THOMAS PODVIN’S FREELANCE WORK
Freelance writer - translator - Editor

This record is a third in a series of classy compilations of urban electro and downtempo bar music, designed to give listeners a taste of the dance scene from an Asian capital (Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong). Clubbers may take a bite of the Shanghai bun (on the cover) to taste this regional specialty, but shouldn’t expect to find local electronica here. Why? Because the Pearl of the Orient is a melting-pop of sounds. Which is the main selling point of this assemblage phunnily mixed by Kenneth Phun, if you’ll excuse the phun. This CD’s list of soulful club-house tracks serve as a reminder of the city’s former foreign settlements: Hanna Hais’ “Doucement” from France; Colette’s “Feeling Hypnotized” from the US, Shik Stylko & Virginia’s “Feels So Right” from Germany and Stonebridge’s “Show You How” from the Netherlands. However multifarious, this 2-CD release (Disc one: the original version; Disc two, the “Club Heaven Mix” – by far the better) contains ten tracks and two options: Relax with the downtempo cuts or shake your hips with the club house numbers. Perfect for Xintiandi night owls, The Trendy certainly doesn’t prove Shanghai is the Pearl of Oriental Electronica; it does however, provide clubbers with a map of the city’s beats.
High Note Records

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
May 2006 issue

With Five Primary Elements, Beijing-based sound designer Wang Fan offers one hour of pure meditation, a piece of soothing electronica where nature speaks; no break beats or high-frequency BPM tempos here. Much like being lost in a tropical forest, with all the modern comforts – naturally. Wang is a composer and vocalist, a pioneer in China’s experimental/improvised music scene. Born in 1970 in Lanzhou, Gansu province, he relocated to Beijing in 1996. The same year the self-taught minimalist noise-maker created China’s first formal experimental music piece. Ten years later, he’s still at it, experimenting and mingling sounds together. On this release, Wang has ventured out of town, out of Beijing at least. The CD is filled with the sounds of nature: flowing water, singing birds, quivering leaves and Buddhist bells, woven, with no small degree of poetry, into a synth matrix. At the seventeenth minute, ethnic vocals and drums offer a semblance of melody. At the twenty-fifth minute, the human voice is exchanged for the sound of wind. At the forty-seventh minute, one hears reeds bending in the wind. In a world of facile pop purée, Wang’s experimental music offers an alternate reality we should all meditate on. That is if music, in any form, doesn’t interfere with your cosmic vibes.
Kwanyin Records

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
May 2006 issue

In the West, circa mid-1970s, rock music was ridden with arthritis. Little wonder then that a new generation of musicians turned to nihilistic punk. Thirty years later, such posturing is at best laughable, at worst, bizarre. Fortunately, the punkoid foursome Joyside, established in 2001 in a Beijing basement, presents a tribute to the punk ethos rather than a caricature. Even if they might bring a smile to the faces of the originals. Joyside have the Sex Pistol’s attitude down pat with their messy, greasy hair and beer fragrance. And their music is equally crude. The sound, as you’ve no doubt gathered by now, is basic raw punk, created by Xin Shanug’s three-chord-guitar riffs and Bian Yuan’s much-abused voice. It sounds authentic: noisy, loud, and, like the Pistols, surprisingly melodic. That said, explicit lyrics are Joyside’s main asset. Numbers like “I Want Beer” and “I Wanna Piss Around You” say it all. Or almost all. There’s rebellion too – “I Don’t Care About your Society”, and a nod to the band’s great inspiration: “The Saviour Johnny Rotten”. But that was then. This is now. Joyside’s latest release -- the demo B_tches of Rock’n’ Roll – is less raw, more over-produced pop. Which is to say it’s an improvement. Less vicious than Sid, and less rotten than Johnny.
Modernsky/Badhead

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
May 2006 issue

It’s likely that in the last few months, more has been written about the Arctic Monkeys than any other band, anywhere. Such is the benefit (or curse) of being the flavor of the moment. The Monkeys, like many another pop wonder, are in the right place, at the right time. With the right sound. In this case, 41-minutes of rock frenzy, including husky vocals and whirling guitar riffs. The twenty-somethings from Sheffield – an industrial wasteland in North central England – have, of course, plenty to say for themselves, at least if one is to judge by the length of their song and CD titles. The band’s tone is witty and humorous, in spite of the pervasive sense of suburban ennui. An ennui that the listener can forgive after viewing the grim photos of the lads’ hometown included in the CD booklet. No wonder lead singer/guitarist Alex Turner is a gloomy sort; his rhyming lyrics are delivered in a chanting voice which suggests reality is bad and self-removal from such better. In contrast, the music produced by this indie/Brit-pop quartet is balm for the soul, not unlike that of The White Stripes, Frantz Ferdinand or, at times, the Pixies. Less pompous than Oasis and more fun than Pulp, Arctic Monkeys lives up to the hype.
Domino Records

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
May 2006 issue

Chinese electronic-music artist Zhu Jianhui (aka Double Fish), 25, is fond of contemporary global culture, hacker aesthetics, art, breakcore and IDM (intelligent dance music). In early 2002, he released his first experimental music single enclosed in the magazine I Love Rock ‘n Roll. In June 2004, he founded the independent-label Reconfiguration Records in Guangzhou, the aim of which is to promote avant-garde, independent and experimental arts, and provide a platform for artist collaborations. Since then, Zhu has released a series of EPs and LPs and organized a number of musical events to promote this unusual scene. In August 2004, he launched a conceptual electronic-music collection by artists from Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland and Poland called “The Sound of Silence Project”. In 2005, Zhu, who knows no boundaries, released the EP Hackers on the Polish label Audiotong Records, and participated in several compilations released under his own label (Hey!!! Let’s break, V.A landscape 2). On Inter Net, Zhu, uses virtual drum machine, synth, effect processors and sound loops, to create a piece of relaxing, atmospherical downtempo music timed precisely at 20:05-minute (the year of its release, 2005). With samples reminiscent of early 1990s videogames’ sound effects, Inter Net is a strangely easy-listening piece of avant-garde-ish electronica.
Reconfiguration Records/Bedzoo/available at www.reconfiguration-records.com

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
May 2006 issue

(c) that's Guangzhou
Guanzhou Chief editor: Christopher Cottrell
May 2006 issue

At 48, Madonna Ciccone has returned to her first love: catchy, uncontroversial dance numbers, the sort she might have heard early in her career as a dancer with French Disco King Patrick Hernandez. Confessions samples disco classics (“Hung” samples ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!”) and with the help of a number of talented collaborators, attempts to create what may just be some future classic pop-disco dance numbers. On her tenth studio album, Madonna has enrolled the services of France’s DJ Stuart Price and multi-talented electronic-music artist Mirwais Ahmadzai, as well as Sweden’s pop-music producers Bloodshy & Avant and Bagge & Peer. The result is surprisingly good: “Get Together”, “Hung” and “Sorry” are brilliant. And we’re not sorry Madonna has given up the pompous, political pose and prose of her previous album American Life. The CD’s facile lyrics are easy to remember, even for non-English speakers (“I Like New York”). What’s more, Madonna seems to have rediscovered her sense of humor. On “Like it or Not” she sings: ‘You can love me or leave me cause I never gonna stop.’ Yes, the Material Girl is back. And still fit. She literally and figuratively does the splits: from retro to neo, from disco’s glory days to futuristic electronica/pop music.
WEA international

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
May 2006 issue

(c) that's Guangzhou
Guanzhou Chief editor: Christopher Cottrell
May 2006 issue