5 recommendations

[akdn]

A friend recently asked me to recommend some Chinese music. And these were the 5 suggestions I made. In light of the Cui Jian post, I regretting forgetting to add him to the list. Anyway, these are all pretty recent (apart from the Dou Wei one).

1) 许巍, 时光.漫步

Xu3 Wei1. I liked the CD 'Shiguang Manbu'. These two pairs of characters are titles for two separate songs. Together, they seem to mean 'time strolls' (??). Which, if correct, is a cackhanded translation of the official English title 'Through the time'.

2) 陶喆， 黑色柳丁

David Tao (Tao2 Zhe3) Taiwanese, I think. Weirdly, the CD’s English title is ‘Black Tangerine’, but 柳丁 seems to mean ‘willow nail’ (or…any ideas?). Worth it for the first song, which rocks (big on Channel V, where I first picked up on it), but the rest is largely crap.

3) The latest one by Jay Chou (周杰伦, zhou jie lun) . Can’t remember what it’s called (and I don’t have an original copy of it, so I can’t look at the cover), but I recall there’s a picture of him dressed in a sharp suit, sitting in an armchair, looking like some kind of Godfather. Which is fitting, as the first song has a sample which could be from a mafia film…

4) Anything by 瘦人 (Shou Ren, Thin Man) is worth a listen. Pretty good rock/rap/hiphop. One’s called 北京梦 (Beijing dream). I’ve got another one which is better. I can’t find a title, (possibly the number ‘1’, or the character 壹) but the first track is called 说说。

5) Anything by 竇唯 (Dou Wei, but I’m not sure about that first character). Wang Fei’s ex-husband. I particularly like the CD 山河水。I wasn't really keen on Hei Bao, his rock band, but the solo stuff is quite interesting, and often takes ambienty / electronic directions (at least 山河水 does).

Make of this what you will. What are all you lot listening to?

[roddy]

Currently got Xu Wei pretty much welded into my CD player. I got some of Xu Wei's stuff after a recommendation on here, and have been very impressed - definitely my favourite music until someone else comes up with something better. I've also got some stuff by Zhou Jielun and Karen Mok after recommendations here, which I haven't been so impressed by - but you can't win them all, and I forgave Karen after watching So Close . . .

The Xu Wei CD occasionally gets swopped for a bit of Wang Fei or Xue Cun (no, not 东北人都是获雷锋, I have a mild addiction to some of the other stuff on that album though).

Roddy

PS I'll be looking out for CDs by 2, 4 and 5 - thanks for the tip.

[Guest Anonymous]

3) The latest one by Jay Chou (周杰伦, zhou jie lun) . Can’t remember what it’s called (and I don’t have an original copy of it, so I can’t look at the cover), but I recall there’s a picture of him dressed in a sharp suit, sitting in an armchair, looking like some kind of Godfather. Which is fitting, as the first song has a sample which could be from a mafia film…

The album you're refering to is called 葉惠美 (Ye Huimei). It was named after her mother I believe. I like all of 周杰倫's albums, especially this one. Also, he released a new album recently with only two new songs but it comes with a VCD of music videos from his 葉惠美 album.

[Tsunku]

I also liked some of the songs on David Tao's "Black Tangerine" album, but it's not a favorite the way Xu Wei is. I adore Xu Wei.

Anyone a fan of Automatic New Pants? They reminded me a lot of Green Day when I first heard them. The reference to Thin Man reminded me of them because they were always in the same section of the music store I went to. You might enjoy them if you're into upbeat punkish type music.

I mentioned in another thread, but a college band that got really popular called 水木年华 has some decent stuff out there. I really dig some of their songs, but there are a few I skip also. But if you enjoy Xu Wei it might be worth giving them a listen.

[Tsunku]

I've been listening to some Zhang Chu recently. I bet those of you who dig Xu Wei would like him. I do anyhow. It's nice, melodic rock and roll, good stuff as far as I'm concerned.

[tetsuo500]

I've been listening to 许巍 时光漫步 and 陶喆 黑色柳丁non-stop. In my opinion, they are both really good CDs - and I happen to hold my opinion highly

黑色柳丁 = Jimi Hendrix

But I can't seem to find good quality versions of 星空，礼物　ｏｒ　时光。　（So much for supporting the music industry)

[akdn]

黑色柳丁 = Jimi Hendrix

That's interesting. Thanks for the translation.

[tetsuo500]

Sorry, that was confusing.

I actually meant that particular song sounds very much like a Jimi Hendrix song..... can't think which song right now, maybe "All Along the Watchtower".

[akdn]

Ah, I see! Yeah - I know what you mean about the Hendrix sound on that song.