Tag
Underground Music
36 articles on Underground Music from Loopliner, the English-language voice of Asian electronic music: news, releases, club nights and festival coverage across Southeast Asia and beyond.
36 articles
Yes No Wave Has Given Yogyakarta's Music Away for Free Since 2007
Yogyakarta's Yes No Wave Music has given away more than 80 albums since 2007, including Senyawa's early work, funded by merch sales and voluntary donations instead of record sales, with new Indonesian releases still arriving in 2026.
Hong Kong's 宀 Club Books Brussels' Ottoman Grüw for Entropy on October 23
On October 23, Hong Kong's 宀 Club books Brussels producer Ottoman Grüw for its Entropy night, alongside DANLEE and Nanogram.
Random Brothers Turned a Protest Track About Modern Slavery Into a Place on Indonesia's First Techno Compilation
In 2020, Indonesian duo Random Brothers built a track around the Indonesian word for slave. By 2024, they were on REVOLT, the compilation that got Charlotte de Witte and Joseph Capriati watching Indonesia's techno scene.
Taiwan's Over My Body Marks Five Years With Koma Vol. 2, an 11-Track Search for New Producers
Taipei label Over My Body turns five with Koma Vol. 2, an 11-track compilation built entirely from artists it had never worked with before, plus a label-only mix from founder B E N N.
Pontoon Sank on Its Opening Night in the Mekong, and Phnom Penh Is Still Dancing There
On opening night, Pontoon's floating dancefloor took on water under the weight of its own crowd and sank into the Mekong. It got hauled out, moved onto dry land, and kept booking international DJs through Phnom Penh's best and worst years, including a three-time DMC world champion this month.
Seoul's Cakeshop Turns 14 With a 12-Hour Takeover of Two Itaewon Venues
Cakeshop marks 14 years on October 17 with a 12-hour party across Cakeshop and Pistil, headlined by Beijing cloud rap artist Bloodz Boi and more than 20 Seoul DJs and crews.
Surabaya's ANTI.TRUST Records Turned Dangdut Koplo and Breakcore Into a Genre Called Kenjeran Slap
ANTI.TRUST Records has run out of Surabaya since 2018, pressing breakcore, amen-break splits and dangdut koplo samples into a sound its roster now calls Kenjeran Slap, named after the city's working-class coastal district.
Peels Records & Bar Is Where Bandung's House and Techno Scene Actually Lives
Bandung has produced disco archivists, Berlin-booked producers and the first Indonesian woman to DJ Panorama Bar, but it still doesn't have a dedicated house and techno club. The city's real scene runs through an orange-lit record bar, a handful of labels, and warehouse parties nobody advertises.
Moni-Moni's Crate-Digging Turned Cebu Into a Philippine Underground Hub, and Mixmag Asia Noticed
Mikelis Yu grew up in California, came home to Cebu to run a family hotel, and started a radio project instead. Mixmag Asia's September watchlist is the first time the outside world put a name to what Cradio Radio built.
What Is a Boiler Room Set, and How Do You Actually Get Booked for One?
Boiler Room turned a webcam in a London basement into a global stamp of approval, and getting picked for one still isn't a matter of sending a good mix to an inbox. This explains what the platform is actually looking for, and the two real routes artists have used to get on it.
Muttiah Ashnim Built Underground Techno Scenes in Six Southeast Asian Countries, Then Left for Germany
For years, Muttiah Ashnim's collective Into The Deep built techno dancefloors in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar. In 2024 she shut it down, moved to Germany, and started over as a solo producer.
House Cartel Jakarta Gives Sunmantra's Jonathan Pardede a Solo Live Debut as Ugomo
Jonathan Pardede has spent a decade behind a wall of hardware as one third of Sunmantra. On October 2 at Le Cirque, House Cartel gives him the room alone, under a new name.
Miko Naiko Learned to DJ From YouTube Tutorials in Ipoh. ALIGN.ONLINE Got Her to Pestapora Jakarta.
Miko Naiko taught herself to DJ off YouTube tutorials in Ipoh, Malaysia's 'City of Music.' A Southeast Asian women's network got her onto the bill at Pestapora, Jakarta's biggest festival.
Kangkao Spent Four Years Building Bangkok's Rawest Techno Room. Now DUAL Runs It Most Weekends.
The DIY collective that turned a 900-square-meter concrete shell in Trinity Complex into Bangkok's most honest techno night just turned four. Its old room now belongs to a new club most Friday and Saturday nights.
BUTO BAYANG Named Itself After an Indonesian Ghost. Now Bandung and Hanoi Are Getting Booked in Berlin.
A Berlin party turned label turned two-person mission, run by a half-Indonesian producer and a Vietnamese-German DJ, put Bandung's Ambrukt and Amsterdam's TWIENA on the same compilation as Hong Kong's Shanda. The founders spent 2025 touring Bali, Bangkok and Hanoi and came back with a complaint: European DJs keep flying to Southeast Asia to play, and the region's own DJs still can't get a booking back.
Ecilo Signed to Jeff Mills' Axis Records. Then He Built Indonesia a Techno Label of Its Own.
Ecilo's 2021 album on Jeff Mills' Axis Records was the easy part. What he built afterward, a Jakarta label and booking agency called Underradar, is the harder story.
Nhạc Gãy Named Itself "Broken." Its Saigon Raves Now Fund Vietnam's Mental Health Awareness.
Nhạc Gãy means "broken" in Vietnamese. The Saigon collective built a non-profit label, an unpaid five-person crew and a mental health podcast on that word, and its Bandcamp catalog is still growing.
Da Nang Underground Has Thrown Weekly Techno Since 2019. Airtime Asia Just Found the City It Built.
A beach city known for seafood restaurants and package tours has had a real techno collective throwing weekly nights since 2019. This August a radio festival with Ken Ishii on the bill finally noticed.
Klasse Wrecks Named Its Debut EBM Duo Comply. The Opening Track Quotes RoboCop's Riot Robot.
Hong Kong label Klasse Wrecks' 62nd release is a debut EBM duo called Comply, and its opening track lifts ED-209's boardroom warning from RoboCop word for word.
Super Enjoy Started as a Lockdown Skate Crew. Its Ninth Release Mourns Singapore's Empty Strata Malls.
Singapore's Super Enjoy went from a no-plan lockdown DJ crew to a nine-record label. Its new Submersible EP is a dub techno love letter to the city's dying neighbourhood strata malls.
Inside Siam Modular, the Chiang Mai Workshop Where Red Drum Builds Thailand's First Eurorack Synths
In a Chiang Mai workshop, Pete Wallis builds the only Eurorack modular synthesizers made in Thailand, and performs the results live as Red Drum.
Shanda Sold Out Hong Kong's ABYSS Parties for Three Years. Then She Moved to Berlin.
Hong Kong doesn't have a techno neighborhood or much room for one. Shanda built a sold-out party series there anyway, then left for the city that has both, and hasn't stopped looking back.
Bangkok's BEAM WONG AND FRIENDS Just Made Bandcamp Daily's Global Best-Of List
A four-piece from Bangkok just shared a Bandcamp Daily list with acts from Bristol, Kyiv and Sofia. The EP that got them there was recorded off a trip to a Japanese mountain town and a 1985 Thai film.
Nino Blink Left Glasgow's Techno Scene for Singapore's. Richie Hawtin Noticed.
A Scottish DJ who cut his teeth at a Glasgow basement club has spent the last year turning Singapore's underground into a launchpad. Richie Hawtin, Pan-Pot, Dax J and Paco Osuna all played the same record.