I had another great night-out in Beijing yesterday. After helping a friend bargain down a pair of knock-off Converse to 4 euros (they started at a ridiculous 75, which exceeds even Senegalese starting price to purchase ratios), a few of us went for some fantastic Beijing duck at a place referred to as “Dresden Duck” because of the crumbling hutongs all around it. We then hopped in a taxi and headed back to where I’ve already seen a couple shows, the Jiangjinjiu pub at Gulou. We had a few beers there as a group called Sambasia hammered out some Brazilian tunes that shook the whole neighbourhood. Again, how random to be seeing live Brazilian music as performed by a Chinese-Canadian-Israeli-Japanese drumming/singing troupe in Beijing. Sambasia would be fun to see in a bigger place so I might drop-by their gig at Mao Live this Tuesday.. give a shout if you’ll be there.

From there a couple of us headed up to the Lama Temple area to see a rock concert at Star Live, but I think we showed up too late. No worries, though, since the new Club P shares the same building. We slipped the queue and checked-out Beijing’s latest Shanghai-esque lounge/club. Club P is the kind of place I would usually shy away from in Paris, but in Beijing I’m all over it. Like most everything else in the Chinese capital, even the “posh” clubs are still quite rough around the edges. By this I mean a guest list and doormen, but ones that are easily talked around by guys in shorts and running shoes. ..or Eastern European dancers in sequin bikinis dancing beside the DJ who smile to show missing teeth. ..or young ex-pat “new media”, finance and diplomatic types at the lounge ordering bottles of champagne for their entourage, but still looking slightly awkward as they do so. This posh-club-not-quite feel makes the place, well, cute.. and a fun spot to dance late.

That said, today’s post takes us far from the budding nightclubs of Beijing. A friend passed me a copy of an album by IZ, a five-piece band led by a Kazakh singer from Qitai, Xinjiang. Their music is rooted in Kazakh folk, but blends other elements from surrounding regions into the mix. What a wonderful album. I really hope I’ll get to see these guys live sometime. Who knew that music by the various people of the Xinjiang Autonomous Uyghur Region would be so amazing…

For those interested in the Chinese music scene I suggest you have a look at my friend Mat’s project, R2G. He’s involved in the uphill battle to establish a legal digital distribution network for Chinese music, helping to combat music piracy while at the same time dragging labels and musicians into the 21st century. He just helped launch China’s biggest online music store – you can check it out at www.wa3.cn.

Tonight it’s looking like I’ll check-out at least one concert so stay posted tomorrow or Monday for more music and Beijing reports.

IZ – Akhen

After a couple weeks of finding my footing in Beijing I’ve managed to make some pretty interesting musical contacts and see some good live music. The Chinese government hasn’t yet blocked Benn loxo either so posting won’t be a hassle.. yet.

Before we get into the music let me first say that I’m really enjoying this city. Yes, I’m often surrounded by “young fascists”, constantly monitored by various kinds of authority or filmed on CCTV (though there’s probably more of this in London these days), and I’m frequently reminded that I’m in a strange, mono-cultural Han police state. But through the haze of Olympic crackdowns, partially hidden corruption and pseudo-communism I’ve found a wonderfully vibrant city, pulsing with a captivating energy and filled with witty, fun people.

Someone asked me the other day if the level of state control felt anything like Cuba. Not at all. Beijing couldn’t be more different than Havana. You’re free to do what you want here, provided you don’t rock the boat. In Cuba the vast majority can’t rock at all. Cuba felt like a very sad maximum security prison, whereas Beijing feels like… I was about to say a kind of minimum security facility where one might find Conrad Black or Martha Stewart, but that’s not right. Beijing is, well, not quite like any other city I’ve visited.

I’ll have to come back in a couple years, and I wish I’d been here ten years ago. For now, anyway, Olympic Beijing is mostly about, as we put it the other night, “hosting the shit out of you.” And for better or for worse, maybe more of the latter, they’re succeeding.

So. The music. A couple nights ago I went out for dinner with Ed Peto from MicroMu and David Mitchell, a professional guitarist who teaches and performs in Beijing. Through these two and a couple others I’ve managed to meet I hope to discover much about the Beijing music scene, or at least as much as can be gathered during a few weeks of culturally-stunted Olympic summer.

Today we’ll hear something by Panjir, David Mitchell’s Uyghur jazz group. I saw them perform last night at a very cool little bar, Jiangjinjiu (Folk Pub), at Gulou Guang Chang. Not all the members were there and a guest drummer was filling in, but the music was still wonderful. If I wasn’t so bad at string instruments (I’m more of a brass-piano-percussive guy) I would run out and buy a ghijek – what a beautiful instrument. The dutar, a long necked, metal-stringed guitar that looks incredibly difficult to play, also has a very cool sound.

Without pretending to know anything more than what I’ve read on the BBC these past few months, let me at least explain that the Uyghur people of China are mostly concentrated in the north-western Xinjiang province. If you’re like me, you probably already know a little about this Turkic Muslim people because the Chinese have been actively cracking down on them. Like most minorities in China, the Uyghurs suffer under the weight of the overwhelming cultural and political majority of the Han Chinese.

As they put it on their MySpace site (blocked here by the way – I had to use Tor to get to it), “A tradition with over 2000 years of history, Uyghur music has links with Arabic, Persian, Indian and Chinese music, and is at once complex, beautiful and emotional. Panjir adds an element of improvisation, taking the music beyond the strongly codified tradition, and creating forward motion in the music for the first time for many years. We are proud to present Panjir, the new sound of Central Asia.”

They then go on to say, quite tellingly, “NOTE: PANJIR is a musical group with no affiliation to any political or religious groups.” I was on the look-out for guys in sunglasses suspiciously reading the newspaper in the bar last night. Alas, I didn’t spot any.

I’ve said to a couple people today that it feels great to be musically lost again. I’m reminded of when I first moved to West Africa and discovered all these new instruments and sounds. Nothing is familiar.. I can only learn.

Tomorrow I’ll hopefully post some music by a great MicroMu duo who I saw at the same bar a few nights ago. In the coming days I’ll try to hit you up with some rock and hiphop I’ve been trying to explore as well…

ps- for those still wondering what I’m doing here, I work for the AP as an IT guy, not a writer. The last few weeks have seen me at the various Olympic venues and facilities, but covered in dust and carrying cables.. not a notepad. (Except at night, when I’m scouring the city for strange and wonderful – and hopefully musical – experiences.)

Panjir – Nazirkom