Hereby the compilation record CORE IN CHINA is officially released worldwide! It had been some busy five months (January – May 2012) that weworked on getting the songs lined up, mastered and uploaded on various internet services for the global release.
As such, cutting things short and keeping it essential, download the album (ZIP) or go to either bandcamp, soundcloud or last.fm to listen to it online and download it. All songs have been mastered by Björn Sonderman in Germany and we have received two splendid cover arts which were contributed by Joe Wu and NERVE Magazine!
Spread the word! Share the compilation and send it to your friends! CORE IN CHINA is alive and the twenty bands we have chosen for this first edition are hungry to show you what China is: Heavy! Whether its the electronicore of Thyhazard or the hardcore of King Ly Chee, these bands deserve to be listened to!
Please tell us what you think of the songs, of the bands, the cover, the project itself, the impression you got and what you think of when you listen to “Liar” or “End of Me”. Write it in the comments below!
Not only is the overall compilation free, but Rock in China has also compiled further information on the ‘core scene of China that will help everybody to understand what is happening in the scene:
Regional Love: CORE IN CHINA has been listened to, shared, downloaded and talked about in France, Germany, the USA and China.
Since the inofficial release as sneak previewed by Beijing Daze, CORE IN CHINA was downloaded over 600 times (bandcamp), with additional 200 downloads on Soundcloud and it was listened to over 5000 times across various servers.
It has been many weeks since Rock in China announced it’s CORE IN CHINA project for the very first time. We already announced the participation deadline, closed the submissions and reviewed them in our small yet dedicated team. A couple of days ago we sent out the official selection emails and also informed those bands that didn’t make it. There was no case that we had to reject a song due to its bad quality, but with a total number of 20 songs and by far over thirty song submissions, we had to make a choice.
Right now, all songs are being “mastered” in Germany, with it being however less of a real mastering and more of a volume alignment as most bands already had pretty good mastering done before submission. Whilst we wait for the final song versions to be issued to Rock in China and whilst we wait for the designers to prepare our cover, here is the band and song list:
Nintendocore founders HORSE THE BAND entered mainland China as part of their EARTH TOUR quite some time ago. In anticipation of the CORE IN CHINA compilation, we thought it would be worthwhile to reflect jointly with the band their experiences during their China trip.
Azchael for Rock in China and Erik for Horse the Band.
Azchael: Can you briefly introduce yourself and Horse the Band?
Eric: I am Erik, I play keyboard and do the occasional Game Boy composition. Then there is David the guitar player, Nathan the singer, Daniel the drummer, and Jeremiah the bass player. But on Earth Tour our bass player was Dash and Jon Karel was playing drums.
Azchael: When planning for the Earth Tour back in the days, what caught your attention for China and what made you come here?
Eric: When we were writing the list of countries we wanted to play in on the napkin, we wrote China but didn’t know how it could possibly happen. Then one day halfway through booking the tour Paul Huang (HotPot Music) emailed us offering us a week of dates in China. At that point we pretty much rescheduled the entire first month of the tour to make sure it happened. I don’t really know what caught our attention about China… I guess it was probably a lifelong dream… I have no idea when it started. I mean, if you could go to China, why wouldn’t you?
Azchael: Did you organize all the gigs by yourself or you got help from local Chinese?
Eric: Paul booked everything for us. We just worked through him and he set up all the shows, travel, and accommodation. I don’t think we would have had a chance if we tried to do it ourselves. I wouldn’t have known where to even start. Paul is a great, great man. One of the most special, best people I ever met in my life.
Azchael: Looking back on the tour in China (where you played more than just two gigs), what was the most impressive part of the tour?
Eric: I think the most impressive part was how little we slept, and by extension what that says about how interesting and fun China was, for us. The whole week, even the last night, the only time we would sleep is if we were held captive on something like a train or taxi ride. 5 minutes here, 20 minutes there. Otherwise we would choose to just stay up and keep doing as much as possible. I think I slept 11 hours total the 6 days that we were in China. It’s covered pretty well in our Earth Tour movie. I don’t know if you know about that, but it’s a free torrent up on our site and it’s 10.5 hours long. It was funny. We were all literally hallucinating by the end.
Azchael: And what was the biggest fuckup?
Eric: Probably not sleeping. Haha. After China we had another 2 sleepless days we had scheduled for ourselves followed by 48 hours of flights. When we finally got to stop for a few days in Ankara, Turkey, pretty much the whole band was sick and we just lay on a floor for about 3 days and occasionally would binge on feta cheese and go downstairs to smoke a hookah. ahhahaa
Azchael: Weren’t you afraid that the police or other officials might interfere with your gigs?
Eric: The power of being in a small group with your closest friends is pretty considerable. If you are surrounded by enablers and feel comfortable, you become much more powerful, at least in your own mind. There’s also something nice about being insulated from reality by the language barrier. The things that I did on that tour in public I would never feel comfortable doing in my hometown, because when you’re away somewhere everything seems surreal. Your every action takes on some sort of meta-aspect. This isn’t meant disrespectfully to wherever we happened to be, but it’s just what happens when you’re not grounded in the local reality and don’t have a concrete feeling for any of the implications your actions might have.
As far as China specifically we were somewhat informed beforehand of some of the political situations and realities there, but at the same time, it felt like such an organic and below-the-radar undertaking that it seemed really impossible that anyone in the government would care. In the US we have heavy censorship and restriction too, except it’s mainly through local Christian Mothers organizations. I would feel much more scared playing in say, a white suburb of Memphis, Tennessee than anywhere in China.
I think being scared of countries/places in general is pretty unfortunate and not only an American problem, but something that has been pretty present in people anywhere in the world I have been. There are definitely some dangerous places around, but unless you look like a total amateur tourist, walk into an active warzone, or really draw attention to yourself in an area where your specific nationality is a target, pretty much anything “bad” that happens to you will be a random unlucky incident that can happen anywhere there is desperation, fear, or ignorance (which is everywhere).
Azchael: If you would have the chance to come to China again, what would you do different?
Eric: Haha, probably nothing. It was so intense. We felt miserable for a lot of it because of the fast pace, no sleep, heavy-lifting, and hangovers, but… yeah. I mean, the risk you always run in going back somewhere is that you erase the first memory and replace it with something less inspiring. I think that happened to us for a lot of places in the US, and it’s kind of sad. Once something doesn’t seem exotic in your mind anymore it loses its mystique, and that’s definitely one of the reasons traveling is exciting. It’s somehow playing with personal expectations and living out what is more a fantasy rather than objectively experiencing reality.
Azchael: Do you actually have plans to come to China again?
Eric: Nothing concrete but I would jump at the chance to come back. Last time we lost a shitload of money… And we don’t really have any right now. I really want to go to Urumqi!
Azchael: Whenever I speak with Chinese metal fans most of them know your band and your contribution to the “nintendocore” genre. Do you still get feedback from China nowadays from either fans or bands? If yes, what kinda feedback is it?
Eric: It’s weird, we don’t get feedback from anywhere in Asia. I’m not really sure why. We used to get quite a few emails from Indonesia, but that stopped a while back. The reason we thought touring China would be impossible was because before Paul probably only one or two people from China emailed us in like 8 years… haha.
Azchael: Speaking just for the China part of your Earth Tour, were you able to recover all the costs and efforts you invested?
Eric: By the end of Earth Tour we had almost paid back all of the expenses of doing the tour, but part of that money came from various deals we signed that weren’t having to do with the tour. And at the end we also had a bunch of expenses that accrued while we were away from home. Rent and insurance stuff mostly. Also about a month after we got home we got sued… and we aren’t allowed to talk about that, but rest assured, it was fucked! The Corrupt Indie Machine as Carles says… So yeah, depending on how you look at it, we probably paid off the expenses of flying ourselves to China with some money we got from playing the two months worth of European shows after that, but it’s really hard to say exactly what happened. We were definitely financially ruined for about 2 years after that, and looking back it’s probably one of the main reasons we stopped touring. But I guess we would have stopped touring out of boredom anyway if we wouldn’t have done Earth Tour.
Azchael: Had you had the chance to see other bands either perform or hang out with? If yes, any particular ones that are still stuck in your memory?
Eric: Yeah, I remember really clearly a pop-punk band that we played with in Shanghai, and just thinking some undefined thoughts about being surprised. I also remember we played with a band that had a female singer in Wuhan. She was really pretty and cool. We didn’t keep in touch with any mainland people besides Paul though. And I definitely remember King Ly Chee, we’re still somehow in touch from time to time.
Azchael: Have you heard of Rockinchina.com before you came or anytime after? If yes, what’s your opinion?
Eric: I hadn’t heard of it but it’s definitely a good resource. I love localized scene websites. They’re totally necessary to have a good DIY scene and get small bands exposure.
CORE IN CHINA is coming to a closure in submissions and a first roundup of songs and bands brought out a couple of gems in the music scene of China: Why Lazy, Multi-Ego, New Tank, Die In Velvet and Monkey King.
Why Lazy is a metalcore band from Henan and surprised us with a very straight forward song which name I don’t want to give away right now.
Multi-Ego is from the Tongzhou district of Beijing and started 2008, heading straight forward.
New Tank, another representative of Beijing, is focussed on emotional post hardcore and also started in 2008.
Die In Velvet is one of several Hongkong bands that answered our call and submitted a song. They are HC.
Monkey King is a band that originates in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, and moved from screamo to hardcore, something that can still be heard in their music.
Rock in China is still collecting further songs until March 15th and we are looking forward to a number of promising songs that some of the bands are still recording.
this is our second updated of what is happening at the CORE IN CHINA project. Check out our first update to pick up where we started from. Not only have we announced to have a mastering support on board, but we also published a number of interviews with candidates for the CORE IN CHINA compilation record. For the convenience of readers in China and overseas all interviews have been doubled, on RiC wiki and the blog. We got:
Furthermore, layabozi featured the CORE IN CHINA project and promised to review the compilation once it’s out. Thanks guys. Rock in China has further engage European media and won amongst others
metalunderground
Live Love Scream
metal.de
to have a closer look on the compilation and review it. Also the bandcamp page has been registered and awaiting graphics and songs to fill it with live.
So far over 20 bands have applied and I am particularly happy to know that some amazing bands from all over the country have applied and not just Beijing or Shanghai artists. Having bands from Zhengzhou sending us songs or Chengdu screamers to react to our shout out to the scene is a reassuring fact that Chinese bands are not only eager to get on stage but also to ensure that their music can be understood across borders. Even a band from Macau has applied, which in musical terms is by far not in a good shape as Hongkong or Beijing.
Horns up, into the pit and guys, just keep it rolling!
Since our first announcement of the online project CORE IN CHINA at the end of January not even a week has past and already more than 20 bands have applied to participate in what we anticipate will be a momentum snapshot of the heavier side of China’s music scene. With applications rolling in from Zhengzhou, Changsha, Macau, Hongkong, Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and Guangzhou a great number of awesome bands have given us a story to tell.
With scheduled release in May 2012, bands can still participate and apply for the compilation project until March. So please if you read this and you are a band: Apply! If you know bands that should apply, tell them! And if you want to help us spread the word, then message us. Right now we are looking at featuring the compilation in four countries (Germany, France, China and the USA) and are still looking for media partners in other languages (Spanish, Italian, Portugese) that are interested in bringing the ‘core world of China closer to their readers & listeners.
The graphic above is a third preliminary design for the cover art of the compilation. The design will be fixed most propably in April.
Any ideas? Suggestions? Comments? Or just rants on why the heck we try to include Nintendocore? Just type it into the comments section!
The CORE IN CHINA compilation project is a non-commercial promotional compilation record scheduled for release in May 2012. Artists and bands of the genres screamo, deathcore, nintendocore, metalcore, post hardcore and various other ‘core-styles are being approached from January to March 2012.
Up to 20 bands from Mainland China, Hongkong and Macau are being show casted as the fresh and dynamic heavy underground from China. For each band, Chinese and English biography and song lyrics are being included in the booklet to enable international accessibility of the music.
If you are interested in the project, either to participate or to hear more about the compilation contact Rock in China:
With guys like the ones above (Monkey King) hitting the stages of China, the metal scene has seen an invasion of ‘CORE related music in recent years.
Started in 2006-2008 with the likes of Ego Fall, re-born Yaksa, Hollow and Nuclear Fusion-G, the scene has moved forward and produced a number of quality bands screaming and thrashing their way into the hearts of the young generation.
With genres even as remote to traditional metal as Nintendocore - which was first introduced to China by leading artist HORSE THE BAND in 2008 – the wave of emo bands and hardcore bands that were pushed by HotPot Music certainly paved the way for Screamo to take its place among the hot and powerful. The 2007 compilation record King-Size China 2 already featured a range of bands that left the old school nu-metal and emo paths to divert into the heavier and more extreme genres.
Nowadays one has to open Douban to see the sprouts shooting up in every city with the likes of From Sad To Dead with their electronic influence and Tribute to Attack Attack! to emocore made in Wuhan, Romeo Bleed to die(喋血罗密欧), and Beijing’s Tun Shu (豚鼠乐队) deathcore advances.
For those interested in these core-related sounds, I can highly recommend to check out the following Douban groups and their links to bands and songs:
It was funny. We were all literally hallucinating by the end.
