I’m not a lifelong Dead Can Dance fan, but I’ve been listening to some of their music recently. It’s engaging and provocative. I felt something similar the first time I started getting into Nick Drake. The music is completely different, obviously, but it has that same quality of being able to stir up a range of emotions in a listener. The albums I have been listening to are more than 20 years old, but you wouldn’t know it.
The video to the piece “The Host Of Seraphim” is powerful. Perhaps it won’t be to everyone’s taste, but watch it and tell me what you think.
I make a habit of buying as much Thai music as I can. The low cost of CDs means that I can buy a few every week and not really notice the expenditure. There’s also a weird satisfaction in confusing store cashiers, who seem to find it hilarious that a foreigner could even comprehend buying Thai music.
Lately, I’ve been buying albums based on cover artwork. It’s kind of like a musical lottery – sometimes I end up with indie music, sometimes ska, sometimes country music. Here are my tips for decent Thai music that I’ve been listening to recently.
I don’t know much about the Richman Toy, but they’re a four-piece who look like the sort of kids you see at Happy Alone parties in Bangkok. The music of the Richman Toy is really exciting, although it sounds like a Thai carbon copy of everything that’s vogue in the current indie scene. The vocalist sounds almost off-key, although I’m told that Thai scales differ to Western scales, so he may be on the ball. If you can find anything by the Richman Toy then I recommend you buy it. The album I have is called Dan Sawan Koi You.
I bought T-Bone’s album Seasons because I liked the cover. The music turned out to be really good, too. It’s kind of ska, jazz, blues, rock and everything in between. T-Bone have been around for more than 10 years, so I was a little embarrassed to have never heard of them, but am glad to have finally picked up an album that breaks the mold in the current music scene.
My final tip for Thai music is Four Mod. No, it’s not really. It’s Bear-Garden. Bear-Garden is June Subnai, a female vocalist signed to Panda Records. She’s released four albums and is currently releasing her fifth one track at a time for free music download through the Panda Records website. Bear-Garden makes the most beautiful pop music I’ve heard for a long time. You’ll either love it or you’ll hate it.
I’ll leave you with the video for “No Regrets” from the new Silly Fools album, The One. This video was made by Andre Weiss, who I met a few times in Bangkok and had no idea he did this kind of thing. Enjoy.
Now this is a music video. I haven’t seen a video this intense for as long as I can remember. It’s disturbing and incredibly well executed. See it to believe it. This is “Stress” by Justice.
Despite being the dullest band on the planet, the Stereophonics have an unusually large following in Thailand. The Welsh trio will be in Bangkok this Saturday. If that isn’t enough to overwhelm you, they will be playing on a boat.
Not only is the event free, but Modern Dog will be supporting. The frustrating thing about this concert is that you won’t be able to watch the early bands and then make a swift exit before the main act start – not unless you fancy a swim.
The event is titled “Bangkok 100 Rock The Uncensored”. As far as I can tell, it’s organized by the same people who brought Ian Brown and Oasis over in 2006. Now that was a concert.
To register for one of 4,000 free places on the concert boat, go to http://www.100community.com/ and try and figure out how to navigate the website. Failing that, stay at home this Saturday.
I’m unsure if the boat will actually leave Klong Toey Port or if it will be docked for the duration of the show.
“Break the Ice” isn’t a bad pop song, but it’s the video that caught my eye. The video is done in the style of an animé. It’s all very “Ghost in the Shell” for my liking, but it’s definitely more watchable than the majority of music videos I’ve watched recently.
The video seems to have little to do with the song, which is a point of annoyance for some music fans, but the vast majority of music videos from the pop world have only vague connections to the songs.
Britney’s video for “Break the Ice” is totally cliché, but it’s interesting. Robert Hales directed the video. He also dircted the video for Justin Timberlake’s “LoveStoned”, which is a great pop record in itself.
What do you think? Video innovation or a failed attempt?
