taiwan's indie queen extraordinaire

cheer chen.... best recording and best chinese album

the real joy of being a hardcore audiophile lies not in buying audiophile-approved cds (as they are mostly boring and soulless stuff) but discovering pop/indie cds that have supreme recordings.

introducing cheer chen qi zhen 陈绮贞 , the biggest indie artiste in the chinese music scene today. it may be a misnomer calling chen an indie singer since she has somewhat crossover appeal with the mainstream chinese pop music fans as well.

i will leave you to google her background. suffice to say that this 4th album, entitled "adventure" 华丽 的冒险 is her best todate, a tour-de-force of album that also wins my vote as the best chinese pop/indie album as well as best recorded chinese pop/indie album in the last decade. (note: as i speak, cheer chen has been nominated in the best female singer category, best album category and best production category in this year's prestigious golden melody awards - taiwan's answer to grammy awards - to be held on 10th june 2006).

some of you may not be literate in chinese but hey what's there to matter because the recording is so rich, raw, airy and sumptuous. recorded by taiwan's top recording engineer kenny and mastered by doug sax, this album is full of artistry yet never looses sight of pop sensibility. every song is a gem. every song is well crafted and immaculately produced.

a word of caution: if you are used to jay chou and lee hom variety, sorry you won't be able to appreciate this intellectual gem.

it has become mine and kc's favourite test cd to test a system's ambience, liveliness and presence factor. try track #11, the last track. if you can't produce the kick drum and upbeat tempo with aplomb, time to retune your system.

note: this album cover is the limited edition which is not available in malaysia. the normal version has blue cover.