you can listen here.

i have a funny feeling that bondy has heard of 2v1g's version of tempting heart (xin dong) ;-)

bondy chiu hock-e strikes again! the follow-up to her successful debut "listen", this time it is called "listen, listen" will be out in late september!

i am certainly impressed with ms.chiu's fast-paced production. it shows that with money and dedication, one can churn out album after album... unlike yours truly who is still struggling with 2v1g's sophomore album :-(

the special edition of the album was on sale during this month's AV show in hong kong. this time bondy sings in mandarin.

watch out for it at you favourite record store!

I first saw him sing on Astro AEC 9.30pm weekdays, Fei Yu Ching Show and I was gob smacked! Here's a neatly dressed fella, slightly gayish in appearance and when he sang those old, classic mandarin tear jearkers, he really connect with the song and touches his audience, well, at least me.

I have recently seen his CDs started appearing on ABC Records HD Mastering series, I bought it at first chance. I think this is a compilation of some his better works over the years and it shows.

HD Mastering aside, this CD has plenty of showcase for how a brilliant recording artist's work, being destroyed by the recording engineers! Fei Yu Ching should just find a new team, for which I think he did, as some of the songs weren't too shabby after all. Now if it wasn't for the brilliant voice and performing style, for which I think is very good, wouldn't have made it here.

I guess there's only so much HD Mastering could do with a bad source!

Get it for the songs only(if you like Tsai Ching's earlier CDs, like Lau Ge, I think you'd like this too).

some singers are destined for greatest but because of certain factors like age and luck, they couldn't make it in the commercial pop scene. it is then for some really sharp-eyed producers to pick them up and make them into audiophile singers. i have been waiting for years for bondy chiu hock-e (赵学而) to release an audiophile album. my wish has come true. i believe i am the first one to pick up this album.

this has the making of the best canto audiophile album of 2008. you can throw away your mimo lo, susan wong, le mon and all those canto singers in the past.

review to come.

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yes, this one is a keeper.

bought it last night and have been spinning non-stop since.

if anne murray is a piece of hifi then she simply has the most gorgeous tone. in this fabulous cd, she even has a "ghostly" duet with dusty springfield in "i just fall in love again", this track itself worthy of the cost of this US-pressed CD.

trust me, one you read the liner notes where the 12 different iconic female legends (including carole king, sarah brightman, ONJ, k.d.lang, shelby lynne, shania twain) expressed their feelings of excitement in collaborating with anne murray, you would be so moved that you want to read it over and over again.

2v1g will be covering anne murray's "you needed me" in NBT gig in october and the duet here with anne murray and shania twain is the best source of reference for us.

the producer is phil ramone.

review to come.

as usual, news travel a little late to bolehland - i only discovered this last week when jo ki (our local ls3/5a guru) recommended it to me.

as usual, malaysian record shops don't carry it.

can some kind souls from SG buy it for me and i will pay you back?

i have heard some of the songs and love them. shelby does justice to dusty springfield's classics.

i want, i want, i want.

i have been a big fan of wong kar wai since "the days of being wild" - one of my all-time-fave movies - starring the inimitable leslie cheung and the classy maggie cheung. just like quentin tarantino, wong has a way with his camera but few actually know that wong's movies always boast of good soundtracks.

wong's "in the mood for love" introduced me to nat king cole. i fell in love instantly with nat's spanish classics like "quizas, quizas, quizas" and "te quiero, dijiste". music like this conjures up visions of endless nights of passion and eternal love stories. (think falling in love with salma hayek ;-) i just can't get enough of them.

truth is, i don't own any of nat's spanish albums, except for one cover album done by hong kong's TIS (audiophile label). aren't i happy to discover this from taiwan! apparently, producer mark pearce wants to refresh nat's spanish repertoire so he ropes in famous DJ lenny ibizzare to add some rhythm and beats to the music, the result of which is a modernized nat king cole! the remastering is done by big-time japanese audiopile label, s2s (not SS2, my dear!), who has done really well with many hot-selling audiophile titles.

but when i press on the playlist, i was greatly disturbed by the intruding beats!

i really don't need the "special" rhythm to modernize the songs, do you, dear readers?

it is not easy for an uncle like me to catch up with the latest music, without listening to radio and reading music magazines. i must say, i am not doing a bad job at all. at least, i still listen to/can appreciate colbie caillat and now jason mraz, when most of my peers have stopped buying cds since 1990. (most of them are still stuck with alan tam and air supply, what a disgrace!)

while we are at it, i picked up a copy of jason mraz and then realized that the song "i'm yours" is the rave of in the local airwaves!

the uncle in me finds jason's music largely palatable but too poppish for prolonged consumption.

review to come...

2 new audiophile CDs worth checking out in yes asia.



[1] lowell lo [盧冠廷] - 08 suddenly a magic moment

lowell, like teddy robin, is a veteran cantopop singer-songwriter who had his prime in the 80s. here, in simple one-voice-one-guitar acoustic format, lowell still manages to touch our hearts.

you can order here



[2] joanna wang [start from here] SACD

the sultry-voiced is a hot property in taiwan and hk now, with the expected success of her debut album [start from here].

pressed in japan, this SACD version has two extra songs added - paul simon's [50 ways to leave your lover] and the carpenters' [we've only just begun]。

you can order here

hot from the oven - alan tam's "best sound ever reborn" japanese pressing 24k gold disc limited edition.

selling at only RM66 at yes asia. if you buy more than one cd, shipping is free.

grab, grab, grab!

p/s interestingly, my duplication factory in HK (which i am going to use for 2v1g duplication) told me that for audiophile CDs, it is better to leave the silver surface (top) of the raw cd untainted, meaning leaving it blank except for logo and album title printing. i guess it has to do with how the laser pickup reads the cd. since they are the expert, i will heed their advice.

we bumped into mia palencia at no black tie last night and she told us that she has just released her debut solo album! check it out at popfolio

the album is recorded, mixed and mastered by her long-time partner roger wang, our guitar man for 2v1g as well.

mia is currently having a roadshow at major MPH bookstores nationwide.

[mia's profile]

Singer songwriter, jazz crooner, voice actor, public speaker and occasionally a theatre personality, Mia Palencia is a woman of many talents. She kicked off her career as the other half of well-known local jazz act Double Take at the age of 14, with whom she has released two albums.

She has sung for kings, travelled the world as a public speaker and a vocalist, and, most recently, begun exploring the world of cartoons as a voice actor.

Mia released her first solo single, 'Sayang' in September 2006. Her first solo album, 'Finding My Way', has been released in digital format on www.popfolio.net/miapalencia and is set to be launched in its physical form in April 2008.

i went to watch colbie caillat's (pronounced as "kay-lay") showcase in the curve tonight. i must say i fell in love with her simple and melodic music which conjures up images of clear skies and warm breezes.

i have heard about colbie few months back but i thought she is just another teeny-popper. but tonight she impressed me with her music, mostly acoustic folk, light pop/jazz that is easy on the ears. she has a unique voice. she is definitely better than jack johnson, the male singer she is often compared to.

colbie reminds me a lot of singapore's tanya chua (cai jian ya), one of the most talented singer-songwriters in the chinese pop scene.

i am going to get her album tomorrow!

roger wang is anxious about our out-of-this-world (gross exaggeration, actually) audiophile album. i told him that it has been delayed for 3 months due to some complex circumstances but we should be ready in may 2008. so readers who are interested, thanks for your patience.

at the same time, our guitar man recommends me to listen to gina panizales' debut album "finally" which is recorded, mixed and mastered by him. owners of double take's debut album should know how great an engineer roger is. roger is impressed with gina's voice. "very powerful", he asserted.

i am asking him to send me a complimentary copy so that i could review it.

extract from all dat jazz (www.alldatjazz.com)

Gina Panizales, Born and raised in Iloilo City, Philippines, her parents suggested a career for her far removed from singing that of an accountant. Gina took a degree in Commerce major in Accounting, took an administrative job in an office, but eventually found her naturally gifted voice leading her to do part time singing. It didn't take long before she knew it was her calling and joined a band leaving for Malaysia. Then there was no turning back.

She first performed in Kuala Lumpur, then Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta and has traveled to South America, Australia, UK, Turkey both to perform and watch other concerts/performances. One of her cherished moments was performing live at the Cotton Club in New York (a famous Jazz club since the 1930s that still exists in Harlem) with a 16-piece swing band.

alan tam, the godfather of hong kong cantopop, is going to re-record his best-selling and legendary 1984 album "the origin of love" [愛的根源], complete with orchestra and chinese instrumentation and the title of this new album is a pompous "the best sound ever reborn".

"the origin of love" is without doubt the single most successful and influential album of its time, spawning many memorable hits and breaking into charts and winning countless awards for alan tam.

certainly a good news to younger audiophiles but to purist like me, why not leave a classic as it is and leave the perfect memories intact? besides alam tam today is not alan tam of 1984, especially his aged vocal chord. look at how disastrous air supply's audiophile album is (see under music review).

i have mixed feelings....

the debate is getting hot, let's chill and have some cool music from joanna wang, the latest singer-songwriter from the land of many talents, taiwan. joanna has just released her debut english album and judging from this free listening sample (what a cool marketing idea using embedded HTML for blogs!), she is gonna be the next hot thing.

i am gonna hunt this album down when i visit tiny dot this friday, and already some of my friends are asking me to buy for them as well...

note: you can sample the songs below

the undisputed queen of chinese audiophile music is back with yet another smouldering hot audiophile cd! this time, cai qin covers classic hits by legendary singers such as jacky cheung, dave wang jie, angus tung and phil chang. anticipation runs highs as these songs are the best songs in the chinese pop history, can cai qin outdo the original singers?

from what we read, it is recorded in one-take using some esoteric microphone and mastering is done in germany.

is it another best-seller in the making? we are waiting with bated breath. watch out for a review here!

p/s i am organizing a group buy so that you can enjoy a good discount.... stay tuned!

remember the 70s hit tv sitcom "happy days" with ultra cool characters like fonzie and richie? were you even born then? haha. never mind, this fabulous cd brings back memories of those salad days....

mighty echoes are four guys who sing street corner acapella in the classic four-part style and their brilliant vocal arrangements and pristine recording puts the listener right on the corner with them...

i have fallen in love with this album even after listening to it just once ....

a proper review to come...

A bit out of sync, but still can tell how lovely she is!


After having too much of China girls, no pun intended, Olivia came in as a breath of fresh air! After getting her Fall In Love with Olivia, I went hunting for her previous works.

The purpose of buying good gears is to play good and well recorded CDs, after all, it was music that drive the passion in this hobby! I read this in Stereophile today, it read something like this, "We listen to music. On hifi."

Equipments or music, I love both!

zhang's sophomore album

zhang's debut album

despite being nominated in 4 categories (including best newcomer) in this year's taiwan golden melody awards, folk-pop singer-songwriter deserts zhang xuan (張懸) didn't win any awards. but it doesn't stop me from rating her debut album as one of the best recorded chinese pop albums of 2007.

read my previous review at http://desirableaudio.blogspot.com/search?q=zhang.

that recording has been a permanent feature in my demo. recorded in a live setting, it is full of raw energy and zing, with pristine guitar playing and airy ambience. friends of mine love it when i play it on my maggie.

zhang's sophomore album has just been released on 20th july and as usual, it will take months before it reaches our shore. if you can't wait, order online.

i certainly can't, after having tasted the excellent debut album.

gosh! it shows how long i haven't been in touch with mia palencia (she of the double take fame)! she had released her first malay single in september last year!

it sounds great to me. very ethereal; very unlike malay song. you can take a listen at:
http://www.miapalencia.com/pages/music.aspx#lyrics

better buy it before i get scolded by her for not supporting local artistes!