This year, COSMOS once again proudly partners up with acts, institutions, and collectives from around the globe. The 2023 Embassies are located in Vietnam, Australia, Indonesia, Canada, Greece, UAE, Peru and Ghana. In order to introduce the amazing talents behind these collaborations, we're starting a new interview & music series called Embassy Mix.
To kick things off, we're heading towards Ho Chi Minh City, where our partners V2X Mag – the city's predominant hub for all things contemporary culture – tagged in the mighty Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective to bless us with a 1-hour glimpse into the current experimental underground of Vietnam. Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective – who recently scored a glowing review from Pitchfork for their latest album, *1 – will perform twice at Le Guess Who? on November 9 and 10, presented by COSMOS.
– Please note: Ho Chi Minh City and Saigon are used interchangeably in this conversation –
Words by Julian Brimmers
Photos courtesy of Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective
TRACKLIST
jung buffalo - How Sentimental
Lý Trang - Exp
Lilith Anthropocene - Sparkling
Tem Đỗ - Mouth Full of Moons
Lý Trang - I’m Ready to Be Any Animal That’s Thistled
Tran Uy Duc - Catwalk
Chaulichi - Wear Jeans
Rắn Cạp Đuôi - Cô Gái Tháng 9 (ca. 2017 one of the first songs we recorded)
Rắn Cạp Đuôi - Straws
mess. - Rain On Me
Writher - Trung Học
DJ Thuy Kieu - Con Cac
Rắn Cạp Đuôi - Untitled 2
Who are Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective? What drives and inspires you to create the music that you do?
Rắn Cạp Đuôi is Đỗ Tấn Sĩ, Phạm Thế Vũ, Zach Sch, Lý Trang, Đỗ Hoàng Tuấn Anh, Trần Nguyên, and Vuong Thien. We’re mostly inspired by boredom. We really just started making the music that we do because we were tired of only playing one type of sound. Our interests are really varied – musically, but also in general – so we aimed to incorporate that dynamic into our live sound and albums.
What is it like being an underground musician in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) right now?
Right now, the community is a lot bigger than it used to be. We used to be the only ones in HCMC, but now there are at least six or seven other performers in the city, and about five or so more in the whole of Vietnam.
RCD used to be banned from a good amount of venues in Saigon. But that's becoming less of an issue now as well. In general, the amount of venues that support the scene is still quite small. Oftentimes we play in either very untraditional spaces, or in fine arts galleries and similar spaces. I think, most of us are generally inspired by a lot of the music that comes from similar scenes abroad, e.g. Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, and Korea. Saigon is a very dance and club-oriented city, so those sounds inform a lot of our peers work.
The V-Pop genre – stuff like Nhạc trẻ from the mid 2000s-2010s, for instance – is low key very influential for a lot of artists here, because for a while that was the most prevalent sound. Đại Lâm Linh is a band from the early 2000s that is often cited as the first “experimental” group in Vietnam. Although they're respected in Saigon, their more electro-acoustic approach isn’t super influential to the current generation of artists over here.
Do you feel part of a larger scene in HCMC? And globally, are there peers you feel connected with?
The Saigon scene is pretty tight knit in general. Even people outside of the more experimental circle know and get along well with people from the pop, rap, and rock scenes all around the country.
Globally, people like Aho Ssan, NET GALA, Abadir, obese.dogma777, Yes No Klub, and Keith Rankin have worked with us or reached out to support us in some way. It's really nice. In Vietnam, Tam Do, Chaulichi, Chanko Wilson, and Tran Uy Duc are the most talented and upcoming people!
Did you have a chance to present your music outside of your wider circles? How was the response in different parts of the world?
We have mostly only played in Vietnam although we have been a part of many installations and dance performances in other places, too, which was pretty cool. Permutations of RCD have most recently played in Korea, Japan, and Indonesia. We think that many people in South East Asia specifically get our music, because there are lots of cultural denominators we all share. The funniest response to our music was an Australian newspaper calling us “weird shit par excellence”, which we were pretty happy about.
The styles presented in your Embassy Mix run the gamut from shiny, maximalist to more subtle electronic atmospheres. How did you approach putting this mix together?
We put together a playlist of people featured in the video we're producing for COSMOS {Ed. note: to be premiered during Le Guess Who? 2023}, as well as some acts from Hanoi, who we like. We think it creates a holistic representation of Vietnamese experimentalism right now, with a mix of ambient, club-ish tracks, and sound collages. But we also included a couple RCD deep cuts and some work from our new album.
At the moment the Vietnamese sound is really diverse. One of the things that excites us the most is that no one is adhering to a single genre or let's them be framed as “techno as done by a Vietnamese person” sor so, just for the sake of marketing. Chau and Tam both are really curious in exploring new sounds and performance configurations. Uy Duc embraces the queer expressionism of club adjacent electronic sounds, while incorporating elements of Hầu đồng ceremonial performances as well. RCD combines elements of traditional tài tử and nhạc đám ma with free jazz and improvisation in our live sets, while we incorporate experimental electronics and collage elements into our albums.
Speaking of live performances: You're playing LGW twice this year. What can we expect from those RCD live shows?
Our first night will focus more on our electronic output, while still showcasing our improvisational roots. However, for the second night we have a big show planned. Full force RCD chaos. (Secret. It’s a secret. Just come.)
Lastly, aside from music, can you recommend artists or cultural achievements from Ho Chi Minh City, or Vietnam in general, that folks, who enjoy your music and this mix, can further educate themselves about?
The Vietnamese visual arts scene is really cool. Xuân-Hạ (XH) from Da Nang is one of the coolest right now, as well as the people from Sao La collective like Nguyen Kim To Lan and Dat Nguyen. Soundawakener aka Nhung Nguyen is one of the early foundational members of installation and sound art in Hanoi.
Filmmakers: We like Truong Minh Quy, or more experimental artists in Hanoi like Nguyen Duy Anh, as well as more conceptual artists like Truong Cong Tung. The prize for our favorite dishes goes to Bánh bột lọc, Bánh dày giò, Bánh bò da lợn, Hủ tiếu nam vang. 
This article is the first in a new series called COSMOS Embassy Mix, for which we quiz our 2023 Embassy partners to tell us about themselves, and present the sounds of their local scene in a 1h mixtape.
Are you interested in collaborating with COSMOS to share your local scene, too? Get in touch: cosmos@leguesswho.com.
