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“Just like a kite whose string has broken
Before it falls to the ground”

Though a reverie may lose direction, it need not be cut short. Kunming musician Zeming Xu’s first solo album Unspoken resembles the account of an urban drifter in which he records the bewilderment of the 90s generation of Chinese youth as they grow into their thirties.

Ten years ago Zeming Xu was an dynamic participant in Kunming’s rap scene. He was a core member of Insane Park, and together with musicians like Mow, Kafe. Hu, Dizkar, they left quite an impact on Southwest China’s rap scene. After this Zeming Xu got out of his comfort zone and plunged into the diverse worlds of rock, DJing and electronic music. Now he returns with an open-minded approach to composition, fusing together the differing styles of pop, rap, electronic and rock, mixing instrumental and electronic music. From the minutiae of his urban life, pouring his many years of music experience into song after song, a chilled out feeling pulses between words and music.

Zeming Xu first had the idea to make a solo record in 2018. Seeing the achievements in their respective fields of close friends over the years, and looking back to both the triumphs and disappointments after so many years of hard work, he gradually came to the confronting realisation that, even though he hasn’t given up on his dreams and aspirations, already they are far away and out of reach:

“When the heart is already floating skywards
But the foot hasn’t even taken the next step
In this world so many ambitious hands
Denied the chance to prove themselves”

For Zeming Xu, Kunming dialect rap has been a longstanding passion. Nowadays in both writing and performing he seamlessly switches between Mandarin and dialect, and down to earth quality shines through in the candour and frankness of his lyrics. As far as he is concerned, this is well suited to the expression of this period in his life. As for those hard to express sentiments which remain ‘unspoken’, more often that not for this generation you will simply hear mou za ge, “it’s nothing”.

Behind the dry wit of lyrics like “The pain of love, the roads of a city / both will never be ok” “Only a few hundred metres from me to you / nevertheless a few kilometres by car”, expression is yet given to the absurdities of city living. On the other hand, “Have you ever asked me where I want to go? / Is there room for both of us to be side by side in the destination you are going to?” is a classic example of a Cantopop-style love song, and in Tequila Sunset, the drifting back and forth from a woman’s soft Cantonese voice to hai cai qiang singing of the Yi ethnic minority imparts a feeling of losing one’s sense of time and space.

Continuing on from the cool-headed observational style of the previously released singles Love Day, Just No and Irrepressible Impulses, the rest of the songs on the album similarly drift through personal stories and universal emotions. The songs Dirty Floor and Modern Mundane are companion pieces, together they elaborate the pain and helplessness of falling in love in the big city. R&B superstar Dizkar and good friend of Zeming Xu guests on Shall I Move to Somewhere Else, behind an elegant and flowing melody the song expresses the bitter feeling of wishing you could go back and have a second chance.

The Zeming Xu of Unspoken is like a Don Quixote challenging the reality of our world. Compared to the rhythm of the city, he is on a different beat altogether. In the end is it better to sally forth on an adventure, or tend to your garden within the safe confines of your castle? For Zeming Xu we should be exploring these life mysteries together.