Pop idol “reality” shows have proven to be the new launching ground for Taiwan’s rising Mando-pop stars, several of whom are included in the Taipei Times’ list of best CDs of 2009. On the indie and folk music front, Aboriginal and post-rock sounds represent some of the best releases of the year.
But one steady figure in mainstream Taiwanese music made the final cut. Pop A-mei’s (張惠妹) latest album, A-mit (阿密特, also the name of her onstage alter-ego), into the CD player and the first thing that greets you is a barrage of Metallica-like wall of drums and guitars. A-mei is rocking out big time, and while Open the Door, See the Mountain (開門見山) is not completely convincing as a heavy metal outcry that romance is dead and you should take what you can get, it has the virtue of novelty for Taiwan’s first lady of song.
Fortunately, although A-mei is no Chrissie Hynde or Debbie Harry, she has the performing chops to carry off these forays into angst and cynicism in Black Eats Black (黑吃黑) and Animal Sentimentality After Falling in Love (相愛後動物感傷), even if the bad girl persona is as much of a pose as the ridiculous images of her in a black sequined cat suit that adorn the liner notes. The album is particularly noted for the heavy rock Taiwanese anthem Come if You Dare? (好膽你就來), which is good fun, even if owing a huge debt to Wu Bai (伍佰).
Hsu Chia-ying (徐佳瑩) was one of the boldest and most creative of the alumni from the third season of CTV’s One Million Star (超級星光大道) pop music talent show. The release of her debut album suggests that she might be around for some time. Her song I Ride a White Horse (身騎白馬), which combines teen pop and gezai opera (歌仔戲), has already proved a huge hit securing massive airtime, and has the distinction of achieving a smooth musical and lyrical integration between two very different forms, a feat that has confounded many more experienced artists.
The chorus of I Ride a White Horse, sung in Taiwanese, references not just a classical heritage, but also, whether intentionally or not, its glitzy, kitschy manifestation of televised golden light puppets. It is romantic, heroic, just a tad tongue-in-cheek, and totally self-assured.
At just 24, Hsu has emerged as a talented musician in the Mando-pop mainstream, and one who is no stranger to the commercial possibilities of a catchy tune. The final track on the album My Door’s Not Locked (沒鎖門) was commissioned for the 10th anniversary of the MSN chat service, and for all its marketing functionality, is a remarkably appealing bit of bubblegum pop, down to MSN sound effects and online slang. Hsu is definitely someone to watch.
Jam Hsiao’s (蕭敬騰) new album LOVE Moments
(愛的時刻自選輯) is a cover album which consists exclusively of ballads originally made famous by female singers. Hsiao, also an alumnus of One Million Star, makes each track his own with his idiosyncratic phrasing and slightly off-key notes at the end of each sentence.
Tackling A-mei’s (張惠妹) Remember (記得), Hsiao turns a heart-wrenching mourner into an empowering anthem with soaring vocals. He turns Full Bloom to Decadence (開到茶靡), a quirky rock ballad by the equally quirky diva Faye Wong (王菲), into a jazz-infused reflection on the whimsical nature of love. Few cover albums are as delicious as this one.
To little surprise, the Nanwan Sisters (南王姐妹花) won the Best Aboriginal Album Award at this year’s Golden Melody Awards for their debut Nanwan Sisters, Honey Voices (南王姐妹花 中古美少女篇). But this trio of singers from Taitung also earned well-deserved recognition in the more general category of Best Singing Group, which more often goes to mainstream Mando-pop acts.
The album title indeed says it all. Together, Samingad (李諭芹, not to be confused with 紀曉君), Lavaus (陳惠琴) and I-hua (徐美花) make harmonies that are sweet and sublime, and each singer also proves to be skillful on her own. Award-winning producer and musician Pau-dull (陳建年) shaped this collection of gentle, traditional Puyuma songs, drawing from a variety of contemporary Western folk and New Age sounds to provide the backdrop for the Sisters. Yet the music comes across as unique and timeless.
Several releases that caught the attention of folk and world music fans included Lin Sheng-xiang’s (林生祥) Growing Up Wild ((野生), which centered on stories of women in contemporary Taiwanese farming communities, and A Moving Sound’s Starshine, the latest from this pan-Asian/worldbeat group, which features the alluring voice of Mia Hsieh (謝韻雅).
Indie rock in Taiwan only gets better. This year saw some polished releases from fledging bands like Orangegrass (澄草) and The White Eyes (白目樂團), while veterans of the scene 1976 and Tizzy Bac came out with their most mature work to date. But one album that we keep revisiting is Hsi Pan Jie’s (錫盤街) Needing Dimensions.
Masterminded by Huang Wan-ting (黃晼婷) of the beloved and now-defunct girl punk group Ladybug, this release nicely balances punk-inspired noise with compositional flair. The title track follows a common post-rock structure — build the song into a tower of distortion — but the band manages a captivating melodic theme beneath the tune’s ear-piercing veneer and Huang’s guitar work is inspired. 195 displays the band’s speed and agility, while the exuberant New Magicians shows that post-rock, or whatever one might call this instrumental music, can have soul and personality.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located