Badhead Festival
B10 Live, Shenzhen, China
The sublabel of China’s largest independent record company Modern Sky, Badhead was founded to release harder to classify, more avant garde and underground music by the likes of Feng Jiangzhou, Tongue, Hu Mage, the Red Scarf trio featuring reeds player Lao Dan and drummer Deng Boyu, Wang Fan and Junkyard, among others. This year Badhead has been marking its 25th anniversary with a run of festivals taking in Beijing and the three Guangdong cities of Guangzhou, Foshan and Shenzhen.
This being the crazy rainy season, the audience arrived steaming wet for the opening performance from Bande, a relatively recent project featuring Xinjiang’s Mamer and his regular percussionist partner Zhang Dong. The two masked figures in black robes sit either side of the stage, with Zhang Dong lifting, shaking or beating a shaman drum which, illuminated by a red light behind him, looks like a giant’s eardrum. Meanwhile words of unknown meaning burst through the holes of Mamer’s mask as he plucks and pounds fragile yet compelling sounds from his dombra. On the same evening Bande’s Xinjiang neighbours 6501 launch their new album Next Question Is The Previous One, their respective sets sandwiching a 100 minute show by popular indie rockers Mercader, who drew one of the festival’s largest audiences. Mercader’s Founder/lyricist Zhao Tai drops occasionally cruel revelations hidden in the philosophical metaphors of their songs over easy listening melodies. For their last three songs, 6501’s mastermind Feruh joins them to drive their performance forward with his heavy bassline sounds.
Two nights later, Wang Xiaofang, the founding member, vocalist and drummer of China’s first female rock band Cobra, collaborates with noise maker Wu Quan in a short set titled after the Chinese proverb “If the mountain is not high”. Yang Haisong, the lead singer of indie rock band PK 14 and the mastermind behind the Maybe Mars label, joins them on electric guitar and theremin for the next set, Wang and Yang’s century-long improvised roar driving each other to the point of madness, even as they musically stay inside a safe zone, ironically summarised by a glitch on the VJ screen operated by Wu stating: “No application window”.
Next up is Fire Ladder, the free improvisation trio of drummer/electronicist Deng Boyu, electric guitarist Li Jianhong and saxophonist Li Tieqiao. Li Jianhong paces the stage as if trying to tame the guitar beast in his arms, while Deng Boyu’s thick sounding Chinese drum intertwines with Li Tieqiao’s suddenly soft saxophone. When the guitarist vibrates his strings with a muscle massage gun, their performance touches my sore spots. As powerful as it is pleasant, their music strengthens mind and will.
The festival’s closing set, titled Migratory Bird Holding Guitar, reunites Japanese underground folk legend Kan Mikami in a duo with Mamer. This is the second time they have worked together in Shenzhen – their B10 Live debut was documented on the album Great Emotion, released by Badhead in 2022. Tonight Mikami’s variously chattering, roaring and deep singing voice takes centre stage atop Mamer’s thunderous electronic string drones, which are occasionally followed by a sudden silence that allows Mikami to sing more mercifully over his lightly plucked guitar strings. With Mikami illuminated by a yellow spotlight and Mamer a purple one, the duo visually and musically blend together in a strange way, reaching out and communicating with each other through their pauses and interactions while always unapologetically being themselves.
Anla Li
坏脑音乐节
深圳B10现场
坏脑是中国最大的独立唱片公司摩登天空的子厂牌，成立的目的是发行更难以归类、更前卫和地下的音乐，包括丰江舟、舌头、胡吗个、红领巾三重奏（由管乐演奏者老丹、鼓手邓博宇和吉他手李星组成）、王凡与Junkyard等。今年，坏脑在北京和广东的三个城市（广州、佛山和深圳）举办一系列演出，纪念厂牌成立25周年。
正值疯狂的雨季，蒸腾着湿气的观众们到达响马的开场表演。乐队由来自新疆的马木尔和他的常规打击乐搭档张东组成，这也是他们相对较新的项目。两个身着黑色长袍、戴着面具的人坐在舞台的两侧，左侧的张东举起、摇晃或敲打着萨满鼓，鼓被他身后的红灯照亮，看似巨人的耳膜。与此同时，当马木尔在冬不拉上拨动与敲击出脆弱却不可抗拒的声音时，意义不明的话语从他面具上的洞向外迸发。同一晚，响马的新疆近邻6501乐队推出他们的新专辑《下一个问题就是上一个问题》，在这两场演出之间是备受欢迎的独立摇滚乐队梅卡德尔长达100分钟的演出，他们吸引了这次音乐节上最多的观众。乐队的创始人与词作者赵泰偶尔会用悦耳的旋律，在歌曲的哲学象征中透露出潜藏着的残酷启示。6501的灵魂人物、贝斯手法茹克加入最后三首歌，浓重的低音驱动了梅卡德尔的表演向前。
两天后，中国第一支女子摇滚乐队眼镜蛇的创始成员、人声和鼓手王晓芳与噪音制造者武权合作，以中国谚语“山不在高”为主题，做了简短的开场表演。独立摇滚乐队P.K.14主唱、兵马司厂牌主脑杨海崧在下一场演出中加入他们，并演奏电吉他和特雷门琴。王晓芳和杨海崧如世纪般漫长的即兴“咆哮”将彼此驱使至疯狂的边缘，尽管他们在音乐上仍停留在安全区内，讽刺的是，武权操作的VJ屏幕上的微小故障总结道：“没有应用程序窗口”。
接下来上场的是自由即兴三人组火梯，由打击乐手和电子音乐人邓博宇、电吉他手李剑鸿和萨克斯手李铁桥组成。李剑鸿在舞台上踱步，仿佛试图驯服他怀里的吉他猛兽，而邓博宇厚重的中国大鼓声与李铁桥突然变得柔和的萨克斯吹奏交织在一起。当吉他手用筋膜枪震颤琴弦时，他们的表演触碰到了我的痛处。他们的音乐既有力又令人愉悦，能够强身健体。
音乐节的闭幕演出名为“拿着吉他的候鸟”，由再度重聚的日本地下民谣传奇人物三上宽与马木尔演绎。这是他们第二次在深圳合作——他们的B10现场首秀被收录在坏脑于2022年发行的专辑《大感情》里。今晚，在马木尔打雷闪电般的电子弦乐轰鸣中，三上宽的各种喋喋不休、嚎叫与深沉吟唱占据了中心位置。轰鸣之后偶尔紧跟着的是突如其来的沉默，使得三上宽得以在自己轻柔的吉他拨弦声中更慈悲地哼唧、歌唱。他被一道黄光照射着，马木尔则被一团紫色笼罩，二人在视觉和音乐上以奇怪的方式融为一体，通过停顿与互动向外伸展、彼此交流，与此同时毫无歉意地保持真实。
Anla Li
August 2024
First published on The Wire. Copyright © The Wire magazine.
