The Choshui River Has Taken
a Wrong Turn (濁水溪出代誌)
Various Artists
Gamaa Music
There are no sappy ballads on this 15-song compilation, and that’s exactly the way Gamaa Music wants it, says the label’s founder and rock singer Nuno Chen (陳信宏).
Chen, who runs the Taichung-based indie label, has been fighting Mando-pop power since 1999. Gamaa started out as a distributor for underground rock bands from abroad and introduced Taiwanese record buyers to groups like Australia’s Dirty Three.
Nowadays Gamaa is devoted to promoting non-mainstream rock bands from Central Taiwan. This collection contains a fair amount of hard rock and metal, a few punk tunes and a rock-rap song. Most of the performers are up-and-coming bands, which is painfully apparent in a handful of songs that are rough around the edges. But the bands make up for their lack of finesse with youthful and energetic performances.
Chthonic’s Freddy Lim (林昶佐) might be heartened by Metal Blood’s (鐵血政策) speed metal romp Nationality (民族), in which the singer belts out in English with a gut-wrenching scream, “I am, I am, I am independence/I am, I am, I am freedom.”
And what metal fan would not be curious to hear a song from a band called Groin Destroyer (鼠蹊部破壞者)?
Damnkidz, a Taichung group, offers I Can’t Wait to See You Again, an athletic demonstration of happy-go-lucky emo punk. It’s a silly but catchy tune.
Another reason Chen created this collection is to encourage younger rock bands to compose their lyrics in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), and challenge the common perception that only old-fashioned crooners sing in the language. With his own group, The Tonic (主音), Chen composes many of his lyrics in Hoklo. In Trial (審判), he laments global warming and climate change, backed by a rousing, anthemic hard-rock arrangement.
The most promising music on this compilation doesn’t come from guitar-wielding, distortion-loving metal heads or punks. Chen named the album after the track from acoustic folk rockers Country Boys (農村武裝青年). Their song, also sung in Hoklo, decries how the Choshui River (濁水溪), which “flows from Nantou to the flatland plains of Changhua” (從南投流出彰化平原), has been sucked dry by industrial parks that dump “poisoned water” into the oceans. It is the spirit of this song that perhaps embodies Chen’s vision for the future of rock ’n’ roll in Taiwan.
—DAVID CHEN
Like I Said
Queen Suitcase (皇后皮箱)
Himalaya Records
The 1960s and 1970s are sounding fresh again. Queen Suitcase (皇后皮箱), the winner of this year’s battle of the bands competition at the Ho-Hai-Yan Gung-Liau Rock Festival (貢寮國際海洋音樂祭), is in love with rock’s golden age, and that affection shows on the group’s first release, Like I Said, a five-track EP.
Many indie pop bands have a penchant for psychedelic atmospherics and Beatles-style chord changes, but this five-piece group gets it right.
The keyboardist and lead singer, Carla Chung (鍾卡菈), has a sultry voice that does well even when drenched in reverb and electronic effects on the title track. This playful song is full of sonic references that bring to mind different eras of rock: it’s driven by a 1960s-sounding organ, noirish post-punk guitars and swooshing, high-pitched electronica effects. It won me over at the start with a sample of screeching elephants that launched the band into its outer space rock groove.
On the piano-driven rock ballad I Won’t Forget You (不會忘記你), the band is clearly channeling the Beatles, but almost a little too much.
Queen Suitcase, which formed in 2005 and has gone through a few lineup changes over the years, clearly showed its mettle at last week’s competition. But it’s hard to imagine that it could capture on stage the exquisite dreaminess of a song like Let’s Go Outside, with its quiet, hypnotic drum loops and Chung’s ethereal vocal harmonies. The EP is worth getting for this song alone.
Queen Suitcase’s next scheduled performance is at Legacy Taipei on Aug. 6.
— DAVID CHEN
Baby (寶貝)
Karen Mok (莫文蔚)
Universal Records
After two albums of folk and opera aria covers, the immensely talented singer-cum-actress Karen Mok (莫文蔚) returns to songwriting with Baby.
A collaboration between Mok and producer Zhang Yadong (張亞東), her rumored boyfriend, the singer co-write all the album’s 10 tracks.
Baby, a collection of romantic odes inspired by mundane experiences, steers clear of the conceptual ballads of Mok’s past output. The quietly beatific title track Baby (寶貝) sees Mok coaxing her lover to fall asleep in a lulling voice, while in Song to Sing in the Shower (洗澡時唱的歌), the singer croons about her various elations while taking a shower.
The album breaks new ground by paying pop music tribute to classical poetry. In Holding Thine Hands (執子之手), a phrase borrowed from The Book of Songs (詩經), Mok offers her pledge to grow old with her beloved, and in Eat Drink, Men Women (飲食男女), inspired by The Book of Rites (禮記), she explores the joys and complications of sex.
Roaming the stylistic spectrum, the album is musically adventurous.
Though none of its tracks comes across as a radio-friendly anthem, Baby is a candid and touching work from the perennially professional Mok.
— ANDREW C.C. HUANG
Princess Tone Ai (跳痛)
Tai Ai-ling (戴愛玲)
Sony Music
Despite promising so much when she delivered the power ballad The Right One (對的人) on her debut album, Aboriginal pop siren Tai Ai-ling (戴愛玲), also known as Princess Ai, failed to live up to expectations. But with Princess Tone Ai (跳痛), her fifth outing, Tai proves that A-mei (張惠妹) is not the only Aboriginal pop princess worthy of adulation.
Previously pigeonholed as a singer with an “iron lung” (鐵肺) who squandered her explosive vocal powers on hackneyed songs, Tai makes up for lost time by delivering her most satisfying pop album to date.
Tai’s voice is her best asset. Even in the title track, Jumping Pain (跳痛), she elevates cliched lyrics such as “the pain is deep, the injury is heavy” with her bravura vocals.
Elsewhere, unimaginatively titled songs, such as Plus, Minus, Multiply, Divide (加減乘除) and Future Tense (未來式), do little to show off her vocal prowess.
Tai delivers fireworks on the opening track Close My Eyes to Love (閉上眼睛愛), her soaring voice swirling and plummeting around the infectious chorus.
The album’s highlight is Just Another Glance at You (只要再看你一眼), a duet with Roger Yang (陽陪安) that pays tribute to and even rivals A-mei’s Within a Glance (一眼瞬間). The pair’s voices hover and flirt with each other like two fluttering butterflies.
Tai stretches her musical muscles on rap number Yesterday’s Tomorrow (昨天的明天), a song about frazzled love performed with Paiwan reggae rocker Matzka, and Good and Bad (好壞), a disco rouser about misspent love.
Tai is known for starting off songs mildly, then thundering into climactic highs. However, on Princess Tone Ai she shows restraint by not galloping full pelt into the upper octaves.
— ANDREW C.C. HUANG
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