Compass Of Life

Dadado Huang

Think of this as the antithesis of K-pop. Instead of brash hooks propelled by thumping beats, we get gently strummed acoustic guitars. It’s Kings Of Convenience’s Quiet Is The New Loud mantra adapted for the Taiwanese folk scene.

Indie singer-songwriter Huang Jie (right) is after the authenticity of experience and emotion. The first track, My High School Classmates, begins: “Graduated from university, went into the army, as for the future, not really curious about it.”

The slacker vibe continues on What Day Is It Today: “On this breezy and sunny spring afternoon/Can we not think about consequences.”

From the title alone, Taipei Balaba looks like it might be a reworking of Dadadalada off his debut EP, Hard Days (2007), but it is a more sprightly and humorous take on a budding romance: “Babalabalabalabala give me childishness/Babalabalabala I’m giving you a toy for a present.”

His soothing, lulling voice goes hand in glove with the material and when he asks on Butterfly: “Do you like to listen to music like me/Do you wish to learn more about the world?”, you will find yourself nodding in assent.

On album closer Me And You, he muses: “I honestly face all the happiness and unhappiness/To find the balance between reality and dreams.”

Huang might be an idealistic and child-like slacker adrift in the sometimes confusing cityscape of modern life but Compass points the way to a momentary respite.

Jam Wild Dreams

Jam Hsiao

Local composers and lyricists have been making their mark on the regional Mandopop scene for a while now. Still, it is quite unusual to see so many of them credited on an album by a non-home-grown singer.

On Taiwanese singer Jam Hsiao’s third album of original material, the credits list includes Hanjin Tan, Eric Ng, Xiaohan, Lee Shih Shiong, Lee Wai Shiong and Tanya Chua.

Chua’s Can Only Miss You is a sensitive ballad that has Hsiao emoting in his falsetto range while Xiaohan once again pens a set of thoughtful lyrics for Clone about the wish to create a stand-in for a person when his heart dies.

Between Lee Shih Shiong’s two contributions, I prefer the urbane R&B-flavoured A World With Continual Surprises to the bombastic prog-rock title track, Wild Dreams.

The bonus disc is all Hsiao as he sings his own compositions. For advertisement songs, they are surprisingly listenable. In particular, Legend Of The White Snake stands out for marrying traditional Chinese opera music with rock bravado, while Jasmine Love is sweetly intoxicating.

The question has never been whether Hsiao can sing. Rather, it has always been what he will choose to do with that richly evocative voice.

Judging from the range of the material on this album, he seems to want to be all things to all people.

It is a wild dream but with those pipes, he comes closer than almost anyone else in pulling it off.

(ST)