Dusk was gathering when Jimmy Chen guided the car up to the curb and the window slid down. Victor, his business associate, made some small talk but we kept the chatter to a minimum. We were busy and this was the center of town. Jimmy handed me a package that I suspected contained two top-quality CDs.
I wasn't disappointed.
DJ Jimmy Chen of AXD -- it used to be X-Direction until the fortune teller and common sense added the A (it's a long story) -- has dropped his debut album Mint Taipei 101, a surprisingly mellow voyage from the more hard-edged sound of tribal house he usually puts down.
Lounge music is to talk over, Mint Taipei 101 is the kind of music you stop talking to and start to dance, said Jimmy Chen, who has been DJing for 15 years and earned his stripes at @Live and TeXound.
"I've got two kinds of styles actually, and what I play depends on where I am. I call it sofa house. It's a different sort of music. It makes people comfortable rather than make them crazy. It's for relaxing and dancing."
A breathy and distorted introductory loop intones, "Ladies and gentleman, welcome to Mint Taipei 101," to get the album going and we're into a Sumo mix of Ive Mendes' Natural High, a latin-infused, vocal-and-melodies strut with Spanish guitars, percussion, xylophone and a dash of bass. It's a good start and it gets better.
The electric and bass guitar work of Earth, Wind and Fire vs. Jay Sinster has more than enough funky beats and fills for the retro fans, along with the slick horn section. There are divas, including Kathy Brown with Never Again, marimbas and a bit of jazz, some electro-disco, Amber Jolene's dreamy vocals on Tell Her, before ending around the hour mark with Fantastic Plastic Machine.
The second CD begins with Jocelyn Brown and Hooked on You, but cuts loose with Grant Nelson's scat singing -- "I like the way of the groove, the groove makes me sing" -- paving the way for DJ Disciple and some of the album's defining moments.
Sometimes Chen fades in the records, or switches boldly into a new one to set off a frisson, other times he joins them up as if they were seamless. He develops the beat and then lets it go, or boosts it.
The set is neatly developed, well structured and shows a deep knowledge of records.
It's a pity, then, that the two-hours of great music are diluted a little by the album backers, Mint bar in Taipei 101 and Avex Taiwan, who have added a couple of tracks that sound a little incongruous, such as Japanese singer AK on side one and The Moreno Project at the end of side two.
"Yeah, you can quote me saying those are a bit cheesey," Chen said.
Otherwise, it's an album that deserves play time.
"I just want the crowd to know that there's a lot of different kinds of house music and I want people to accept that. I know in Taiwan we like the hard sound, but this kind of sofa house you can still dance to it and it makes you happy."
The Vinyl Word says yes to this album. It's the sound of the times in Taipei, with its glitz down in the Xinyi District and city center. In fact it would go down well in Eden on Zhongxiao East Road tomorrow night at "Deep Inside," the blazing monthly free party started by SL and Saucey. For reservations, call (02) 6638 9988.
The loop and Tensegrity have got their act together again for "Dara vs. DB: The Breakbeat Science Tour." There will also be back-to-back sets all night, with J6 vs. DJ Elements, DJ Vertigo vs. Alicia Hush, DJ Reason vs. Dr. Who? It will be top-notch entertainment from two jungle diehards who really do know the score, at Luxy tonight.
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