Share Lesser Known Music/Artists - venture outside the beaten path!!

[Hemlock]

when i used to do the weekly artist of the week threads for this section I regularly mixed in lesser known artists. I don't post much threads anymore though. 

[Hemlock]

I'm bad with genres just so everyone knows lol. I'm just gonna pick whatever i think is closest. 

 

Jia Huizhen - electronic, synth, pop

 

 

 

 

The Other (他者) - electronic, folk

 

Formed in 2015 with lead singer Xuan at the center, the trio’s sound is a hybrid of electric folk created with electric beats and strong synthesizers based on a foundation of acoustic guitar and psychedelic electric guitars bridging the gap between the two genres. With straight-forward, catchy melodies and poignant lyrics, The Other‘s songs take you on a smooth ride through shapes and colors that all people can identify.

 

 

 

 

Phoebe (慶慶) - electronic, folk, acoustic, ballad

 

I think she debuted this year but not completely sure...

 

 

 

--

 

Jia Huizhen and Phoebe's albums from this year might be two of my favorite cpop albums of the year btw. I'll probably add some less...esoteric stuff later haha. 

Edited October 17, 2016 by Hemlock

[Hemlock]

Here's some ballady singers for more "normal" cpop songs but still girls that aren't talked about much

 

Koala Liu

 

 

Riva Jan

 

 

Kris Kuan

 

 

PiA

 

 

--

 

Will probably do bands next time. Black Meddle already did some that i'm familiar with. Btw if you like Elephant Gym and are interested in a japanese band that sounds pretty similar, check out Uchu Conbini. They disbanded already but have 2 EPs and are worth checking out. Also Tricot is a pretty awesome math rock jrock band. 

[Hemlock]

I will take your advice and listen to Uchu Conbini later. good music is always exciting 

 

I actually loved all your "esoteric" picks more btw except the Jia Huizhe song you chose. I thought it had a good concept but the polish (tuning in my language) was off my taste, but I went through her album and damn I am in love with this song. Going to be repeating for a while 

 

 

I called it esoteric mostly because i seemed to be the only one who liked those slow dark electronic style cpop songs haha. 

 

I was very, very close to posting this song instead of the one i did lol. I like both though. The entire album in general is fantastic. I just feel guilty listening to it for free on her bandcamp because the little heart breaks when it asks you to buy it and i say no 

 

And also Aristophanes wrote that song on the Grimes collab. Would have posted her myself but i've talked about her on this forum before and wasn't sure if i should. 

Edited October 26, 2016 by Hemlock

[Hemlock]

I love Hello Nico so much. Their album was my favorite cpop album of last year. 

[Hemlock]

Literally just discovered them earlier this week. Instant love!

 

They kind of remind me of spangle call lilli line

SPCLL are also great! 

 

If you want taiwanese bands that are kinda similar you can check out æ³•è˜­é»›æ¨‚團 Frandé and ç‘ªå•¡å› æ¨‚團 Maffine. 

[Hemlock]

^ chinese vocaloids is something i know exists but i've wondered about how common it is. I've only come across it a few times. 

 

Here's some bands that haven't been mentioned yet. Most of the cpop bands i listen to are soft rock or lean towards electronic. I'm not much a fan of harder rock for cpop. 

 

Morning Call

(Jasper Liu is a guitarist in this band btw.)

 

 

Mister Mouth

 

 

Four Pens

 

 

Space Cake

 

 

Will probably do hiphop/rnb next whenever i get around to it. It's not something i listen to a lot but i do check for it once in a while and it's definitely not talked about much here, especially hiphop. 

[Hemlock]

I REALLY like hard rock personally (but it has to be good), though I enjoy math/alt. rock too to chill xD! I prefer female voices for hard rock though usually, which is much rarer.

 

 

I think they are pretty popular for what it is, but nowhere near the mainstream (more likely than not in a country as big as China). I'm not really into the fandom-side of it (being a fan of the actual character and making stories about them) but I like to follow it since, well, normal people self-composing/producing and being creative is always a winner for me. I previously mentioned another

in this thread who I absolutely adore that I wouldn't have discovered if it weren't for following the community so I'm glad for it. I would prefer he had a real singer, but his composition/instrumentals (all done by himself) already standalone for me. I mean

.

 

I vaguely recall there was quite some excitement some time ago since on the show XFIRE (that lead to the boy group XNINE debuting), one of the contestants performed a slightly silly vocaloid-sung original called Ordinary Disco (普通disco). A mentor on the show was Li Yuchun/ Chris Lee, who liked the performance very much and later

along with her new single on HunanTV. I didn't know about it at all till Li Yuchun performed it myself

I prefer female vocals in general for any genre or language lol. I listen to harder rock music but that's mostly for japanese rock. Even then it's not like metal or anything like that. 

 

It's interesting that vocaloids in mandarin sound...smoother? or a little more natural sounding than japanese vocaloids where it's a bit more choppy. 

[Hemlock]

I like Sa Dingding but i thought her most recent album was pretty disappointing. 

 

Forever waiting for SingerSen (Drunk, Blue Jellyfish) to release new music. She can't just release an amazing album and then disappear like that T__T

[Hemlock]

new Morning Call song 

 

 

[Hemlock]

omg new Hello Nico too \O/

 

 

[Hemlock]

I came across this recently. It's not my thing but it you guys might like it. 

 

It's metal with a mix of english and cantonese

 

[Hemlock]

new Astro Bunny

 

 

Also i asked a mod to pin/sticky the thread~

[Hemlock]

I asked a mod to pin it. Figured it make a good thread for people to skim through and see some different stuff if they felt like it. Also i could use it to dump new indie releases instead of making threads that don't get any replies lol. 

[Hemlock]

Just to make sure, you realize this is the Chinese Entertainment section of the forum right? 

[Hemlock]

another new Morning Call song

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVs5nODKx5I

[Hemlock]

a new MV for a song off of Hello Nico's ep from last year. 

 

 

 

It takes a while to get going and took a couple of listens for me to warm up to it. 

[Hemlock]

Ohh i never heard of her before but i like that song. I'll check her out later. 

 

And yea the site has been really bad lately. It usually works if you wait 5-10 minutes and try again but it's getting real annoying. 

[Hemlock]

those anime jrock sounding songs are interesting. I haven't heard cpop that has gone for that sound before. But wow, i really like the ä¸‰ç„¡ song :O Probably better than anything Astro Bunny has done. It's like a more electronic Seven Sense. 

 

For recent releases, i recommend checking out the Zooey Wonder album. It's kinda soft rock like Hello Nico but also gets more electronic at times. Mix of english and mandarin songs. 

 

https://www.indievox.com/disc/12258

Listen to the preview for track9 

Edited March 12, 2017 by Hemlock

[Hemlock]

New Frandé!

 

 

 

New album out in May~ 

[Hemlock]

They are a bit more subculture, but they are gaining momentum. These types of songs are driven in the same way as the gufeng (ancient sound/music genre): a community of individuals usually with a specific skill like composing, arranging, tuning, artistry, lyric writing collaborating to create both fan music for novels and stories, as well as creating their own original songs. The mainstream cpop music machine isn't really a part of it. That's why I'm appreciative of tencent reaching out to these little artists and giving them a wider audience through their animations/promotions.

 

And I was thinking Seven Sense too due to not just the gufeng touch, but the way the singing was executed.

 

I still haven't listened to the songs you posted yet, I'm in a deadly exam season nonstop studying for hours T__T Hopefully it'll end this Friday for good. If I listen to new songs I end out focusing only on listening. I'm fueling myself with Wang Fei nostalgia lmao haha

 

 

You're not leeyuuh from r/cpop are you? I check there every once in a while and saw that person posting some of the songs you posted earlier. And the similar name too lol. 

[Hemlock]

I think I really like Astro Bunny, but I haven't decided yet. But I know for sure that I love the singer's cat dress in

.

 

三無 sounds good, and I agree it sounds like Astro Bunny but more layered. Astro Bunny electronics and sounds are actually very simple, which is part of why I'm not sure if I like them. It sounds like something anybody could do in a way.

 

But Astro Bunny songs are so catchy and well constructed. It's like they really know how to write a pop song. The fact that they make it sound easy is just more impressive in a way.

I like Astro Bunny a lot but i think they're a bit inconsistent. Sometimes they're really good but sometimes they're a little underwhelming. I'd agree that their stuff is a bit simple sometimes. The singer's previous band's music was kinda like that too. She was in a band called Cherry Boom that was kind of like a tamer, not as good version of Scandal or Stereopony (japanese girl bands)

 

my fave Astro Bunny song might be this tho~