The Vibrant Pulse of China's 2025 Music Scene

Jake Newby, author of the China music substack Concrete Avalanche, presents his official playlist of China’s best new music. It includes ADHD-inspired hip hop, experimental ambient music from rural China, and Shanghai cold wave, finishing off with a “mind-blowing” hyperpop track.

Tracklist:

00:00 ‘Rhyme’ – Rubey Hu

01:02 ‘The Last of the Mohicans’ – SMZB 生命之饼

04:46 ‘秋茄子之味’ – 红发少年杀人事件

09:04 ‘The Wanderer of Renfengli 仁丰里的闲逛者‘ – DaYe 大叶

12:08 ‘back to the pond 1’ – Jian Cui

15:57 ‘Chapter II’ (excerpt) – Chen Mulian et al for xuán yīn

21:13 ‘月光爱人 De Luna Amour’ – 黑木 Heimu

27:27 ‘Ⱪorⱪetteng ⱪobeze / The Kobyz of Korkut 霍尔赫特的库布孜‘ (excerpt) – Mamer 马木尔

35:38 ‘སྒྲོལ་མའི་བསྟོད་པ་། Praise to Tara 度母赞’ – Kalzang Samdrub

37:08 ‘我不知不觉不伦不类’ – 小老虎 J-Fever

39:56 ‘1911 4th Mov. (live) 一九一一 第四回’ (excerpt) – Zhaoze 沼泽

46:55 ‘本该走神的(Should've Been Lost)‘ – 张醒婵 Nono

49:28 ‘失乐园’ – DJ小女孩 DJ Gurl

Some of these tracks are available on YouTube! We've aggregated those links on the ChinaTalk Substack.

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