Born in Malaysia, Tzusing spent his formative years in Singapore and the Taiwanese manufacturing center of Taichung and studied in Chicago. Currently based between Shanghai and Taipei, his music exists in a condition of dislocation, forged at the complicated intersection of personal, social, and national identity.

As a DJ, Tzusing’s sets mix streamlined techno, industrial electronics, non-western dance music, and contemporary club music. He also adds a sincere belief in the redemptive power of pop music to his mix; ready to drop sophisticated, classic Asian pop into the middle of club sets. In his own productions, Tzusing recombines these influences into aggressive, cathartic music, inflected with off-kilter half step rhythms, strange harmonic textures, and thick, unnaturally resonant drums. If glittering tuned percussions, reed instrument-like synthesizers, and the music’s imagery might evoke a sense of “Chinese-ness,” it is not to point to the site of “authentic culture,” but to ask what these signifiers mean and who they belong to, as diasporas mutate beyond national borders. Seeking fun and subversion in equal parts, Tzusing’s music circles around themes of power, obsession, sexuality, identity, and its obliteration.

https://soundcloud.com/tzusing