Though Pollard himself acknowledged that “there’s not really a big noise scene anywhere,” quality noise musicians of any sort in or passing through Beijing are relatively rare; thus I was surprised that this performance, one of the best I’ve seen recently, didn’t interest more people enough to attend.

La Loupe proves that it is possible to start a successful band in Beijing with little more than an idea, a few guitars and the willingness to play the odd Sunday night behind gulou. Click through to hear four tracks from La Loupe’s new album, which is being released at the Pangbianr Music and Film Festival at 2kolegas.

This second generation who is taking and building upon an already established sound is confirmation that Beijing has grown into a grounded music scene in its own right, one that gives rise to bands that convey similar emotions using the same musical language.

Hot & Cold’s set often touched on minimal synth traditions of simple repeated melodies (when there is a melody to speak of), raw and bleak (or reverb-saturated) vocals, and stripped down rhythm compositions. However, Hot & Cold is definitely not another band of the Dead Luke/John Maus variety. There is no danger of inappropriate melodic lushness or oversanitized synths replacing vital shapeless noise, only an obvious lack of adherence to any one musical classification, an intelligently programmed drum machine, and post-apocalyptic lyrics.

Two highlights: Zombies dedicated to Jay Reatard (“We’ve known him since he was 17. He was supposed to come here but… he fucked up”) and a Johnny Thunders cover that prompted an overenthusiastic Chinese fan to somehow short-circuit the guitar and cause a small delay.

Liked this band Which Park from Dalian.

Offset: Spectacles are putting out a cassette tape on tuesday June 15 at D22. I found out they’re going to be releasing tapes for several Chinese bands and the bassist also makes a zine. So we made them this flyer.

Demerit was one of the first to make my list of Beijing bands to see and it took me almost a year to cross them off. I’ve been to a few punk and hardcore shows but Demerit is the most often-mentioned punk band in Beijing, so I was glad to see them coming off of their 6 month hiatus last night.