MP3 78bpm - Red Moon

Downtempo with traditional Chinese instruments

11 MP3 Songs
ELECTRONIC: Down Tempo, HIP HOP/RAP: Trip Hop

Red Moon Songs


Details:
78bpm is the foremost downtempo band of Taiwan. Who are the musicians behind the band-name?
78bpm are Mr.78(Huang Yi-Chin)¡BSu¡BKeith and Selena .
You call yourself as "open electronic operation platform", rather than a "band". What does that mean exactly?

We remember our group is very different from a traditional ¡*band¡¨. In tradition ,a ¡*band¡¨ has a outspoken one or two guitar player , bassist and drummer. Every one has he¡¦s frozen position in the band. 78bpm don¡¦t. For example , in the new songs we¡¦re working , Su(guitar) host the drum machin ,and Mr.78 play the guitar. The other reason for "open electronic operation platform" means anything could happen here . Inclouding fire dancers, traditional instrument master , contempotary painter¡K¡K.
Your debut album is called "Red moon". Are the tracks so cold and stark we could imagine it from the moody album cover?

NO ,they are not cold .They are dark ,but no cold. Our darkness is kind of warm feeling .It means everyone do have his darkside. That¡¦s ok .We admit that. We enjoy it. Sometime we feel the too-bright and happy-sweet stuff is so fake , like a lie.

There is very subtle use of traditional taiwanese instruments on the album, giving a great spice to the music. It was a determined idea to put in this ethnic feel, or it came naturally in the process of composing?

We want something very fresh and easy to identify itself . We¡¦re in Taiwan . Eastern culture is softer and deeper than modern western culture .So does these traditional instruments .We find out some traditional instruments are perfect mach with dowentempo music. But we don¡¦t want it everywhere.
78bpm won two awards so far: it was Best Indie Music at the Ho-Hai-Yo Awards 2002 and was nominated among the 20 best chinese albums by MCB magazine in 2002. How did these awards change the everyday life of the band? Is it important for an indie group to get nominated for such awards?

Actually ,it changes nothing .Yes ,more people know us .But it change nothing ,no matter our attitude o music or life.

How do you put on stage this kind of downtempo music, how do you mix live electronic sequences, contemporary and traditional instruments?

This is real the point we are trying to work it better now. Before ,we play tracks in laptop with some live instrument on stage .But now we want more possibilities when we doing live .So we¡¦re working with a real drummer now.

78bpm is accompanied by video-dj Flo and fire-dancers Heike and A-Boa during live events. Are multimedia performances important for playing live your music?
Yes they are .Electronic music concert is very different form a rock or pop concert which have a idol ,or a main visual focus-point .We find out the audience need more help to get into the music .And we love all these art performing too.

Tell us something about the electronic music scene in Taiwan. We know of you, DJ Ty, Lin Chung, KBN - how do the bands interact with each other, how is the scene working?
Surprise ! You do know some artists in Taiwan ! These names you mention are all our friends. Electronic music scene here is still very small . Everybody almost knows each other. The good thing of this is people do help a lot when you try to do something .The bad thing is it¡¦s really too small.

What are your plans in the near future? Will live performing be the most important, or are you working on a new album?

We¡¦re working on 2 new songs which will be used in the coming Silent Agreement¡¦s foremost compilation on April. The other thing is preparing our tour in Mainland China on May. We¡¦ll have gigs in Beijing,Shanhai,Gounjo ,and HongKong.We are so excited about this coming tour.