Manny Nieto’s name hovered like a bit of juicy gossip on the lips of Beijing’s music community for weeks before he arrived. His name came up at shows, in emails, on Facebook, always followed by the same, bewildered question: “Have you heard of this Manny guy?” Allegedly a successful underground record producer from L.A., Nieto blew in like a social networking hurricane, pursuing everyone in the Beijing and Shanghai music scenes with a kind of wild, effusive relentlessness that bordered on unsettling.

“I have spent the last year on a quest to record the most wicked bands from Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, HK, Singapore, Philippines to even Jakarta!” he wrote in an oddly punctuated, 1,000-plus word Facebook message to me. “In every city from HK to Singapore I have come across amazing bands and artists and feel there is a huge wave of new music that will eclipse the UK and U.S. soon!”

Though his overwhelming enthusiasm cast him as a shyster, his impressive resume checked out. According to Google, Nieto had worked with everyone from the Breeders to Los Lobos; and now, for some unfathomable reason, he wanted to come record in China.

“I guess it all started because of Hawaii,” he told me last December, lounging at a show after a hard day of recording. Nieto turned out to be surprisingly normal—a round, 40-something Latino guy with a bald head, friendly eyes and gentle, easy manner. Nieto had been working in L.A. for years when a year-long recording stint in Hawaii got him itching for a more ambitious, farther-flung project. After watching a CNN report on China’s blossoming art culture, his mind was made up. He wanted to be a part of the musical revolution—and he wanted to do it DIY.

That approach involved a punishing five months of staying up till dawn, researching bands and contacting musicians. His persistence paid off: by the end of last summer, he had snagged some of China’s hottest bands, including Pairs, Boys Climbing Ropes, Hedgehog, Snapline and Chui Wan.

For the bands, it turned out to be a good deal—all they had to do was help pay his airfare and his living costs, and they got a world-class recording.

“I can’t ... record every band in China but I thought if I can find the coolest bands I like, maybe those records would have an impact.” He left Beijing with four new recordings, and enough money to fly to Hong Kong.

“He was fun to record with,” commented Snapline vocalist Chen Xi. “He just talks a lot.”