Chinabot: Jaeho Hwang + Neo Geodesia + Pisitakun

Chinabot & Glory Affairs & Sonitus present:

Neo Geodesia & VJ A1
Xynnh
Jaeho Hwang
Qow (DJ set)
Pisitakun
ionai (DJ set)
lizwiz
Mor Wen

There are few outlets more important for the renewed interest in global music scene than Chinabot. The London-based label aims to present a different view of Asian diaspora, recording cultural transfers between the West and Asia regardless of genre. The hypermodern meets the ancient; there is space for celebration as well as for reminiscence of trauma; the regard for tradition is as authentic as it is irreverent.

Pisitakun’s sonic memories of his home country, Thailand, are anything but wistful. The almost impossibly upbeat music – techno/gabber meets local melodies and found sounds – conveys the exuberant atmosphere of Bangkok parties; at the same time, there are noisier, more abstract moments that strive to present a country besides its fabled cuisine and tourism, one whose political reality is often grim.

Neo Geodesia is the new moniker of label head Saphy Vong (previously Lafidki), which draws on contemporary experimental electronics, karaoke traditional Khmer music and somehow even on grindcore he grew up with. The French-Cambodian was born in a Thai refugee camp and the only Neo Geodesia album processes the tragic loss of his mother; still, the kaleidoscopic array of sounds is as much a celebration of life as it is mournful.

The South Korean artist Jaeho Hwang combines brutalist rhythms with instruments and samples of his home country; our personas in today’s digital world are examined through Buddhist ideas on self and essence. The shifting counterpoint of wailing melodies and pounding beats provides the ever-relevant reminder: identities, both old and new, are constructed.