I recently published a sprawling personal essay about Underworld, the legendary underground live venue in Taipei. What I didn't write about enough in the piece was the music. I've put together an annotated playlist from my years there (2009-2013). islandsandvalleys.substack.com/p/underworld...

Underworld, 2009-2013: An Annotated Playlist

A look back at a disappearing era, in ten essential tracks

islandsandvalleys.substack.com

The first time I saw Sunset Rollercoaster live was around 2010, at a long-closed venue in Taipei. The band only had a handful of songs at the time, some without finished lyrics, but they managed to drag the sparse crowd out of their nightclub booths and onto the dance floor with their big riffs.

15 years ago, I was living in Taipei and spending most of time in its indie music scene. I've started a Substack, Islands and Valleys, about many of those same things—indie music, Taiwan, community, memory. Here is the first piece: islandsandvalleys.substack.com/p/tiny-haven...

Tiny Haven, True Spirit

After 15 years, I returned to the place where it all started and saw all that had ended

islandsandvalleys.substack.com

About a year ago, I took a walk through an ecological park in Mexico City with a bird expert, who told me in passing about the "birding gender gap" - the lack of research into female birds. Since then, I've been working on an audio doc about it, now out on the BBC: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

BBC World Service - The Documentary Podcast, Birding the gender gap

An exploration of how the study of female birds is reshaping our understanding of nature

bbc.co.uk

Spotify called me a Cyclops, so I get back it by looking at two (!) competing visions of what its rise has meant for music (spoiler: they both end in disappointment). www.danielsemo.com/writing/ever...

Every Noise is a Mood: Two Visions of Our Unfulfilled Streaming Present — Daniel Semo

After being called a "Cyclops" by Spotify, I dug into two recent books about how streaming is reshaping both music and us.

danielsemo.com

Drummers are often the most unsung members in rock bands. Lo Zun Long is one of my favourites, and the best I've ever seen up close. I write about what makes him, and the drums, so special. Oh and pants. I write about pants. www.danielsemo.com/writing/anat...

Anatomy of a Genius in 5 Reductive Theories — Daniel Semo

He clamps into the groove and doesn’t let it go… From the beginning, I found his playing utterly hypnotic and would often stare at him for the length of the show, no matter what band he was in.

danielsemo.com

Can we at least use AI to add a cable to this damn stock photo that annoys me every time I see it?

I wrote a thing about drawing and Melbourne www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Tourists, watercolours and the sad, still Star: sketching the route 35 tram showed me a Melbourne I had never really noticed

When you are in a city every day, you start to take things for granted. So, after three years in Melbourne, Josh Nicholas decided to be a tourist

theguardian.com

In which I go to a noise gig in the hip part of Melbourne with all the vintage shops and I'm reminded of noise gigs in the hip part of Tokyo with all the vintage shops... except for the footy on the pub screen www.danielsemo.com/writing/live...

Live Review: Otomo Yoshihide et al — Daniel Semo

A humble weeknight gig at the Northcote Social Club, watching noise artists and avant-garde composers, brings back memories of basement club nights in Koenji.

danielsemo.com

Given that I've never played Halo (and the last console I owned was probably a PS1), it might seem odd that I would help write and produce this Twenty Thousand Hertz episode. But when it's such a moving story, so incredibly well told, my job is pretty easy. www.20k.org/episodes/the...

I returned to an old haunt in Taipei, listened to the full catalogue of the world's most hated band, and lived to write about it www.danielsemo.com/writing/no-c...

No Coldplay: Reassessing Old Maxims — Daniel Semo

I return to an old haunt and try to figure out if it still stands for it once did, and what the most hated band in the world has to do with it.

danielsemo.com

How much of Claude's classy allure is simply about the serif font?

I profiled the Balinese electronic-gamelan duo Kadapat, whom I saw in an experimental music festival in Taipei last month. After hours of glitchy computer noise and black-box electronics, hearing two guys hitting bits of wood and metal with sticks was refreshing www.danielsemo.com/writing/ligh...

Light and Dark: Kadapat’s Experimental Take on Balinese Gamelan — Daniel Semo

It was about four hours into an experimental music festival in Taipei when I saw Kadapat, an electronic-gamelan duo from Bali, standing ominously on a foggy stage, striking metal and wood in complex p...

danielsemo.com

While in Taiwan recently, I interviewed Freddy Lim, frontman of death metal band Chthonic and two-term legislator. We discussed neither metal nor politics, instead focusing on Taiwanese identity, the history of the independent music scene, and, well… baseball. www.danielsemo.com/writing/inte...

Interview: Freddy Lim — Daniel Semo

For the past three decades, Freddy Lim has carved out a singular path through Taiwan’s cultural and political landscape, first as the frontman of death metal band Chthonic and later as an activist and...

danielsemo.com

If it's possible for England to get demoted through demerit points, I'm willing to entertain this two-tiered Test cricket system

The Western mind cannot comprehend a riotous punk band from Wuhan having their Wednesday night gig in Taipei shut down by the police. (Gig Review) www.danielsemo.com/writing/live...

Live Review: C.S.B.Q — Daniel Semo

The Western mind cannot comprehend a riotous punk band from Wuhan having their Wednesday night gig in Taipei shut down by the police.

danielsemo.com

I'm about half way through Meet Me In The Bathroom, and I now wish the whole book was hot sartorial takes from the singer of the Hives

For my inaugural post, I was wondering whether to go deep, snide, trivial, whimsical, or just write "Ed Balls". Instead, here's a link to some liner notes I wrote to an imagined compilation of not-greatest non-hits from the early career of a cult recording artist www.danielsemo.com/writing/line...

Track-by-Track: The Mountain Goats’ Lo-Fi Era — Daniel Semo

Liner notes to an imagined compilation of not-greatest non-hits from the early career of a cult recording artist.

danielsemo.com