Here is a fun discovery: the shazam phone app works surprisingly well at identifying the luuk thung songs favoured by Bangkok’s taxi drivers. The music in the city’s taxis is often quite good but up until now I have had no way of identifying the singers or ever hearing the songs again. Technology to the rescue!
So its come to this: my wild night out in Silom on this trip was a wingbean salad at Baan Ying, and an overpriced coffee on the terrace of the new Dean & Deluca, watching the world going by, and listening to Mariya Takeuchi. 😉
And offbeat, and pleasantly understated, song (and video) from K-pop royalty Lee Hyori.
It’s going to be a fun, sweaty Summer.
Tokyo house heroes Mondo Grosso with their new video, a virtual paeon to Hong Kong fimed in Quarry Bay and on Temple Street.
The ravishing, spectral beauty of Susanne Sundfor’s “Memorial”. What a song and what a talent! And below, the first track from her forthcoming new album “Music for People in Trouble”, titled “Undercover”.
More MPB from Mallu Magalhaes (above), Barbara Eugenia and Silva featuring the beautiful voice of old favourite Fernanda Takai.
African beats from Johannesubrg’s Batuk, and a Southern Sudanese-themed video.
The return of Thai pop star, Palmy.
And below, Japan’s Wednesday Campanella on the Mongolian steppes for “Melos”
Japanese band Wednesday Campanella, and their frontwoman KOM_I, try the hawker stores in Singapore.
One of the big names of young Brazilian music, Mallu Magalhães, is back with a lovely, summery and surprisingly traditional-sounding bossa nova number, Você Não Presta (You’re no good). The song also prompted me to go back to one of my old favourites of hers, Velha e Louca, below:
Miss that tacky Latin pop.
Ryo Fukui, who taught himself to play piano aged 22 and then released this album in 1976 and below, newer artist Takuya Kuroda.
Spring has well and truly broken with a Summer on its way. On the way home from work I hear birds playing and fighting in the trees, darting out of shrubs flying after each other in hot pursuit, while magpie chicks in dowdy foliage scratch in the grass. In the morning I am woken by a symphony of bird calls, and the long-missing night heron is back in the Wong Chuk Hang canal.
On the streets of Mong Kok this long weekend, pecs were bared in tank tops and people ambled amid the pungent smell of stinky tofu in bared legs and arms, sweating and happy in the sun.
And what better soundtrack to all of this than samba? Rapper Criolo has released a new samba record, available to download for free in its entirety at his website, the sound of a new Summer.
ilbonito blog 2007 