By day, Xia Lang (which is likely a pseudonym, but I'm just guessing) scores commercials, video games and other programming from his home base in Beijing. When he has free time, he creates music like this.

Xia Lang Codex (Youngbloods)

Calling this "electronic" is technically accurate, as I think just about every sound was created with some sort of electronic instrument. But the style and structure wanders far part even ambient outposts. The sound is hardly languid, but Xia is in no hurry to resolve his musical conundrums. The pieces are generally short, which adds to the pile of contradictions.

Not static, and yet not propulsive either. Xia's songs are more like sketches. Pencil sketches, really, that have a distinctly ephemeral feel. Collected together or left apart, well, it doesn't matter much. There is no narrative theme to these pieces, just a shared willingness to reflect everyday matters.

And that works for me. Xia isn't making a grand statement, but he manages to make the mundane into something profound. I don't know where he's going, but this is a fine sketchbook in time.

Jon Worley