China's Best Music of 2025 (So Far)

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices