花溪 Flowerstream are inherently anomalies.

They’re internationally recognised and technically one of the biggest bands Misheard has booked (twice!), having nearly 5.8k followers on Instagram and tour spots around the globe in their back catalog.

But they’re also impossible to define, by design.

The guzheng-drums duo of Huiming Wu and Maxwell Brown floats between dream pop and doomgaze, with recorded material that could soundtrack a Ghibli film and live cuts that could not.

The Chinese plucked zither is sent through a myriad selection of reverb, delay, distortion, and general noise pedals, creating vast, textural soundscapes perfectly accompanied by Brown’s intuitive rhythms. Their set intersperses improv, screams, and occasionally switched instruments while the vocals are fed through a lo-fi harmonica mic.

I’ve had the privilege of becoming great mates with the band since they played our animation and music festival, Kiriata me Puoro, at the end of 2024, putting together an incredible live set with visual accompaniment by Wellington-based animator Spencer Hall, producing various patterns and visual landscapes inspired by their work.

Performing alongside Lips and Grecco Romank, the band still felt like newcomers, as the majority of my friends and those who helped produce the show hadn’t seen them before.

I don’t think anybody in that room let it be their last time.

Since then, the duo released the self-explanatory Low-key EP while chipping away at their first album, that’ll finally bring their heavy shit to tape. That project had cover art by Maya Templer, another animator I roped into Kiriata me Puoro for the Lips set.

By the end of 2025, Maya and 花溪 Flowerstream had toured Australia together, with each show accompanied by stunning projection artwork and animation. That was ultimately my goal, to foster connections and more cool gigs for other people to go to and enjoy.

Their set closing out Live at the Void, as captured above, shook the walls of our house and those surrounding it. While the band fits a late-night atmosphere, I had to rely on my suburbs affinity for heavy bass to avoid a noise complaint.

In the above video, I also interspersed some quotes from an old interview I did with the duo for issue eight of Rat World. You can still grab that issue on their website.

More recently, the duo played to their biggest crowd yet when they opened for Chet Faker at the Auckland Town Hall. I tagged along for their set - despite an aging crowd that was largely preoccupied with their own conversations and shit music journalists who don’t know how or care to copy paste 花溪 pretending their set was “an exercise in tedium”, I was glad to be a part of a few loud, loving fans. Maybe we don’t know “EVERYthing about EVERYone”, but we have kindness in our souls and an ear for something beyond Pākehā music.

I’ll get to those grifters later. In the meantime, get yourself to a 花溪 Flowerstream show. Even if you aren’t ready for that yet, your kids are gonna love it.

Sunday, 4th of October : RockEnRoll at BIG FAN, with HIRI, Scream By Tulips, Ben Chavesse, Honey For Jupiter, & Naimah Rae

Friday, 16th of October: Moondrops - The Debut at Geihinkan, with Masc/Femme and Jayseoh

Wednesday, 21st of October: Abandoned Carparks at Whammy Bar, with Groopchat and Clementine

Friday, 24th of October: TBA - here’s a hint:

Friday, 6th of November: The world is against you, Live at the Void as part of their Aotearoa/Australia tour - with Cabinet, Blisster, and Dogga Barka

Sunday, 15th of November: Or around the 13th. Keep the date open, we’re sussing it now.

It’ll be a busy Spring. Wish us luck.