It’s easy to get lost in Sugar Plum Ferry’s third and latest release, Islands On The Ocean of The Mind (腦海群島), the title of which suits their post-rock sound. The album’s six tracks blend into one another through droning rhythms, melodic themes that ebb and flow and recurring waves of electric guitar distortion and crashing drums that wash the melodies away.
The four-piece band, which formed in Taipei in the late 1990s, makes instrumental rock with a cinematic flavor. On Islands, they pick up where they left off from 2007’s Thank You for Reminding Me, in which the CD cover suggested a theme in a snippet of text that read “There’ll be one day we human beings can fly, one day we wear out our shadows.”
That day arrives on Islands. The liner notes consist of more cryptic prose describing how “we got rid of our shadows” and experienced “the joy of freedom.” Along with the album art — graphic novel-like illustrations of an oceanside city seen from a bird-eye’s view and towering buildings that look like concrete forests — this is perhaps one way to make sense of the urgent tempo of the first track, False Awakening (清醒夢).
But true to post-rock form, Sugar Plum Ferry is all about soundscapes rather than words. Deerfield at Dusk (黃昏鹿場) begins with a quiet, lulling melody on a electric guitar, and builds layer by layer into a dramatic chorus voiced by a horn ensemble. The song shifts back and forth between quiet and loud and sparse and lush.
There is a sad undertone to the entire album, which gets massaged by steady, deliberate grooves from the band’s two guitarists, who switch between slow and dreamy melodic lines and metronome-like strumming. The effect is emotionally numbing on People, People (人兒呀).
The album’s best track, Night Celestials (夜星子), flirts with black metal and grunge and is one instance where the band’s normally measured temperament threatens to explode.
— DAVID CHEN
Taiwan’s indie scene hasn’t seen this much fun from a “Girl-power” band in a long time. Go Chic’s I Am Confused! is an energetic electro-rock romp that sounds anything but confused. This debut album, from a Taipei group formed in 2007 by high school classmates Ariel Zheng (鄭思齊), Sarah Wen (溫一珊) and Sonia Lai (賴思勻), is full of catchy beats, punk verve and a sassy, irreverent wit.
Zheng, the band’s 22-year-old vocalist, sings about dancing, partying and boys — some of them cute, some of them repulsive. On the anthemic This is Go Chic, which celebrates “party party people” on the dance floor, she is both flirtatious and taunting: “You’re looking pretty fit/Doesn’t mean I’ll take your shit.”
Beneath the disco revelry, Go Chic also sneaks in some commentary about pop culture and the influence of the West. Culture Supervisor, which has a line that inspired the album title, is about a “culture vulture” who is an “East-West mixture.”
On P.O.D, Zheng rants about a self-righteous, sleazy foreigner in Taipei: “What’s your job, no wait let me guess, must be an English teacher/You go to clubs every night hitting on hot chicks ’cause damn you’re a player/Keep pimping pumping pompous loser I’ll teach you some manners.”
Above all, though, these songs are designed to get your body moving — and they do. Go Chic are great at balancing synth-noise and guitar jams with catchy pop hooks on songs like Hard Date and 24hr Party Pooper. Clap It for the Heartbreakers is another anthemic dance tune and the perfect antidote for those tired of mindlessly stale nightclub music.
Go Chic landed a performance slot at the South By Southwest Festival in the US earlier this year, and this party-on-a-disc testifies to their notable talent and confidence as a band.
—DAVID CHEN
Classically trained jazz musician Yen-J (嚴爵) has established himself as one of the most polished newcomers in Mando-pop this year with the brilliant, eye-raising jazz-pop fusion of his debut album Thanks Your Greatness (謝謝你的美好).
The album, for which for which Yen-J served as producer, singer, songwriter and musician, kicks off with the jazz-pop Love is Curry (愛就是咖哩), a classic that adroitly blends energetic b-bop grooves, a Mando-pop melody and Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) lyrics into an ebullient elixir of pop brilliance.
Lifesaver (救命恩人), a track that features the rapping of singer Delia (丁噹) and indie group Cosmic Man (宇宙人), is an electrifying hip-hop rouser that rages against the cliches of conventional pop. Need Time to Cool Off (需要點時間沉澱), a rocker driven by hypnotic electric guitar chords, is an inspirational anthem that advises people to be patient for change. I Didn’t Give Enough (i 給得不夠) is a hugely infectious tribute to Stevie Wonder with soulful falsetto and ad-libbing that offers the singer’s apology for not devoting enough love.
Other songs that stretch the borders of Mando-pop include the hip-hop inspired title track Thanks Your Greatness (謝謝你的美好), Summer Romance (夏日羅曼史), a romantic tune layered over a big band sound, and My Love 438 (我的愛438), in Yen-J uses a lengthy jamming session recorded in Los Angeles on which to build an ode to unconditional love.
All in all, Thanks Your Greatness is among the most ambitious Mando-pop albums of this year. With photogenic looks and talent to burn, Yen-J is definitely a star in the making.
— ANDREW C.C. HUANG
Award-winning actress Rene Liu (劉若英) is so candid as a singer that sometimes it seems there’s no difference between her public persona from her private life. Her latest outing, Together (在一起), is a splendidly executed concept album whose tracks read almost like chapters from a diary.
The album opens with a troika of brilliant singles. In the opening track Continue—For the 15-Year-Old Self (繼續 — 給15歲的自己), the 39-year-old entertainer engages her younger self in a dialogue about failed dreams and why one must remain optimistic to continue on. “There is no map/We simply must follow these dreams on our palms,” she croons. “People must dream/They must dream bravely and dream wildly.” With We Are Not Together (我們沒有在一起), a bittersweet ballad that laments the development of a friendship instead of a romance, she sings, “We are not together, but your caring lasts longer.”
Lu has never been a powerhouse as a vocalist, but on Together she nevertheless croons in such an emotionally naked voice that she sounds as if she is confessing to friends. The album doesn’t offer an eclectic array of styles, but it doesn’t aspire to do so. Rather, it uses a variety of Mando-pop balladry techniques to weave together a dazzling tapestry of soul-searching.
— ANDREW C.C. HUANG
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