Now and again (and again, and again, and again), amid gripes about low concert turnouts, egotistical artist chicanery or laconic crowds, we need a reminder of what music, at its core, really is, or rather what it has the potential to be. What it can be, when the right people get involved, is a unifying force for positive change — the purveyor of a powerful message of social progress.
About this time each year in Taipei, we get just such a reminder with Daniel Pearl World Music Day (丹尼一日音樂節：愛與和平世界紀念日). For those yet unfamiliar with his tragic story, Daniel Pearl was a respected journalist who was killed while on assignment in Pakistan in 2002.
At the time of his death, Pearl was just 38 years old. Sadly, he would not live to see the birth of his son, Adam, born less than two weeks after the discovery of his body north of the city of Karachi.
Photo courtesy of Shakaboom.
In one of those rare beautiful twists of fate, however, Pearl, who was also an accomplished musician, would have his legacy fulfilled by those who were left behind. As a fitting tribute to the man who embraced many passions, following his death his friends and family decided to organize a day of music in his honor. That celebration of “Harmony for Humanity” has since grown to encompass 11,000 performances in 129 countries.
This year in Taipei, organizers have once again brought together a diverse group of performers that will take to one of two stages throughout tomorrow afternoon and evening.
Headlining the World Stage is Ayugo Huang (黃連煜), who recently took home the Best Hakka Album prize at the Golden Melody Awards (金曲獎) in June for his solo record Shan Ge Yi Tiao Lu (山歌一條路). Huang will perform with his own five-piece ensemble, bringing the mellow acoustic vibes with a resolutely Taiwanese sound and subject matter.
Photo courtesy of Secondfloor Music
Earlier in the evening electro-funk duo Shakaboom will get the crowd moving with their kid-friendly blend of positivity and high-energy tunes. The Los Angeles-based twosome, consisting of emcee Chris “C-Squared” Coyle and DJ Joseph Toh Djojo, aka Mr Hamburger, takes to the stage with the creed “if your body is in motion your mind will follow.”
Rounding out the lineup for the free festival is a mix of local and expat bands, with notables such as international world music consortium La Cumbia Del Sol, time signature shifting Zappa-heads Soup Mother, and the Motherland/Caribbean-inspired dance rhythms of Afroholique. The international flavor and inclusive nature of the event stand as a true testament to the man and the spirit Daniel Pearl World Music Day is meant to honor.
■ Daniel Pearl World Music Day (丹尼一日音樂節：愛與和平世界紀念日) takes place tomorrow at Taipei Hakka Culture Park (臺北市客家文化主題公園), 2 Dingzhou Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市汀州路3段2號). Bands hit the two stages at staggered intervals starting at 2pm. Food and drink will be available from vendors on site, and admission is free.
Also on tomorrow is the XXX Asia Metal Festival, a celebration of an altogether different sort. This mini-fest is all about power metal, the bastard child of late-70s/early 80s speed metal.
Galloping rhythms, lyrical tales of mystical fantasy and historic scenes of battlefield glory along with prodigious amounts of “guitar face” are what can be expected when seven bands from Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong take to the stage in a bid to melt the most faces tomorrow night.
Headlining the show is Kelly Simonz’s Blind Faith. The Osaka-born virtuoso made his solo debut back in the late 1990s, and since then has made a name for himself on the local and international heavy rock scenes with his hard-hitting heavy rock anthems.
Performing lead vocals for Blind Faith is singer Yama-B, who will also be bringing his own band, Gunbridge, forcing himself to pull double duty on the night. Yama-B is a celebrity in his own right in the Asian power metal scene, as he founded and formerly fronted the well-respected group Galneryus.
“Over the top” is not a phrase the groups Yama-B has fronted over his career have in their vocabulary. Soaring vocals, copious amounts of eyeliner, emotive posturing and plenty of looks of open-mouthed “Can you believe that riff?” disbelief from the dual-lead guitarists are par for the course.
Taiwan’s entries into the fest are led by Nocturne Moonrise, some members of which are also serving as the fest’s promoters. The band takes its cues from the symphonic and classical spheres, with nods toward the forefathers — and mothers — of Taiwanese power metal such as Seraphim.
In that same vein is Frost Tears (冰霜之淚), a female-fronted melodic/Gothic power metal band with a dose of extremity and elements of Taiwanese opera. If that description leaves you confused, check out the track Flames of War (戰火), an operatic exploration of the tale of the Battle of Red Cliffs.
This is the first mini-festival of its kind in Taiwan, fully dedicated to the pomp and parody of power metal. Watch out for white leather and dark mascara parading through Ximenting tomorrow night.
■ XXX Asia Metal Festival 2015 takes place tomorrow at Jack’s Studio (杰克音樂), B1, 76, Kunming Street, Taipei City (台北市昆明街76號B1). Tickets are NT$1,000 in advance, NT$1,200 at the door. Doors open at 3:45pm and the first band hits the stage at 4pm. For more information, go to www.xxxmetalfest.url.tw.
June 2 to June 8 Taiwan’s woodcutters believe that if they see even one speck of red in their cooked rice, no matter how small, an accident is going to happen. Peng Chin-tian (彭錦田) swears that this has proven to be true at every stop during his decades-long career in the logging industry. Along with mining, timber harvesting was once considered the most dangerous profession in Taiwan. Not only were mishaps common during all stages of processing, it was difficult to transport the injured to get medical treatment. Many died during the arduous journey. Peng recounts some of his accidents in
“Why does Taiwan identity decline?”a group of researchers lead by University of Nevada political scientist Austin Wang (王宏恩) asked in a recent paper. After all, it is not difficult to explain the rise in Taiwanese identity after the early 1990s. But no model predicted its decline during the 2016-2018 period, they say. After testing various alternative explanations, Wang et al argue that the fall-off in Taiwanese identity during that period is related to voter hedging based on the performance of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Since the DPP is perceived as the guardian of Taiwan identity, when it performs well,
A short walk beneath the dense Amazon canopy, the forest abruptly opens up. Fallen logs are rotting, the trees grow sparser and the temperature rises in places sunlight hits the ground. This is what 24 years of severe drought looks like in the world’s largest rainforest. But this patch of degraded forest, about the size of a soccer field, is a scientific experiment. Launched in 2000 by Brazilian and British scientists, Esecaflor — short for “Forest Drought Study Project” in Portuguese — set out to simulate a future in which the changing climate could deplete the Amazon of rainfall. It is
The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on May 18 held a rally in Taichung to mark the anniversary of President William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20. The title of the rally could be loosely translated to “May 18 recall fraudulent goods” (518退貨ㄌㄨㄚˋ！). Unlike in English, where the terms are the same, “recall” (退貨) in this context refers to product recalls due to damaged, defective or fraudulent merchandise, not the political recalls (罷免) currently dominating the headlines. I attended the rally to determine if the impression was correct that the TPP under party Chairman Huang Kuo-Chang (黃國昌) had little of a
RSS