"This is me dealing with how to be a progressive man in this era." The Sea Cucumber boss discusses his new album on PAN in this live Exchange from Rewire.
Malaysian Chinese artist Tzusing is currently splitting his time between Taipei and Shanghai, but he spent a significant amount of time in the US as a young adult and university student. It was only after moving back to China in his early 20s and taking a long break from production that he amalgamated these diverse influences and refined his sound, releasing a string of EPs on the label L.I.E.S. and launching into his musical career in full force.
His 2017 release, Invincible East, was his first exploration into more thematically loaded work that interrogated masculinity and power. His second (and newest) LP, Green Hat, builds on these tropes. The full-length—which came out on PAN in late March—examines Confucian values around familial obligation, the patriarchy and how to be "a progressive man" in 2023. It also brings together his penchant for trap, techno and industrial, while still mining Asian instrumental motifs. In Tzusing's words, the music itself is full of angst and fear, and it's his most intense output as an artist yet.
In this live RA Exchange at Rewire Festival, he talks to Resident Advisor's senior producer, Chloe Lula, about the production of the album, Chinese club culture and his move towards a sound that isn't indebted to a singular genre or scene. The episode is part of Resident Advisor's cover series on PAN; read the article in full on our website, and listen to Tzusing's conversation in full here.