Advertisement

Get ready for ‘lowercase music’ at Hong Kong techno gig – amplified, ambient and an antidote to Canto-pop

  • He’s been rebelling for 30 years, but for upcoming gig Repo Populace, Hong Kong electronic music pioneer Xper.Xr will let other musicians spin the platters
  • Hong Kong musicians ‘don’t make use of the opportunities here’, he says, but the music scene impresses co-organiser Scott Young, like him back from Europe

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
Scott Young, one of Hong Kong’s top techno music producers, has co-organised a September 25 alternative music gig, Repo Populace, at The Catalyst in Sheung Wan.

The flier for the September 25 gig at The Catalyst in Hong Kong’s Sheung Wan neighbourhood sounds sinister.

On the bill of “Repo Populace” is “freakish” electronic music that will keep the audience feeling disturbed into “the unforeseeable future”; an eccentric and provocative line-up with “no off switch”, and; a “calamity” that might warrant ear plugs.

It’s alternative, for sure, but as the two people behind the militant-sounding live show point out, their kind of indie music is thriving in Hong Kong, a city often unjustly associated with the more anodyne sounds of Canto-pop.

“I had underestimated the local scene. When I moved back to Hong Kong from the UK last April, I noticed that record stores like the ones in Tai Nan Street [in Sham Shui Po, Kowloon] were stocking more alternative music, and people here read The Wire magazine,” says Scott Young, 32, a Hong Kong-born DJ and producer, referring to the well-established UK music monthly.

A flier promoting “Repo Populace”, an electronic music event in Hong Kong on Saturday.
A flier promoting “Repo Populace”, an electronic music event in Hong Kong on Saturday.

The other half of the “Repo Populace” team, called Xper.Xr, another Hong Kong-born artist who lived in Europe for years, says the city has an edge over places like London and Paris.

Advertisement