Shanghai Label SVBKVLT's Newest Signee Kai Luen Makes Dance Music Haunted by Ghosts

SVBKVLT are a rising label from Shanghai with a roster of artists who helping to turn the city into a global electronic music hub. The newest member of the label's family is the Beijing-based producer Kai Luen (who previously performed as Soulspeak), who is about to drop a supernatural-laced album.

The Hollow Ghost is a ten-track LP of neck-twisting dance music that Luen claims is inspired by the ghosts of former beliefs. On the liner notes posted on SVBKVLT's Soundcloud, the producer writes:

A ghost is a system of beliefs, a code that we once held on to. As time passes by, this system either gradually changes and morphs into a fused form or is all together overthrown. It isn't a skeleton that remains still but rather a breathing being that closely follows you. It's substance gradually decays as you yourself decay and change.
To me, this is an album about decay and consciously destroying these old ghosts. About actively building new forms during this process. It is about consciously looking for other ideas or connections in which to create new ghosts as the old ones hollow out. This decay takes place in your surroundings/ environment (whether through noise pollution, environmental degradation, demolition, riots or uprising), your relationships with other people (dying friendships, family, old and current lovers), and most importantly in your own body (sex, drugs, and growing old). This decay can be gradual and slow or it can be violent, piercing, and sensual.
These "hollow ghosts" continue to stay with us as we change. I hope you can hear the ghosts present in this collection of songs.

Along with the album announcement, SVBKVLT has released the title track, a dark dance hall cut haunted by heavily processed disembodied voices. As the shuffling beat progresses so too does the melody, which layers in stabbing synth keys and large clacking percussion. Listen to it below the tracklist.

SVBKVLT will release The Hollow Ghost on April 29. Kai Luen will perform at Shanghai's celebrated dance venue the Shelter on April 22, and will have his album release at another local venue, Dada, the day after.

The Hollow Ghost tracklist

1. And so It Begins
2. The Hollow Ghost
3. La 92
4. Chai 拆
5. Lung Collapse
6. 24 Hour Killathon
7. Ash
8. Witching Hours
9. Thorns
10. Slime and Swallow