Reviews on a few albums I got recently

Won a few CD racks from eBay last weekend, so finally I can put up all my CD collections together and clear the wide-spread CD maze at home. So regretted to throw away hundreds of jewel cases when I moved, now still got more than a hundred albums sleeping in CD wallets.

Have been keeping on throwing money to record shops in the past 15 something years, and tastes are getting more and more extreme and diverse. Digital music online are rampaging like uncontrollable flood. No matter whatever good quality digital music I could get, even WAV, as long as I like the music, I'm still going to find the physical compact disc. It's like stamp collection, have you ever heard of collecting digital stamps?

Selling part of my collections on eBay, I do find fewer and fewer people are willing to buy a copy of music they like. Even they do, they are generally expecting a very low price from you, the seller. Take some rare releases of Coil and Muslimgauze as example, 6 years ago I usually saw them to be sold as high as around a hundred bucks, these days forty, fifty bucks could be maximum, unless the buyer is a die-hard collector.

Sorry it's a bit far away from the title. To review a few albums I've got recently. They are not necessarily new releases.

Qua "Silver Red" - Interestingly enough, it's a release from Room40's sister label Someone Good - it gives me an impression that the label only associates with "small melody" Japanese musicians, like Lullatone and Akira Kosemura. I can hardly imagine Qua releases their album here. Anyway, it's a beautify little album with only four tracks. Cornel Wilzcek never lacks of imagination, however the first 3 long tracks of the album sounds a bit dull to my ears. The overall soundscape is a bit too fragmented, though very rich in subtle transforms. The last piece is short, bouncing and lively - my favorite. However when comparing with other 3 tracks, you would find it's a bit too different from the rest, distinctively less "left-field".


Phelan Sheppard "Harps Old Master" - How lucky I picked up this album blindly purely for its cover art. And this becomes my mostly played CD now. It's warm, smooth in textures, soothing, but never failed in flow of changes. There is rich instrument arrangement, however the core is something orchestral. It's not purely neo-classical - doesn't sound like Sylvain Chauveau, not as boring as Max Richter. It weaves accoustic and electronic so well, as well as female voice. This is expansive music.


Glamorous Pharmacy (美好药店) "Rumbling Footsteps (脚步声阵阵)" - This is an interesting Chinese alternative folk band. They do improvisation jazz, alternative folk and performance art. This is their 2nd album. I must say that I'm dissapointed. The concept is good, the artwork is more attractive, and the price is doubling that of their first release, however it lacks power, lacks the elastic spirit penetrate through the plots. It's an album which gives me a bit "Joy Division" feeling. Although Xiao He is trying to tell the grow up stories of his own generation, he sounds like an onlooker, although not as cold as Ian Curtis.


Otomo Yoshihide & Sachiko M "Filament 1" - Well, I must admit that it is too much for me. It's more explosively glitchy than Alva Noto releases. Though being defined as a "genre-defying" and "earth-shaking" work, unless you are a die-hard experimental fan, stay away from this album. Although many said this is one of Otomo's most listenable album, I'd rather prefer his later Tzadik and Erstwhile releases.


- to be continued