Electronic sounds from Vietnam

In an unused unit atop a Burger King restaurant in Ho-Chi-Minh-City, Nhạc Gãy is playing 140 BPM music to a raving audience. Nhạc Gãy is a collective of Vietnamese DJs, producers, and artists founded in 2019.

Their name means “broken music” in Vietnamese, a fitting self-description for a group that gained prominence for their experimental high-energy raves in both Ho-Chi-Minh-City and Hanoi. Their collective has come to represent a new shift in Vietnamese club culture, particularly in the capital.

Ho-Chi-Minh-City and Hanoi have long had a reputation for their vibrant party scenes, but for many years these scenes were mostly dominated by expats and tourists. That changed in 2018: Back then, several young Vietnamese came together to promote the development of local electronic music and a corresponding scene.

Trần Hữu Tuấn Bách, also known as B.A.X., founded Holy Grail Music, a label, and platform for up-and-coming DJs and producers. In the same year, Mino Nguyen launched “V2X”, an online magazine and radio station that provided opportunities for support and educational infrastructure for local musicians, such as DJ teaching and music production courses.

“We wanted something inclusive, but also lots of fun”

Nhạc Gãy has been one of the collectives at the forefront of this new movement in Ho-Chi-Minh subculture. Their mission was to develop a unique, queer-friendly environment while staying true to their Vietnamese identity and building the club scene they were missing: “We wanted something inclusive, but also lots of fun,”, they said in an Interview. “We don’t subscribe to convention, or at least we try not to. Gãy is a way of saying that, when everything is broken, it’s OK.”

This innovative mindset is reflected in the music they produce and perform. It is often an experimental mix of different genres, including techno and IDM as well as more traditional Vietnamese elements and sounds. This attitude is also reflected in their music. It is typically an experimental mix of different genres, including techno and IDM (intelligent dance music) as well as traditional Vietnamese sounds.

Surprisingly, the pandemic didn’t put an end to the scene but fueled it further. There was no possibility to organise live dance raves, live music was dying. But instead, the artists used this opportunity to further explore their own sounds and local scene further. They have since also gained international recognition.

In 2022 the collective played a Boiler Room set, a famous international dance music event. In the same year they went on a European tour, playing in front of crowds in Berlin, Milan, London, and Oslo. The growing scene has also lured artists who had moved overseas back to the city. One of them is Lorence V, whose real name is Vũ Duy Bảo Long, who returned to Vietnam after studying in Europe.

The 1998-born DJ and producer combines melodic techno with Vietnamese elements: “I am deeply proud of my Vietnamese heritage and fascinated by our rich, long history of traditional music. By blending traditional Vietnamese sounds with modern electronic music, I hope to make these sounds more accessible to young audiences and contribute to preserving our cultural heritage”, he said in our interview.

“The pandemic fueled the scene rather than putting an end to it: The artists used the opportunity to further explore their sounds”

But the experimental approach to music is only one part of what makes this new scene unique. It is also focused on strengthening the local community. When the pandemic started, a lot of the artists involved, created initiatives aimed at helping their local communities. Nhạc Gãy started to combine activism and music by releasing a new compilation album called "Nhạc Gãy Tổng Hợp Số 1”.

It featured 14 tracks from Vietnamese artists, its proceeds going towards creating mental health awareness in Vietnam, a topic that is still taboo in the country. They also launched a podcast related to mental health. Similarly, the multidisciplinary collective VẤP CỤC ĐÁ creates events, music, and art centred around LGBTQ community and Vietnamese youth in a still conservative society. Many of their parties include ballroom-style competitions, a first in Vietnam.

All these artists and activists share the desire to build a network. They want to nurture and inspire the future generations of Vietnamese tastemakers and establish their own unique cultural identity through their sound. In doing so, they offer a vision of what they think the future should look and sound like.