Loh Tsui Kweh Commune (濁水溪公社)
Loh Tsui Kweh Commune 20 Years Project
Himalaya Records
You never know what to expect from Loh Tsui Kweh Commune (濁水溪公社), also known as LTK. After 20 years and five albums — which include classic recordings that have influenced several generations of Taiwanese punk and indie musicians — the band has released an album of full-on electronica dance music that oozes 1980s nostalgia.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or dance when I first heard this record. There is not one trace of extreme guitar noise or any of the bizarre and vulgar obscenities that have made the band one of the most notorious — and beloved — indie groups in Taiwan.
Instead, Loh Tsui Kweh Commune 20 Years Project takes the band’s music to the other extreme. The music is slick and disco smooth, and the lyrics, mostly sung in Mandarin, are about romance and heartbreak.
But all eleven tracks are unmistakably LTK. Bandleader Ko Ren-chien (柯仁堅) has made an art out of celebrating taike (台客), which used to be a derogatory term referring to Taiwanese working-class culture. The 40-year-old has outdone himself in writing the songs for this album, which begins with an instrumental titled Taikno Music.
Ko says this collection was inspired by the music he grew up listening to, particularly bands like Depeche Mode and Duran Duran.
Eternal Love treads dangerously close to parody when Ko croons “Stay with me” in English — you could almost picture him with his hand on heart and a mock wince. But the hooks are relentlessly catchy and for the most part, never let up for the rest of album. Other standout tracks include Aerolady and Girls on the Avenue, which are pure 1980s cheese, from the reverb-drenched snare drum smacks to endless flurries of synthesizer arpeggios.
Indie-pop producer Ciacia (何欣穗) provided most of the backing female vocals and her lush harmonies are the perfect foil for Ko, who sounds like he has just hijacked an unsuspecting karaoke party and is having the time of his life.
At LTK’s 20th anniversary concert earlier this month, the band didn’t
perform any of these new songs, but they didn’t need to. During a set break, they hired professional dancers to perform a racy strip tease with the album as their sound track. — DAVID CHEN
Suming (舒米恩)
Self-titled/Debut Original Album (舒米恩首張創作專輯)
Wonder Music
Suming (舒米恩) continues to impress with this brilliant debut solo album. The 32-year-old Amis Aboriginal, best known as the front man for the indie-rock group Totem (圖騰), has set out to push Taiwanese indigenous music beyond its traditional borders.
The Taitung native is not the first to apply a modern pop twist to Aboriginal folk, but his songwriting skills clearly stand out among the rest.
Throughout this eleven-track album, listeners will hear the familiar chants of “Naruwan” and “Ho hai yan” (吼海洋) backed by breezy bossa nova chords and electronica beats.
But it’s not just the drum machines and catchy pop hooks that make the music sound fresh. Suming brings a sense of nuance to the stories of his heritage on songs like the uplifting Kasasetek no mita (Our Promise).
The lyrics to Kapah, which translates from the Amis as “young men,” read like a traditional courting song, with lines like “Are there any guys who are
good in school?/Are there any guys who are good at making money/Are there any guys who are good at spearing fish?/Are there stong guys?” Suming’s smooth-driving, funky electronica groove adds humor and playfulness to this display of machismo.
And it’s just plain fun to hear Suming get away with using auto-tune on his voice on another ice-cool dance track, Kaoying (Beautiful Girls). He doesn’t sound cliche and the effect works well with the Amis lyrics.
Despite the dance-floor vibe that dominates the record, Suming gives a
clear nod to his roots with Fulad (Moonlight), a beautiful instrumental composition performed on the reed flute and an a capella tune sung by a
chorus as the final track.
With this album, Suming has clearly brought his music to a new level, and is one to watch if you haven’t started yet. — DAVID CHEN
Extreme (極限)
Hsu Chia-ying (徐佳瑩, aka Lala)
Asia Music
One Million Star (超級星光大道) champ Hsua Chia-ying (徐佳瑩) proves she is the show’s only alumnus who is capable of shaping her
own musical persona with Extreme (極限), her highly anticipated follow-up album.
Having composed and coproduced all 10 of the album’s tracks herself, Hsu shows she is an all-round musician who calls her own shots. Written in the aftermath of Hsu’s very public breakup with her One Million Star beau, Extreme is full of existential contemplation and morose imagery, which makes it a most daring and unconventional Mando-pop album.
Title track Extreme (極限) is an electronica-infused number that explores a man’s ability to face extreme challenges, while Time Master (時間大師), also dance driven, probes how today’s decisions might be proven wrong in the future.
Hsu’s songs are mostly melancholic and exhibit self-doubt. Fear of Height (懼高症), the album’s infectious second single, is a folksy ballad in which she questions her ability to overcome vertigo to climb the blissful heights of romance again. The morbid Ruined Love (殘愛) depicts a ruined love that both parties have decided to abandon.
Disco (迪斯可), a sarcastic and funky track, portrays a brokenhearted girl who must feign happiness to continue dancing at a disco.
The ballads here don’t have the catchiness of Hsu’s previous output, such as I Ride a White Horse (身騎白馬) and Humming a Love Song (哼情歌), nor are they as exuberant or joyous as her debut album.
Perhaps the album’s most prophetic track is song Oasis (樂園), which sees an oasis in the future where flowers bloom. With this musically complex and metaphorically rich album, Hsu is well on her way to finding that spot. — ANDREW C.C. HUANG
It’s My Time (夢想啟航)
Lin Yu-chun (林育群)
Sony Music
Lin Yu-chun (林育群), aka Little Fatty (小胖), released his first full-length album, It’s My Time (夢想啟航), a mere five months after his appearance on Taiwan’s blockbuster pop idol competition show One Million Star (超級星光大道) singing I Will Always Love You went viral across the world. Lin’s story as an overweight, underappreciated child who overcame a mountain of ridicule to realize this moment of glory no doubt invites good will.
On this debut album, Lin follows in Susan Boyle’s footsteps by singing mostly covers of familiar tunes.
Showing unrelenting ambition, and probably aiming too high, Lin tackles four female superstars on one disc: Whitney Houston’s version of I Will Always Love You, Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On, Mariah Carey’s Hero and Christina Aguilera’s Fighter.
Lin’s performance is a note-by-note imitation of the original stars’ phrasing, right down to their breathing. He’s a gifted impersonator with an impressive vocal range. But the album’s producers cranked out watered-down accompaniment music that sounds like that found in KTVs.
With Fighter, the album’s only up-tempo track, Lin displays a never before seen spunk and defiance.
The undisputed highlight is the album’s sole original track, Under Your Wings, written and produced by Carey’s Grammy-winning producer Walter Afanasieff expressly for Lin. The song expresses Lin’s gratitude to his
mentor, and shows he is capable of crafting his own interpretation of a song with grace.
Lin’s cover of Lionel Richie’s Hello, a track included on his previous EP, was omitted. That’s a shame as Lin breaks into an unusually playful improvisation towards the end.
Though lacking innovation, It’s My Time does hold together as a cohesive album that drives its inspirational theme of perseverance home.
Whether or not Lin’s 15 minutes of fame will fizzle out like his predecessor William Hung’s did, depends on whether the rising star can parley his vocal talent and amiable personality into credible music of his own. The album’s only original track hints he has the potential to do just that. — ANDREW C.C. HUANG
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