says the trio of artists are unique enough to make for a show unlike any that much of the attendees have ever seen. He describes Nous as “the only electronic musician who creates and performs post-industrial music in China” while Zaliva-D is, in his view, the initiator of the integration of Oriental ritual music and Western atmospheric electronica, "which is a rarity to say the least." He calls them pioneers, before going on to say Noise&Noise “is an ice-cold Detroit style dark electronic music creator active in Europe, America, and Japan,” going on to say that all three “are unique in China and are cherished in the current electronic music environment.”

Blake Stone Banks, who DJs and produces under the pseudonym Fløøød, is a longtime fan who can’t wait for the show, describing Noise&Noise as wielding “a spectacularly old-school analog electro sound. Think ‘90s Detroit channeled through the weirdness of contemporary Beijing. I’m consistently blown away with every release.” Banks is also impressed, as a producer, by how Noise&Noise is also building a following abroad with recent tours in Japan and releases on Antizero and in Fundamental Records’ 808 Box on vinyl. On the lighter side, Banks add how he likes that Noise&Noise “wears goofy masks when he plays live, which is always fun.”

Nous, one of the others artists on the roster (born Liu Xiaonan), says the gig was very deliberately booked on Saturday to coincide with China's Ghost Festival (Zhongyuan Jie), a traditional Chinese festival like Halloween. He adds that the DJs in this lineup all play “dark and mysterious” music that will very much soon the occasion.

When it comes to his specific contribution, Nous plans to play some cuts from his latest album, Golden Bough, which was released in April. “My music sounds heavy and noisy, and you can define it as dark ambient or post-industrial music,” he says, citing experimental composer Ben Frost as a key influence.

“I can only call the sound Oriental Dark Electronic Music,” says Zaliva-D (a local Beijinger born Li Chao, who frequently collaborates with his wife, AisinGioror Yuan Jin; pictured at top). Meanwhile, when asked about his contribution to the show, he promises it will blow audiences away because “some music that I made is not for the club because it has slower bpm and sounds more ambient. I won't play this type of music at the club, but I will play it at the Yue Space show this weekend.”

In terms of the “dark art” signifier that some critics, fans, and promoters use to describe his music and the shows like this Saturday’s, Noise&Noise says: “When I think about the beginning and the end of the universe, I only get one answer, that is darkness. In the dark, I feel a very objective sense of wholeness, just like in the womb. In my view, the whole universe is a large womb. But none of us knows what its ultimate goal is.” This Saturday's show hopes to peel back some of that unknowing through three of Beijing's darkest harbingers of sound.

Aug 25's Yue Space show Invalid Everything: Chinese Dark Electronic Music Live + Cult  Movie Party kicks off with a screening of Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain at 7.30pm. Tickets are RMB 80.

Photos courtesy of the organizers, Zaliva-D (Facebook)