Mengzy Selects – 016 / October

Welcome to ‘Mengzy Selects’, a monthly video column which features five recently released tracks by producers and labels in Asia and across the Asian diaspora. Your host is Mengzy: a Hong Kong-based DJ and producer, PhD in musicology, music journalist, and co-founder of Feed the Dragon.

To watch the video version of this month’s column, click here.

Following a cheeky global promo campaign on IG, Klasse Wrecks dropped ‘BOY’ by Mogwaa on October 6. The white label release is the South Korean producer’s third outing on the Hong Kong-based imprint and we’re particularly feeling the electro-infused VIP mix.

Listen to ‘BOY’ (VIP Mix) here.

Merging Cantopop with Japanese city pop, ‘都市爬行’ by 力臻 (Lagchun) was originally released as a single two years ago. This month, the ballad joins eight new songs and remixes in ‘Legend 1980’, a lush new album via Neoncity Pop.

Listen to ‘都市爬行’ here.

Experimental Beijing label Daftpop Sounds recently shared Vol. 11 of its ‘Unicat Attack!’ series, reworking a January release by Loooooongish Cat. ‘Jarsua is Missing’, featuring MC Guru, flips the spoken word trip hop of the original into dubby tribal house.

Listen to ‘Jarsua Is Missing’ (feat. MC Guru) here.

Since being named one of Mixmag’s top breakout DJs last year, IYRE has been moving from strength to strength. October 15 saw the drum'n'bass producer christen UKF’s new liquid sublabel with ‘Never Be Alone Again’, an emotional roller featuring powerhouse vocals from newcomer Utelka.

Listen to ‘Never Be Alone Again’ (feat. Utelka) here.

Humb, head of Hanoi-via-Bristol label Döner Beat Records, strikes again this month with ‘Memory Breaks’, a phenomenal two-track EP. Opener ‘Seh Gwan’ lulls you in with a honey-glazed rare groove sample before tearing into an Amen break workout.

Listen to ‘Seh Gwan’ here.

Mengzy is Mixmag Asia’s Music Culture Columnist, follow her on Instagram.