A-Mei (
Maybe Tomorrow (
Warner
Since it's release two weeks ago, Maybe Tomorrow (
In a break from tradition the songstress veers away from her standard pop format and her latest venture sees her mixing it up with a blend of heavy rock riffs, mild dance loops and moody love ballads.
Numbers like Crucial Moment (
Sadly, none of the aforementioned new and original numbers have attracted much attention and the album's only current claim to fame is the tune Fire (
The jerky grinding mild techno tune on which A-Mei teams up with popular singer/songwriter Wong Lee Hom (
Icat (
The Mirage in Time (
TCM (
Self-produced and recorded earlier this year, multi-media artist, Icats's (翁宇君), debut mini-album The Mirage in Time (時光魅影) has just been released nationally by indie label TCM (角頭音樂).
Icat is better-known for her complex multi-media installation art that has been exhibited throughout Asia and won her acclaim in the Asia Digital Arts Awards rather than for her musical abilities. The debut release is, like her art, both abstract and thought provoking.
Employing the talents of an oddball bunch of very contrasting musicians, including award winning new age guitarist Dong Yun-chang (
From the folksy new age opener, Hide-and-Seek Cat (
Various
The Outsiders II (
Warner
When it was released two years ago, the soundtrack to GTV's (
At a mammoth 17 tracks long, The Outsiders II (鬥魚II) incorporates a collection of previously unreleased material from the show. Including both vocal material by some of Taiwan's up-and-coming young singers as well as instrumental score segments from the popular TV drama, the second album, while picking up where the first album left off, is a predominantly slow and moody affair.
It features songs by the drama's three leading actors, Alan Luo (羅志祥), Dylan Kuo (郭品超) and Zhang Xun-jie (張勛傑), as well as tunes by songstresses Tanya Tsai (蔡健雅), Renee Chen (陳嘉唯), Jenny Yang and Candice Chen (陳科好). Tunes that stand out include the show's them tune, Grey Space (灰色空間) sung by Alan Luo, Respond (答應) by Dylan Kuo, Tanya Tsai's False Enemy (假想敵) and Renee Chen's Your Answer (你答應過). All of them are moody Mando-love ballads that, while offering little in the way of originality, are reasonably well performed and produced.
Like most soundtrack albums, The Outsiders II is not something you'd slap on the CD player and pay close attention to, but it is one to think about if you're looking for a reasonably palatable Mando-pop compilation to provide some inoffensive and at times sultry background music.
Da Di (
The Very First of Da Di (
Sony
While the music press has likened Da Di (
Unlike the long-serving longhaired Paiwan blues inspired rockers Da Di's music is geared towards more sophisticated, less mainstream audiences.
There are still trappings of pop and rock, but vocalist Chen Gang (
It might sound rather oddball, but the vocal prowess and guitar smarts of Da Di's inventive pair avoids pit falls and the end result works well.
The highlights of what is, on the whole a passable and pretty good 10-track debut, include the hypnotic and pumped-up Air-like Expect (期待), the jazzy soulful Dignity (尊嚴) and the pulsating guitar- fueled opener, Setting Out (出發).
The Very First of Da Di is not without its duds, though. And what a blooper it is. By adding new lyrics to the Steve Miller Band's kitsch Abracadabra, Da Di's Love Me Don't Hurt Me (
Cheng Ching-hsiang (鄭青祥) turned a small triangle of concrete jammed between two old shops into a cool little bar called 9dimension. In front of the shop, a steampunk-like structure was welded by himself to serve as a booth where he prepares cocktails. “Yancheng used to be just old people,” he says, “but now young people are coming and creating the New Yancheng.” Around the corner, Yu Hsiu-jao (饒毓琇), opened Tiny Cafe. True to its name, it is the size of a cupboard and serves cold-brewed coffee. “Small shops are so special and have personality,” she says, “people come to Yancheng to find such treasures.” She
Late last month Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Theresa Lazaro told the Philippine Senate that the nation has sufficient funds to evacuate the nearly 170,000 Filipino residents in Taiwan, 84 percent of whom are migrant workers, in the event of war. Agencies have been exploring evacuation scenarios since early this year, she said. She also observed that since the Philippines has only limited ships, the government is consulting security agencies for alternatives. Filipinos are a distant third in overall migrant worker population. Indonesia has over 248,000 workers, followed by roughly 240,000 Vietnamese. It should be noted that there are another 170,000
In July of 1995, a group of local DJs began posting an event flyer around Taipei. It was cheaply photocopied and nearly all in English, with a hand-drawn map on the back and, on the front, a big red hand print alongside one prominent line of text, “Finally… THE PARTY.” The map led to a remote floodplain in Taipei County (now New Taipei City) just across the Tamsui River from Taipei. The organizers got permission from no one. They just drove up in a blue Taiwanese pickup truck, set up a generator, two speakers, two turntables and a mixer. They
Hannah Liao (廖宸萱) recalls the harassment she experienced on dating apps, an experience that left her frightened and disgusted. “I’ve tried some voice-based dating apps,” the 30-year-old says. “Right away, some guys would say things like, ‘Wanna talk dirty?’ or ‘Wanna suck my d**k?’” she says. Liao’s story is not unique. Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics show a more than 50 percent rise in sexual assault cases related to online encounters over the past five years. In 2023 alone, women comprised 7,698 of the 9,413 reported victims. Faced with a dating landscape that can feel more predatory than promising, many in
RSS