Abstract
Shio Quek
A crop of up-and-comers is injecting the Malaysian music scene with much-needed new blood.
Duo FS (Fuying & Sam) have been scaling the charts with radio-friendly tracks such as It Should Be Better For Us To Break Up, sounding like an updated version of Wu Yin Liang Pin. Meanwhile, Shio Quek is a singer-songwriter in the vein of, say, Penny Tai, and is in fact signed to the latter’s agency.
Sporting a head of pink hair on the album cover, Quek is clearly no shrinking violet.
Opening track Extrication is an atmospheric slice of minimalist electronica with a softly hypnotic thump and haunting synth line about breaking out of a bad relationship. She declares determinedly in English on the chorus: “I need an extrication/I need to extricate myself away from the pain.”
The track also features a guest turn by Taiwanese rapper Miss Ko and it all comes together nicely.
Quek switches effortlessly between English and Mandarin, though the wholly English ballads End To Ribbons and Your Name are not her most compelling work here.
Head instead for the pleasures of ballad Solo Bliss, which touches on the fleetingness of happiness: “This solo bliss, can only understand by listening with eyes shut/Even if everything’s not mine, I won’t beg anymore.”
The album feels too ballad-heavy though, and more could have been done with the music arrangements, such as for Chimera, which features an ear-catching electronica intro.
What keeps one from quickly extricating oneself from the album is her consistently compelling singing.
(ST)