Dann Gaymer, 28, from Britain, and his girlfriend, have formed a duo called Guiguisuisui (which means sneaky) that plays zombie music. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Forget the Great Wall and forget the Forbidden City; if you really want to know what sets the Chinese capital apart, tune in now and get with the Beijing beat. If you do, you may well find that it has become one of the most exciting music scenes on the planet.

That at least is the way expatriate musicians who perform in the city are seeing and hearing things.

Maikel Liem, 36, laughs as he talks about a particularly memorable performance.

"It was in 2010 that the band the Amazing Insurance Salesmen competed in the Global Battle of the Bands in Malaysia," the Dutch bass player says.

"We represented China, and yet there was only one Chinese person in the band."

After playing at Temple Bar in Gulou, Beijing, a year ago, Amazing Insurance Salesmen disbanded, and Liem, whose day job is as a project manager at Pactera (an outsourcing company working with Microsoft), now plays in a group called Wu and the Side Effects.

Even as "the new normal" has become the cliche of choice for describing China's economic progress, "the normal abnormal" sums up his take on the local music scene.

For one thing, in the usual scheme of things, bassists take a backseat, playing second fiddle to prominent guitarists, whereas Liem is equal to the guitarist at Wu and the Side Effects.

"That's why I love making music here. You never know whether normal is normal."