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 (
Taiwan, once relegated to the backwaters of international news media and viewed as a subset topic of “greater China,” is now a hot topic. Words associated with Taiwan include “invasion,” “contingency” and, on the more cheerful side, “semiconductors” and “tourism.” It is worth noting that while Taiwanese companies play important roles in the semiconductor industry, there is no such thing as a “Taiwan semiconductor” or a “Taiwan chip.” If crucial suppliers are included, the supply chain is in the thousands and spans the globe. Both of the variants of the so-called “silicon shield” are pure fantasy. There are four primary drivers
The sprawling port city of Kaohsiung seldom wins plaudits for its beauty or architectural history. That said, like any other metropolis of its size, it does have a number of strange or striking buildings. This article describes a few such curiosities, all but one of which I stumbled across by accident. BOMBPROOF HANGARS Just north of Kaohsiung International Airport, hidden among houses and small apartment buildings that look as though they were built between 15 and 30 years ago, are two mysterious bunker-like structures that date from the airport’s establishment as a Japanese base during World War II. Each is just about
Two years ago my wife and I went to Orchid Island off Taitung for a few days vacation. We were shocked to realize that for what it cost us, we could have done a bike vacation in Borneo for a week or two, or taken another trip to the Philippines. Indeed, most of the places we could have gone for that vacation in neighboring countries offer a much better experience than Taiwan at a much lower price. Hence, the recent news showing that tourist visits to Pingtung County’s Kenting, long in decline, reached a 27 year low this summer came
Japan is celebrated for its exceptional levels of customer service. But the behavior of a growing number of customers and clients leaves a lot to be desired. The rise of the abusive consumer has prompted authorities in Tokyo to introduce the country’s first ordinance — a locally approved regulation — to protect service industry staff from kasuhara — the Japanese abbreviated form of “customer harassment.” While the Tokyo ordinance, which will go into effect in April, does not carry penalties, experts hope the move will highlight a growing social problem and, perhaps, encourage people to think twice before taking out their frustrations
RSS