http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2008/04/30/2003410585
CD REVIEWS: TAIWAN
Adventurous listeners will appreciate Kou Chou Ching’s (拷秋勤) first
full-length record, Kou! It’s Coming Out!!! (拷!!出來了!!), a two-CD
set that successfully fuses traditional Taiwanese musical sounds with
hip-hop music.
The group mostly raps in Hakka and Hoklo, two Chinese languages that
flow nicely on top of hip-hop rhythms, in comparison to the stiff inflections
of Mandarin.
The record has two very different moods: the first CD — the band’s musical
statement on Taiwanese culture, has a folksy, down-to-earth feel with its
emphasis on traditional music samples. The second CD is basically a modern
re-mix of the first CD, recast in a range of different hip-hop and
electronica styles.
Sampling old recordings and traditional music can come across as gimmicky,
but Kou Chou Ching manages to avoid this with a strong mix. MoShang does a
good job of drawing out the musicality of each sample — for example, the
droning riffs of the suona (嗩吶), a trumpet-like instrument, and the ruan
(阮), a two-stringed lute, fit nicely with the beats and enhance the groove
on many of the tracks.
The album is impressive because each half — one traditional and one modern
— could stand on its own as a separate record. For the sake of comparison,
however, the first CD lacks cohesion in some places — some of the longer
dialogues between songs disrupt the album’s musical flow. The second CD
sounds more dynamic, as each track flows together seamlessly.
Web site: www.kou.com.tw.
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只是想發揚台灣文化
http://www.kou.com.tw
[拷秋勤]
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