Neocha

It has been some time since I have posted here. I guess I've been doing other things: writing, marking, reading, admin. All these things keep me away from here, which is, after all, nothing more than a distraction that I can pretend is somewhat constructive.

I've recently been looking at an interesting Chinese SNS designed for independent musicians, visual artists, photographers, and designers- just about everyone with a creative mindset, really.

Neocha (新茶) has got some really good stuff. I've been listening to some of the music and chatting with some of the producers about why they have a Neocha site. When I get some more detailed results, I'll post them here. I've also started talking to one of the co-founders of the site, Sean Leow, whose been quite helpful. There are a few tidbits of information about Neocha here and there, but sometimes they can be quite difficult to find.

They also publish an occasional webzine called "Blow Up" (放大) with featured interviews, artwork, and music. It seems to me that it's quite well put together, but I don't know much about multimedia design, so I'm not the best placed to judge. Nonetheless, it looks cool. If you're interested in Chinese independent music, you can listen to it online at their website, or you can download albums released on their online music label. I've been going through it a little lately and am suitably impressed.

I'd be interested to know if any of the bands featured will come to Australia, or whether anybody has thought about using Neocha as a resource to bring Chinese bands over here. I imagine one would have to find a market for them first, and this might prove to be quite difficult with a relatively strong local music scene and with the poor taste of the great unwashed. Anyway, perhaps there is scope for a Chinese indie music show on an independent radio station. People might suggest Internet radio, and I suppose in Australia this might be a viable alternative. It would certainly be cheaper to produce, or perhaps easier.

Listen, and find something you like.