Favourite Song #10 - X'mas Half Nude Party - Forever Tarkovsky Club

I didn't know this song has a rock version and a music video! The hypothesis of two heads are better than one (Ah P of my little airport collaborated with Ho Shan of Pixeltoy) is proven to be true.

4 Perfect Songs

Songs which leave me wishing nothing more and nothing less but only the sweetest ache.

Sandie Shaw's Always something there to remind me. The best version.
Camera Obscura's Eighties fan. It felt great to sing along with Tracyanne.
my little airport's Japan 'sut gua'. So much's packed into this tiny song.
Undertones - Teenage kicks. John Peel's favourite. My favourite. Is it any surprise that I adore good old Peelie?

Favourite Song #9 - Between the lines - Sambassadeur

2005. A good year for indie pop in Singapore. Where popgeeks gathered and danced on the street of Amoy. To this particular anthem. Feel the beat of the tambourine.

Favourite Song #8 - Love long distance - Gossip

Gossip did it - the gay anthem. One part big house piano riff, one part trancey disco synth, mix with a steady 4/4 beat, plus a pinch of heartbreak and a huge cup of soulful voice. It's as good as billie ray martin and eve gallagher.

2 weekends 3 instruments which charmed my socks off and moved my heart

I was in Kuching at the Rainforest World Music Festival last weekend and heard for the first time the sape. This is a traditional Borneo instrument. It was a hot and humid evening on the second day of the festival, and the quiet melodies flowing from the trio of Lan-E Tuyang provided a very much welcomed relief from the heat.

Back in Singapore, I went to the Singapore Chinese Orchestra's performance of Reminiscences of Yunnan composed by Liu Xing with Liu Xing himself on zhongruan and Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo with Manuel Barrueco on guitar. Both concertos are the first of their kinds in their days to feature the respective instruments prominently for solo performance. Incidentally, the second movements of both concertos always moved me with their sense of loss and regret.

The thing was I could have listened to Liu Xing performed this very concerto in Singapore more than 10 years ago. But I couldn't or rather didn't because I had to study for a school test the day after. How silly of us.

It isn't everyday that I have a second chance. A lot has changed but the music remains the same.

Favourite Song #7 - Heavy cross - Gossip

In our imperfect world, Beth Ditto would never be a Bond girl but is it too much to have a Gossip song for a Bond theme song? Let it happen soon!

Meanwhile, here's the new major label single from Gossip. It's great to hear that Gossip has not abandoned its soul/disco/punk roots. Still sounds like it's made in a garage... just a nicer garage.

Don't forget the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989!

After 3 months of pro-democracy protests at the Tiananmen Square, on 4th Jun 1989, 20 years ago, the China government sent in the People's Liberation Army, and scores of people were killed or injured. Estimates from official and non-official sources ranged from the hundreds to the thousands, including both protestors and soldiers.

20 years have passed since its passing, and the chinese government remains silent about its wrongdoing, and the massacre is a forbidden topic in China's media and education curriculum, resulting in its younger population to be ignorant of the protests.

In Hong Kong, Chief Execute Donald Tsang made some silly remarks of how the protests should be assessed in view of China's (and Hong Kong's) economic development since the snuffed protests. My favourite band my little airport responded with a song and told Donald Tsang, please die.

We won't forget.

Favourite Song #6 - French navy - Camera Obscura

I first heard this new song when Camera Obscura performed in Singapore. 

It's an instant charmer. It starts all romantic about a week in a dusty library and meeting some french sailor by the moon on a silvery lake. By the second verse, things go all caustic when the sailor, albeit with dietary restrictions, said he loved her with a lot of convicton. Still, Tracyanne remained lovey goey because the sailor had looks that made her go 'oooooh'. Alas, the rational half of her wanted to control love and knew she would be critized for letting him break her heart.

Yes, all that going on in one song. Ain't it just great? And the melody's good too!

Here's Tracyanne in Singapore. Cute white swan brooch spotted.

Favourite Song #5 - Mind your own business - Delta 5

To those christian fundamentalists who hijacked Singapore's foremost gender equality organization AWARE, who are less concerned about women's rights and more interested to propagate their indivduals-destroying and families-breaking anti-queer beliefs, this song's for you.

Just because the takeover of AWARE is constitutional, doesn't make it right!

Read about this pivotal event in Singapore's history here and here.

Favourite Song #4 - I think we're alone now - The Spinto Band

If there ever was a bubblegum ode to teenage sex, this might be it. The orginal's by Tommy James and the Shondells but I first heard Tiffany's 80s teen pop sing-along and loved it (and still love it). There's just something irresistible about not heeding the grown-ups' advice, yeah? The Spinto Band's power pop renditon kept the song's original sweetness. Apparently The Pipettes did a grrrl group version too.

And if you ever wonder if gays and lesbians had it better in the US of A, here's the proof. Damn.

Favourite Song #3 - Lay your head down - Keren Ann

Thankfully, all was not gloom this weekend as I finally listened to Keren Ann's fifth album, first all English one, which I bought real cheap in Beijing a few month ago. On this velvety Sunday morning, I popped the CD into the player and immediately fancied the second song 'Lay your head down'. Yes, I could love I thought in the swell of handclaps and ba-ba-bas.

Favourite Song #2 - Microcastle - Deerhunter

Listing Dennis Cooper as an influence, the album art of Deerhunter's album cover picture of a teenage boy, hair tousled, lips parted and having a skull for eyeball, is the perfect portrait of the many young boys preyed on, abused and damaged by the careless and cruel adults in Cooper's stories. Similarly, the title song Microcastle decribes some sort of Stockholm syndrome situation where the separation of pain and warmth is unclear, and things just goes on and on where the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning. Musically, the song starts near-acapella with Cox's meandering mumbled vox and then interrupted by a deafening onslaught of guitars and drums. Not unlike Carpenter's Goodbye to Love.

I picked up Pet Conspiracy and Monokino in Beijing

I was in Beijing in Dec, found time away from work and picked up these two electro groups which are either based in Beijing and/or features Chinese artists.

Not bad at all.

Pet Conspiracy
I like the song 'Design'. Kinda like W.I.T.' s 'Hold me, touch me' while the song 'Depot' reminds me of 欧阳菲菲 for the indie kids

Monokino
A bit 'Morr' rock from this Chinese-German three-piece.