Once again defying genre and classification with her boundary pushing artistry, 潘PAN (real name Pan Wei Ju), today releases her second EP in as many months, via her new label home Transgressive Records. With her latest, four track EP Ghosts, Pan continues to test limits with her art, demonstrating
WATCH “GHOSTS” VIDEO | LISTEN TO THE EP
The Taiwanese artist who previously released under the moniker Aristophanes, for which like featuring another artist who has a different way of describing things”.
Following her recent Reborn EP, which saw support from Tara Kumar on BBC Radio 1’s Future Artists show, an X-POSURE playlist add from John Kennedy on Radio X and further spins from Matt Wilkinson on Apple Music 1, Ghosts is described as the “darker twin sister” of her two releases. Pan explains, “each is connected with some very intimate moments and poems. Lyrically they explore domestic violence in the Asian household, the relationship between bodies and feminine identity, along with a hopeless human-made wasteland.” Both EPs were written in Hong Kong, Berlin and Taipei and recorded/produced in London and Melbourne, representing an emotional and physical journey across cultures and identities.
Though Pan Wei Ju is an entirely new artist – new outlook, new message, new material and name – you may have met the woman herself before. Back in the mid-’10s, the Taipei-born rapper went by the moniker Aristophanes. After performing a career-changing feature on “SCREAM”, taken from Grimes’ celebrated NME Album of 2015 Art Angels, Aristophanes went on to build a cult fanbase, releasing her debut mixtape Humans Become Machines.
“Aristophanes was me writing in my bedroom and doing my own thing, whereas now after years of traveling around, what I want to do is more about connection,” Pan says. “As an artist I’m more mature. This new music is bigger and it has a stronger message.” It’s perhaps no surprise that Pan needed a little more time to settle into herself and her art.
Raised by a mother who “hated music” and refused to have it in the house, rappers that
Working with Grimes – a fellow self-taught female artist who produces and engineers everything herself – was the confidence booster that Pan needed. “If you’ve got ears and you’ve got a desire to express, then you can learn all the things from YouTube – it’s not just limited to men,”
And so arrives the long-awaited rebirth of Pan Wei Ju. Stay tuned for even more new music to follow.
