If you believe Martin Atkins, even he isn’t sure why he decided to fly to Beijing in fall 2006 and record the best and brightest of the city’s nascent underground rock scene. He already knew the American expats who run D-22, the top rock club in town, and they could tell him which bands to watch—but he’s been touring for decades and has connections like that all over. And given his credentials—he leads Pigface and runs Invisible Records, and since the early 80s he’s played with the likes of PiL, Killing Joke, Ministry, and Nine Inch Nails—he probably could’ve gotten a project like that off the ground almost anywhere. His best guess as to why he chose Beijing is that he was attracted to what he calls its Wild West feel. “When I moved to New York in the very early 80s, I think some of the time that I was waiting to get shot in Times Square,” he says. “We were certaintly—although I was drinking and on speed—we were adrenalized, you know? I think that was part of the reason I went.”
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China’s new reputation as a giant free-for-all has already attracted plenty of foreigners looking for thrills or profits or both. Atkins’s friends in China convinced him to hire a bodyguard, but he didn’t end up running into any of the sort of excitement that might’ve required one—the most dangerous thing he had to deal with was probably the air pollution. “Somebody said to me in Beijing, ‘You should start smoking, because then at least some of the time you have a filter in your mouth.’”
In most cases it’s easy to identify the Western influences the bands started with. Demerit’s “Fight Your Apathy” has more than a little Rancid in it. I’m almost certain Queen Sea Big Shark want to be the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and that “Hold the Line” is supposed to be their “Maps.” Snapline and the China MC Brothers sound like they know Atkins’s work—at the very least they’re fond of the same kind of industrial drum machines and ugly rave synths he is. The songs aren’t merely derivative, though—it sounds like the source material has gone through several generations of mutations, and now these bands own it. It reminds me of how British Invasion acts failed, in fascinating and unique ways, to be American rock ‘n’ rollers.
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