Buy 1 Get 1 Free

Hanjin Tan and MC Jin

Pairing jazzy pop with hip- hop is like mixing smooth velvety chocolate with

piquant chilli: It sounds dubious when you first hear about it but it all makes sense once you get a taste.

On the follow-up to his well-received debut Raw Jazz (2009), Hong Kong-based Singaporean singer- songwriter Hanjin Tan teams up with American- born Chinese rapper MC Jin. Tan sings in Mandarin and Jin raps in Cantonese and by an act of alchemy, they complement each other perfectly.

The dynamic duo tackle a gamut of topics in this freewheeling disc, ranging from insomnia to relationships to happiness.

There are highlights aplenty. Go Slow, Goodbye, Old Friend captures the poignancy of people drifting apart. Girlfriend is a humorous take on a doomed relationship – “The girl I like/Treats me like a girl” – while Lazy Day is a laidback ode to chilling.

On Sleeping Pills, Jin raps that he is “thinking of getting crazy with the duke of sleep/Now where have I got to counting sheep”. Tan chimes in with his mellifluous voice: “I’ve had three showers/still can’t slumber/I’ve had three pills/and then got up for a hamburger.”

It is clear that Tan and Jin had a great time making this album and their joy on this musical adventure is irresistible. This is an album that will have you bopping your head, nodding in recognition or simply smiling in delight.

One More

Relax-ONE

Six years is a long time between albums, especially when you consider that Buy 1 Get 1 Free was written and recorded in 10 days.

The follow-up to Relax-ONE’s 2005 debut could have sagged under the weight of such a long gestation. Instead, it offers an enjoyable romp that shows off different facets of the Taiwanese indie band.

They rock out on All I Want and Come Out N Play, go slow on Parallel and Leave and show their cheery, playful side on Hot Radio and Sunny For

Today. Some of the songs feel like they could be about the long journey en route to their second record. They might be documenting their own perseverance on Lucid Dream: “Don’t let go of my hand, don’t let it go/Let’s finish the dream we dreamed together.”

And when lead female vocalist Summer Hsu sings on You, “Not a day, not a day passes that I don’t think of you”, she is probably hoping that’s how their fans have been feeling.

(ST)