CD Reviews

Along with his solo material the album also sees the chubby un-pop star like Gou Wei teaming up with Taiwan's Power Station (動力火車) and ex-Beyond frontman, Huang Chia-chang (黃家強) on a couple of numbers.

Without Turning a Hair (面不改色), on which he's joined by Taiwan's guitar plucking Aborigines is a typical Mando-blues tune. Glory Year (光輝歲月), on which he's joined by Huang, is a ballad-like and passionate orchestrated number.

Kou Chou-ching (拷秋勤)

Taiwan Traditional Music Style (復刻)

Design Fascination

If you're fed up with local acts that lamely attempt to sound like they come from a North American ghetto, then Kou Chou-ching's (拷秋勤) debut album is worth a listen.

Aptly titled Taiwan Traditional Music Style (復刻), the album takes listeners on an interesting journey through Taiwan's traditional music scene via scratch and rap.

If it sounds a bit odd then you'd be right as the material is so far removed from any and all other types of localized rap that it actually takes some getting used to. Listen to it once and you'll hate it, give it another listen after you've had time to digest what you heard the first time around, however, and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Kou Chou-ching employs a host of earthy local musical styles, such as nakashi, classical opera and temple music, as well as recording several of the tracks in a gnarly KTV manner. Vocally the combo waxes lyrical, albeit it in a tongue-in-cheek manner, about everything from noodles to red envelopes Sure, not all the tunes are musically pleasing, especially when the group dabbles with instrumentation more commonly associated with funerals, but if your eardrums can withstand the nanguan and cringingly kitsch call-in KTV radio moments then it's well worth it.