Drum’n’bass like you’ve never heard from South China

The Pearl River Delta is not a place you would think to look up to discover electronic music, let alone immerse in it. But besides what used to be the bustling city of Hong Kong (now stuck by pandemic-safety measures), Shenzhen lies right across the border and is yearning for the attention of its underground movements.

Released a week ahead of schedule, Unchained’s latest compilation titled “The Remixes” is a 16-track journey that gives high attention to young and fresh talent while paying homage to the best remixes of the label to date.

The musical spectrum of this compilation is impressively wide, touching on minimal, glitch and half-time beats, and still managing to make way for liquid grooves and rampant, fast-paced bass music. There’s stuff on here that we’ve never quite heard before, and we quite like that, namely the Dead End Remix of Subp Yao’s ‘Backwitda’. And while still being familiarly comforted by the sounds of China’s Radiax, China-based Italian trio Fractale and a host of other accomplished beat makers.

Claiming their precedence as South China’s regional leader of quality drum’n’bass over the last few years, Unchained is one of the go-to promoters for electronic hedonists. They’re actually branched in Hong Kong too, but with events on a hiatus, the focus has been on Shenzhen of recent. Unchained’s founders Daniel Power and Lyndon Jarr have carved a healthy and vibrant scene for bass music across South China, mainly by developing the scene through events and importing international talent, and then focusing on Unchained Recordings over the last two years.

'The Remixes' is out now on Unchained Recordings. You can buy and listen here.