there's no doubt that the whole hk cantopop industry is pivoted on mark lui [雷颂德], and mark lui alone. i can't imagine 90s and the new milennium cantopop without him. if mark lui were to die today then the whole cantopop music industry in hk will collapse overnight.
as much as he is a godfather of modern cantopop in hk, he has his fair share of critics and detractors. those who are not discerning may not know why he is criticised all these years but i shall count his sins here.
he is not the most talented producer that hk has ever seen but definitely he is the smartest and most wicked producer of all. he has the ability to plagiarize from western music without people knowing (at least not to the majority of undemanding cantopop followers) and make it into his own. it is like a jigsaw puzzle; he steals a bit from here and a bit from there, and voila! he forms a new piece of art!
from his early days with kelly chen [陈慧琳] , he has been heavily influenced (to use a polite term) by stock-aitken-waterman (SAW), the ace producer trio from UK in the 80s, who was responsible for dance pop darlings such as rick astley, bananarama and kylie minogue. kelly hit the charts with her "unique" brand of dance music but very few know that it is totally unoriginal!
mark lui is the chief culprit responsible for creating this genre of trashy cantopop called "K- songs", which stands for karaoke-friendly songs. this brand of music is shallow, repeatedly and annoyingly catchy and most importantly, forgettable after a few rounds. many cantopop superstars today benefitted from his k-songs. many industry people in hk have told me that "k-songs" are living in dying breath. it won't be long before people realize how cheap it is. just look at the career doldrums of miriam yeung [杨千桦] and leo ku [古巨基] now. they are passe, over the prime already.
having said that, mark lui does have some talents. his is single-handedly responsible for the mega success of leon lai, miriam yeung, leo ku and many others. i am not here to take away his glory from making hk pop music industy sustainable over the last two decades.
4 years ago, he created janice vidal [wai lan, 卫兰], which to me is the most promising singer hk has seen for a while. the debut album "day and night", with its cool mix of jazz and bossa, was such a breath of fresh air to my ears. i still love that album after all these years. i thought i found hope in mark lui again. and i regard janice as the saving grace for hk cantopop.
4 albums later, i picked up this latest album called "serving you". guess what? mark lui copied all over the places! so many familiar tunes in so many places. it is as if mark lui used all his collective best tricks over the years and cooked up this album. there are so many sure-fire ingredients of "k-songs" in this album that it can guarantee a certain degree of success in the market. already, i am told that this album is the top-grossing album in hk in 2008. i have never ever suspected mark's cleverness but he can't fool us over and over again. no doubt, some of the songs sound annoyingly catchy but it could have been done for miriam yeung or leo ku or justin lo [侧田] with the same resutls. if not because of janice's angelic voice, the songs would have been relegated to those despicable "k-songs" again.
to me, all mark lui's releases this year have been bad but janice's album is the best of the worst. i leave you to figure out if that is a compliment or insult.
some singers are destined for greatest but because of certain factors like age and luck, they couldn't make it in the commercial pop scene. it is then for some really sharp-eyed producers to pick them up and make them into audiophile singers. i have been waiting for years for bondy chiu hock-e (赵学而) to release an audiophile album. my wish has come true. i believe i am the first one to pick up this album.
this has the making of the best canto audiophile album of 2008. you can throw away your mimo lo, susan wong, le mon and all those canto audiophile singers in the past.
review to come.
爱死了！
魏如萱的<甜蜜生活>是继陈绮贞2005<华丽的冒险>之后我最喜欢的专辑。
清新脱俗的唱腔和曲风，美丽的编曲，娃娃魏如萱是陈绮贞和陈姗妮的结合体。
she is the perfect amalgamation of cheer chen on electronica and a sunnier and more accessible sandee chen!
这是一张越听越有味道的专辑. 它不像一般的華語流行音樂 (yeah, those typical trashy chinese pop music!)，聽一陣子之後就膩了!
"we are menstruating, we are menstruating... the pills will keep us alive" 听一听娃娃唱出女人月经的痛苦吧！
你还等甚么呢？
「卡奇社」，是前衛花園唱片繼「魏如萱」之後，所推出的第二組華語藝人。魏如萱的專輯「甜蜜生活」在博客來音樂館創下了超過七千張的歷史紀錄。因此對於卡奇社我們也是充滿了高度的好奇與期待。
初聽「卡奇社」不經令人想到年輕時的王菲。年僅二十歲的「卡奇社」卻超齡的融合了迷幻、搖滾、電子甚至傳統京劇等多種樂風， 他們水乳交融的把玩東西異國情調，在成人的現實世界裡，尋求最後一絲的浪漫與純真。耽溺於中國古典文學的女主唱，在詞曲方面的表現令人讚嘆；與時下的流行 音樂相比，卡奇社的首張專輯「日光傾城」質樸而感人，充滿了一種渾然天成的美感。 (文/博客來影音館經理 林士民)
前衛花園即將於年底推出令人震撼的雙人組合「卡奇社」，這對年紀只有二十歲的男女，主唱的嗓音有一種不經意的自然灑脫，搭配上強烈的歐陸節拍編曲，帶來了一種全新驚豔感的，很高興除了陳綺貞與張懸這樣的清新創作才女之外，現在我們有了「卡奇社」！
一種與眾不同、清新沁人的幸福味道！前衛花園首次呈獻本土女聲，前「自然捲」女主唱娃娃魏如萱甜蜜演出。結合了西班牙、德國、日本、中國等多方優秀音樂人跨國合作、打造華語歌壇前所未見的清新甜蜜浪潮！
聽膩了一成不變的華語流行歌曲了嗎？前「自然捲」樂團女主唱魏如萱（娃娃），將於11/8發行首張個人專輯《 La Dolce Vita 》（甜蜜生活），帶給所有愛樂者一種與眾不同的幸福味道！
is atilia - current protege of roslan aziz - another sheila majid in the making?
we have the story....
this year is the 50th anniversary of the musical genre called bossa nova and record labels are rushing to cash in on the popularity of this genre.
one of the best-selling albums in cd shops in malaysia for the past few months is this album called "back to love in bossa moments". it is a cover version album of pop classics done in bossa nova style by unknown singers.
i picked up a copy and was quite horrified by what malaysians like to listen today. while "bleeding love" (leona lewis) and "you are beautiful" (james blunt) were quite successfully re-arranged into bossa nova, the rest of the songs sound decidedly contrived and out-of-place. can you imagine kylie minoque's "i should be so lucky" and elton john's "your song" done in bossa nova? i shudder in disgust.
let me tell you, not every song is suitable for bossa nova or jazz arrangement. the problem with this album lies on the weak arrangement, wrong choice of songs and ordinary performance by the singers.
but this is what the malaysian market wants, i suppose :-(
the buka puasa was met with heavy rain today. it choked the kl and pj traffic entirely. the traffic jam was so horrendous that i couldn't help but find solace in my music. for the last few days, my player has been spinning aiza seguerra's "open arms". i must admit, i don't agree with the song selection (inclusion of don mclean's overdone "vincent" is not to my taste) but i find a couple of tracks hugely impressive.
"persistent rain" was so perfect for the situation i was in today - getting stucked in the traffic jam while the rain poured mercilessly on my car's windscreen - though i have no romantic stories to tell you. this is the best track of the album, one that i can listen over and over again.
journey's "open arms" (circa 1970s) is done with good taste. a lot of young generation like this track, from what i could find with my google. other good tracks include "i will be there for you", "longer" (dan fogelberg) and aiza's own beautiful tagalog love song "para lang so 'yo".
little did i know that this is the number 1 best-selling audiophile album in singapore. aiza is already a household name in philipines, now it is time malaysians discover her.
aiza has a very clear, pristine and angelic voice. she is diction-perfect and pitch-perfect. it is very hard to find this kind of western-sounding singers in malaysia. to me, philipines has the most gifted singers in this region. they way they sing, they just don't sound like asians.
s2s is a s'pore label started by a japanese. judging from the excellent recording quality of this cd, we can expect more gems from this label.
seriously, i would love to produce an album like this.
heartily recommended, if only the song selection can be better.
sonics: 8/10
music: 8/10
yes, this one is a keeper.
bought it last night and have been spinning non-stop since.
if anne murray is a piece of hifi then she simply has the most gorgeous tone. in this fabulous cd, she even has a "ghostly" duet with dusty springfield in "i just fall in love again", this track itself worthy of the cost of this US-pressed CD. i does wet our eyes listening to it.
trust me, one you read the liner notes where the 12 different iconic female legends (including carole king, sarah brightman, ONJ, k.d.lang, shelby lynne, shania twain) expressed their feelings of excitement in collaborating with anne murray, you would be so moved that you want to read it over and over again.
2v1g plans to do a cover version of "you needed me" in the NBT gig in october and anne murray's duet with shania twain here is the best source of reference.
review to come.
as usual, news travel a little late to bolehland - we only discovered this last week when a friend (who bought this cd in SG) recommended it to us.
as usual, malaysian record shops don't carry it.
can some kind souls from SG buy it for us and we will pay you back?
we have heard some of the songs and love them. shelby does justice to dusty springfield's classics.
we want, we want, we want.
陳綺貞說:"這傢伙真了不起!"
旺福主唱小民說:"看到廣仲自彈自唱的那一天，肯定是我人生中的搖滾瞬間!"
金曲製作人鍾成虎說:"他是被公車輾過的音樂鬼才。"
他是 盧 廣 仲
袁泉short stay台北EP
在香港Ｋ歌的泛滥之下，kay谢安琪的出现是一股清流。
谢安琪妙趣地反映香港大众文化。歌词很趣味但谢安琪就很严肃地唱。
当然，谢安琪不写歌。她的歌和歌词主要由周博贤、黄伟文写。周博贤、黄伟文(wyman)为 谢安琪写过香港茶餐厅、唱港女搏命减肥等等题材后，到<神奇女侠退休生活>，更踏进了神化、卡通、半无厘头、半真半假的世界。谢安琪于是成为了香港乐坛幽默神经而又认真的歌手。
谢安琪的声音有林忆连的影子。唱华语歌又像孙燕姿. 但还是算有性格的声音.
如果你厌倦了那一成不变的K歌，谢安琪其实很不错.
极不喜欢唱广东K歌的eason,觉的他太随波逐流了。
但却很爱jim lee制作的eason; 唱华语歌的eason.
很多年前的<黑,白,灰> 是eason 和 jim lee 的佳作.
<不想放手>某些曲目無論在歌詞、旋律至編曲都略顯平淡，然而專輯整體音樂的統一卻是異常難得，沒有加入例牌的打榜情歌亦見eason对音樂的自信與堅持.
很久没有听过这样自在的eason.
