Asiatisch (German for "Asian") is the debut full-length studio album of Kuwaiti musician Fatima Al Qadiri, released by the label Hyperdub on 5 May 2014. The record is about what Qadiri called "Imagined China," an environment of stereotypes about East Asian nations and respective cultures formed in media of the Western world. Thus, it musically derives from sinogrime, a style of grime music that utilizes elements of East Asian music. In representing Asian stereotypes, the album includes digital traditional Chinese and Japanese-styled drum kits and synth presets alongside "scrambled" ancient Chinese poems. One of the main inspirations for Qadiri producing Asiatisch was the making of a "nonsense Mandarin" a cappella version of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U" that would later be the record's opening track.
Critical reviews of Asiatisch were generally positive, and the album was on numerous year-end lists by publications, such as being number ten on The Wire's list of the best releases of 2014. However, the LP's use of a concept about stereotypes was a frequent criticism; some reviewers felt the concept had little depth or clarity and the record was much more enjoyable to listen when only focusing on its musical aspect, and some writers felt the concept was better executed than the actual quality of the tracks.
History
Fatima Al Qadiri was inspired to produce Asiatisch by her experience in a Chinese Literature college class and the making of what would later become the LP's opening track "Shanzhai (For Shanzhai Biennial)." In regards to her time studying in the Chinese college class, Qadiri explained, "Even though it was in translation, even though it was taught in an American university by an American professor... I was fascinated by his method, because he really inserted you in Ancient China. It was like virtual reality poetry or something. I think that was the first (time I was) conscious of something other than the West creating."
In regards to making the album's opener, she was asked by a group of friends in the art trio Shanzhai Biennial to make, in their words, a "cheap, Chinese instrumental" under a "nonsense Mandarin" a capella recording of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U" by Sinéad O'Connor. Recorded by Chinese punk vocalist Helen Feng, the rendition was to be played in a show at MoMA PS1. An instrumental was produced in a manner that did not follow the instructions of the trio, and was not included in the show, but made an appearance as the album's first song; "Shanzhai (For Shanzhai Biennial)." Overall, it took Qadiri around a month and a half to finish Asiatisch. The lead single of the LP, "Szechuan," was issued on 19 March 2014, and its second single, "Shanghai Freeway," premiered on 30 April 2014 via Rookie magazine. The album was released on Hyperdub on 5 May 2014.
Concept
As Dusted magazine stated, Asiatisch is an "abstract collage of faux Chinese imagery" that executes a "mixture of caricature, dream and stereotype, with very little of anything actually Chinese filtering through." Asiatisch is about what The Guardian journalist Sukhdev Sandhu described as a "themepark simulation" or a "sci-fi wonderland" of China, which Qadiri named "Imagined China." "Imagined China" is an environment of stereotypes about Asian nations and culture that were formed by the Western world, both in education and media formats such as films, literature, animation, comic books, and magazines like The Economist. Qadiri said that "The Asia in Asiatisch is a nexus of stereotypes that have been perpetrated, elaborated, embellished and weaved, each time further and further dislocated from the original misrepresentation." Qadiri also stated that the environment of the album's Chinese setting consists of brutalist architecture: "There's something very dainty and delicate about my melodic compositions, but they are made by digital tools, which also render them clunky, cold."