Asian Music
Sandii: Airmata (Released in 1993, Rating 4)
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1. Rentak 106 2. Karena pengalaman 3.Cita hampa 4.Hidup untuk cinta 5.Keagungan tuhan 6. Kopi Dangdut 7. Bunga melor 8. Yale-yale 9.Tak berdaya 10.Begadang 11.Rentak 106 12.Kopi bonus dut Produced by Makoto Kubota |
Sandii is a Japanese singer who grew up in Hawaii. She seems to be able to sing everything. Her solo albums are hyper-mixture of various style of music. She also released several authentic Hawaiian music albums.
In this album she covers Malaysian and Indonesian pop music. This is very good album as an introduction to Asian pop music. The music arrangement is well-produced, not over-produced. The sound style preserve the original Malaysian and Indonesian pop music very well, and it is very sophisticated. And the Singing of Sandii is beautifully. Thought sometimes I feel her singing is a little bit too polite and too careful, this makes this album accessible for the non-Asian pop fans.
"Airmata" means tear in Malaysian. Sandii says, "tear is the most beautiful expression when the heart is filled up. This album contains the "Asian tears". There are so many great songs which are full of human expression."
(Aug/2002)
Sheila Majid: Ratu (Released in 1996, Rating 4+)
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1. Di sisi daku 2. Hadirmu 3.Embun 4. Mengapa Kasih 5. Percayalah 6. Berita Baru 7.Harum 8. Kita bersama 9. Gangguan 10.Candanya tandatanya 11.Patung 12. Ratu Produced by Roslan Aziz |
Sheila Majid is the queen of Malaysian pop, I guess. I am not sure how she is heard in Malaysia. Considering that her CD art works are really gorgeous fully of her photos, she might be a really big pop star. And the sound production is really gorgeous too.
She is the good singer, but different from the ordinary standard of good Asian singers who have every kind of vocal technique. (Maybe, younger generation of Asian pop star is not like this anymore.) Her singing is much like Western singer like Sade. The voice and singing of Majid is full of gentleness and smoothness. Almost infinite waves and tides of gentleness. I can almost say sensual. But it is not sexual. It is sensual, hidden inside very secretly. And the sound production is supporting this gentleness and smoothness. (Nathan East plays bass guitar, which makes the sound smoother.)
(Aug/2002)
Sheila Majid: Ku Mohon (Released in 1999, Rating 3)
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1.Ada-ada saja (prolog) 2. Ada-ada saja 3. Ku mohon 4.Rahsia hati 5.Jujur saja 6. Camar 7. jatuh cinta 8. Di suatu masa 9. Catat 10.rindu 11.Umaraku 12. Ku mohon(versi istimewa) Produced by Mac Chew & Jenny Chin |
This is the newest album of Sheila Majid, maybe. The sound production gets much upper and brighter. It sounds much like an ordinary pop album. Majid's singing is good. The art work is gorgeous. Good album. But I expected much greater album...
(Aug/2002)
Sheila Chandra: Weaving My Ancestors' Voices (Released in 1992, Rating 4+)
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1.Speaking in Tongues I 2.Dhyana and Donalogue 3.Nana/The Dreaming 4.Ever So Lonely/Eyes/Ocean 5.The Enchantment 6.The Call 7.Bhajan 8.Speaking in Tongues II Produced by Steve Coc |
I might not be a good person to introduce Sheila Chandra. I am not the good listener of her music. I only have two of her albums. One is her best album, and the other is this. However, when introducing Asian music, I cannot exclude this incredible album.
Sheila Chandra is of Indian ancestry, but born and raised in Britain. I didn't hear Chandra's music seriously until this album was released. She was a singer in Monsoon, and released many albums after the disband of the group. (I just don't know how many because I used to see many albums in the CD shop. According to AMG, there are 5 solo albums before this album.) I knew this album because it was from Peter Gabriel's label, real world. I could hear the sample of the sound in Gabriel's CD-Rom, Explora 1.
This album is mostly made of Chandra's voice and minimal drone sound. The power of the human voice is really strong. It is the best instrument in the world. Chandra sings very beautifully with perfect pitch control. As the title suggests, this is the reconstruction of the Indian music, but there are some influences of Celtic music. Ever So Lonely/Eyes/Ocean is like Celtic traditional song. The beautiful mixture of India and England.
There are two other solo albums with similar orientation, Zen Kiss (1994) and ABoneCroneDrone (1996). And there is the compilation of 3 albums which includes two new songs, Moonsung (1999).
(Aug/2002)