Here is my take on the three selves of Mamer Rayes: a natural born multi-instrumentalist blessed by a prodigious gift, an iconoclastic music author notorious for reticence and reclusiveness, and a profound contemplator about the contemporary conditions of Kazakh culture with an often dystopian vision. These three selves collide in Mamer’s three decades of creative trajectory, hailing from 1990s Xinjiang and journeying way beyond ever since. It is simply a mission impossible to force a playlist out of Mamer’s vast volumes of recorded works, which as I glance over my digital collection now contain around 30 physical releases under different monikers and an even greater quantity of unissued demos and archival recordings. This playlist attempts to show, on top of the breadth and diversity of Mamer’s sonic universe, the process of its evolvement to the present day.

Mamer & Jonggar
“兄弟 Bauir (Brother)”
Previously unreleased (1995)

This is a young Mamer who had left his hometown Qitai for the regional capital city Urumqi, where he ravenously consumed dakou cassettes (leftover copies of the Western market which were imported to China as plastic scrap) of King Crimson and Sonic Youth, and gradually established himself in Urumqi’s burgeoning rock scene as a talented guitarist. In 1995, Mamer recorded his first batch of original songs with the five-piece band Jonggar, presumably named after the Junggar Basin where his hometown is located. “Bauir” is a fine example of Mamer’s creative output during this period: there are evident influences of Western alternative music as well as an equally strong will to integrate them with traditional Kazakh musical forms; besides, one can already sense the gloomy sound textures and apocalyptic lyrical themes which would persist throughout his career.

Iz
“两条河 Êdil-Jayeқ (Two Rivers)”
From Beijing Demo
(self released, 2003)

Mamer moved to Beijing in 2002. He soon impressed the whole scene with a musicianship deemed impeccable by fellow rockers in the capital. In Beijing, the band Iz (pronounced Yeez and meaning footprints in Kazakh) started to take form. The early version of Iz consists of an all-star line-up of Beijing’s rock underground, including members of Tongue, Wild Children and Wood Pushing Melon, all Han Chinese, who had then become Mamer’s music apprentices learning and practising dombra with him. As a band, they performed modern interpretations of traditional Kazakh tunes composed or rearranged by Mamer. This version of Iz recorded a demo tape in 2003 produced by experimental musician Wang Fan. With the help of Pierre Blanc, The Wire contributor Steve Barker and Andy Kershaw, the demo was aired on BBC Radio 3, eventually leading to a Real World record deal. The title “Êdil-Jayeқ” refers to the two rivers now known as the Volga and the Ural, the lyrics are based on a poem written by the 15th century Kazakh bard and philosopher Asan Kaigy.

Iz
“何为恶 Nê-jaman (What Evil Is)”
From Iz 2007
(self released, 2007)

By 2007, Iz had evolved into an all-Kazakh line-up including Ibrahim on dombra and Milan Ahsai on kobyz. At Beijing Film Academy, the band recorded their first studio album in a single day, which very much also concluded Iz’s Kazakh folk music phase. These songs are Mamer’s tender tribute to the traditional Kazakh tunes he grew up with in his hometown. The careful combination of Kazakh folk instrumentation – dombra, kobyz, and Jew's harp – with Western ones, as Mamer insisted, is not so much an intention to modernise the old Kazakh form as an attempt to sing these songs naturally from here and now. “Nê-jaman” is based on texts written by the great 17th century Kazakh poet Bukhar-zhirau.

Iz
“影子 Kөlêngkê (Shadow)”
From 影子 Kөlêngkê (Shadow)
(Old Heaven Books, 2011)

Real World released a Mamer solo record titled Eagle in 2009. Labelled ‘Chinagrass’ during its promotion, the album remains Mamer’s most famous, if not the only, work known by the Western world. While appreciating the fact that it connected him to a wider international audience, Mamer was never happy with the record’s cheesy world music styled production and the arbitrary association of his music with various stereotypical references. After returning from a UK tour in 2010, Mamer, with a new line-up of Iz including drummer Zhang Dong and bassist Nurtay, started a year-long recording marathon that would yield Kөlêngkê.

While many of the songs in Kөlêngkê are still based on ancient Kazakh texts, the album represents a radical break from the idealised sense of harmony between the traditional and the modern, once painstakingly maintained in Iz’s folk music period. Instead, Mamer unleashes his dystopian vision of the industrial world, deconstructing traditional folk tunes with distorted electronic effects and harsh metallic percussion. After the release of Kөlêngkê, local critics, noticing its striking contrast with the sound of Eagle, started reflecting on Mamer’s approach to his own cultural tradition, hailing him as China’s first anti-world-music hero. “Kөlêngkê” is one of the two songs on the record with Mamer’s original lyrics, which describes the experience of flying above a solemn land. It mentions not an eagle, but flies instead:

“Is it an island or a river,
Is it an ocean or land,
What is it?
The world rests in peaceful solitude
As if all is in slumber,
Flying through space, alone
With only the buzz of flies”

Mamer
“胡斯尼胡尔兰 Kusny Korlan (Kusny Korlan)”
From 星空 Kêngistik (Sky)
(Old Heaven Books, 2012)

Kêngistik was born out of an incident during the endless recording sessions that would generate Kөlêngkê, a story that Old Heaven’s Tu Fei, who had become the manager of the band by then, always loves to tell. In the studio, Mamer got into an argument with Fei when the latter asked whether he had abandoned the Kazakh tradition for something else. Mamer turned the light off, recorded the whole album on dombra in one go, and left his friend with his answer: “This is my kind of tradition.”

Instead of showing off his skills in the high-speed type of playing typical of dombra virtuosos, Mamer plays the dombra note by note, slowly and calmly, with heavy reverb. One of a series of five Mamer solo records released in 2012 with the support of Old Heaven Books, Kêngistik remains his widest-known solo work to date. Written by the early 20th century Kazakh composer Estay Berkimbayev, “Kusny Korlan” remains popular today and has various interpretations by both classical and pop musicians, Mamer himself used to record a pop version for the local TV station in 1997.

Iz
“跟着你行吗？Izingê Tüssêm Bolama？(Could I Follow You?)”
From 廻声 Jangƣerek (Echo)
(Old Heaven Books, 2013)

Three years after Kөlêngkê, Mamer pushed the sound of Iz to an even darker horizon. Recorded with the same 3 piece line-up, Jangƣerek sees Mamer fully embracing the various threads of avant garde influences, most notably The Plastic People Of The Universe and Einstürzende Neubauten, which he had been absorbing since the dakou era. It also marks a starting point after which the electric bass became Mamer’s major instrument. The result is a collection of songs that feel simultaneously tribal, industrial and ritualistic. The lyrics, all written by Mamer, depict a total apocalyptic imagery and throws to the listener an array of heavy metaphors about the destiny of civilisations.

Mekrop
“穿细菌的人 (Bacteria Man)”
From 细菌 Mekrop
(Badhead, 2017)

Two years after Iz’s fourth album Rêngsiz in 2015, several of Mamer’s co-existing projects yielded results. In 2017, he dropped six full length albums in which he played the leading role, three in collaboration with drummer Zhang Dong, by then the only remaining member of Iz. These include the debut records of his two band projects, Mekrop (meaning Bacteria) and Tat (meaning Rust), both released by Modern Sky’s Badhead sub-label. Mamer plays electric bass in Tat, and electric guitar in Mekrop, though in reality the heavy use of effects pedals has made this hardly a noticeable distinction. The lyrics of Mekrop and Tat are neither Mandarin nor Kazakh, but improvised vocals without meaning. In a single gig, the two would often perform different sets as Iz, Mekrop and Tat, acting as the support guests of themselves. “Bacteria Man” demonstrates Mamer’s sludgy, groovy, and aggressive aesthetics on the electric guitar, which very much defines the sound of Mekrop, with evident traces from no wave, post-punk, and heavy metal; while in Tat, Mamer is more meditative and volatile on the electric bass, accompanied by a slower drum beat.

Mamer
“Baska 07”
From Baska
(self released, 2017)

Mamer
“Orke 05”
From Orke
(self released, 2017)

2017 also saw the almost unnoticed launch of two self released demos of Mamer’s dombra improvisations. Orke is named after a place in Xinjiang, while Baska simply means Others in Kazakh. This pair of shabbily produced recordings, however, showcases unprecedented levels of adventurous experimentation on the instrument. Baska documents Mamer’s attempt to ‘electrify’ the sound of dombra with dazzling effects units, generating a new dimension of heavy and elastic sound textures. Orke, on the other hand, is pure free improvisation that would connect straight away to the genius of the European masters. What’s just as thrilling is perhaps the fact that these recordings are only a tip of the iceberg in Mamer’s vast amount of unissued works resulting from an almost ascetic routine of daily music practising.

Mamer & Deng Boyu
“之歌 (Song Of)”
From 万有 (Universal)
(self released, 2017)

Yet another of Mamer’s 2017 releases, Universal is a selection of pieces taken from a five hour improvisation session recorded in Beijing with drummer Deng Boyu. One of the younger generation of nonconformist musicians and probably the most active drummer in China’s improvisation scene, Deng Boyu demonstrates the ability to evoke the most violent and vigorous side of Mamer the bassist. After this release, the duo played a series of fiery dates, which ended up several times with chaotic instrument destruction. “Song Of”, however, isn’t a representative piece of the album’s explosive interactions; rather it is perhaps one of the most captivating tunes Mamer had ever recorded. One can again feel the breath of a traditional Kazakh melody underneath the song’s progression.

Beilkhan Haliakbar & Mamer
“疾驰的马群 Samgagan Sanglaktar (Galloping Horses)”
From 空中漫步 Koktegi Serwen (Air Walk)
(Modern Sky World Music, 2018)

After the release of Kөlêngkê, critic Zhang Xiaozhou once wrote: “For those folk music essentialists, Mamer is for sure a traitor, but that does not mean he has given up on folk music at all.” Mamer’s music life remains tied to those of the old Kazakh masters. In 2018, Modern Sky’s World Music sub-label released two seminal collections of traditional Kazakh instrumental pieces which were produced by Mamer: Air Walk by the legendary sybyzgy master Beilkhan Haliakbar, and White Wave by dombra master Sayrax Jarmukamet. Both albums contain a second disc of Mamer’s musical conversations with the main performer, in which he adds onto the original recording layers of electric sounds from his own toolkit.

“Samgagan Sanglaktar” is one of Beilkhan’s original compositions, it was written in 1986, inspired by a big horse race held in his area. The sybyzgy is a sideblown flute traditionally played by Kazakh shepherds and horse herders. As his tribe’s official inheritor of the sybyzgy, handed down after six generations, Beilkhan has been a significant inspiration in Mamer ‘s music career. The two have maintained a long and close relationship, performing together on several occasions. In 2012, after Mamer introduced them Iz’s former bassist Nurtay became Beilkhan’s disciple.

Mamer & Tatsuya Yoshida
“见水 三 (See The River 3)”
From 西游 (Wild West Adventure)
(Badhead, 2018)

In 2014, Mamer met Japanese drummer Tatsuya Yoshida in Shenzhen at the First Tomorrow Festival where the pair shared a stage. In 2016, they recorded as a duo in Urumqi with Mamer on electric bass.The resulting album Wild West Adventure consists of two discs, titled See The Mountain and See The River. Following the release of the album by Badhead, the duo toured China in 2018. Jokingly described as a pair of silent stones, the duo were never able to communicate with each other through language, yet they produced some of the most intense and imaginative sound dynamics on stage. The album serves as a decent demonstration of the two musicians’ stunning improvisational skills and their individual unique characters.

Bande
“机器 (Machine)”
From 乌麦女神 Immadey (Umay Goddess)
(Modern Sky World Music, 2019)

Among Mamer’s many band projects, Bande (meaning Bandit) occupy a special position, being the only one which still performs with traditional Kazakh instruments. Formed in 2012, Bande are a trio featuring Mamer and Zhang Dong as the two consistent members. Starting as a more acoustically driven project, Bande have evolved over the years into some kind of a Kazakh instrument power trio that build epic avant rock soundscapes with distorted textures of dombra, kobyz and Shaman drum. On stage, the members turn up in theatrical masks and black robes as though performing a mystical ritual.

Bande’s long awaited debut Immaydey was released in 2019 by Modern Sky World Music. Immaydey, the Umay Goddess, is the goddess of fertility and virginity in Turkic mythology, regarded as the eternal Earth Mother with almighty power. While the dark magic of the electrified dombra has been invoked in Mamer’s earlier experimentations, what immediately strikes the listener here is the soaring cry of the kobyz (performed by Xalhar in the album), which was rehabilitated into a noxious noise-making device, a machine bearing a long and heavy tradition, as the song title suggests.

Mamer
“Daidiydao (Daididau)”
From 辐射较弱 (Faintish Radiation)
(Old Heaven Books, 2020)

After his self imposed exile from the global world music niche, Mamer found his stage at Shenzhen’s two annual music festivals – Tomorrow Festival and OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival – curated by his loyal friend and supporter Tu Fei, who would always reserve at least one set for Mamer’s newest sonic experimentations. Mamer’s most recent album Faintish Radiation documents his full performances of solo improvisation at the seventh (2017) and eighth (2018) OCT-LOFT Jazz Festivals, in which he performed electric bass, guitar, dombra, jew's harp and vocals. These recordings register Mamer’s trajectory towards a maturing avant garde composer who is able to capture the audience with an everchanging bizarre sonic kaleidoscope, one which summons industrial noise, doom drones, heavy metal riffs, dark and punchy grooves, and broken pieces of folk melodies. In each of his solo performances, Mamer would start from random notes and eventually build up an overpowering atmosphere that is distinctively his own, knowing only too well when to release a delicate Kazakh tune as a reward for intensive listening. Here “Daidiydao”, a heartbreaking love song believed to be composed by Kazakh poet Magzhan Zhumabayev, was unleashed towards the end of the 2018 performance, before an abrupt, typically Mamer stop that ended the whole set.

Please note: In the history of modern China, the writing systems for Kazakh language have gone through several rounds of reforms and changes. From 1964 on, to replace the existing Arabic and Cyrillic writing systems, the CCP Xinjiang Committee had promoted the full use of a localised Roman writing system for Kazakh language, sometimes termed the Kazakh pinyin, which is a combination of Chinese pinyin and the Soviet Yañalif. Although this system was abandoned in 1984, Mamer, who received his education during this period, still uses the obsolete Kazakh pinyin alphabet in his song titles. In the playlist, I will first give the Mandarin version of the song titles, as known by most listeners in China, and then the original Kazakh version as provided by Mamer (if there is one), and lastly the English translation in brackets.

To read more on Mamer, pick up The Wire 444 which features Josh Feola's interview with the multi-instrumentalist. Subscribers can access the article via the digital archive.