The sound of modern Asia. A melting pot of an album from a melting pot of a place. Inspired by ancient musical traditions and today's shrinking globe, a community of musicians and producers living in Singapore explores a wide range of styles.

17 MP3 Songs
WORLD: Asian, JAZZ: Smooth Jazz



Details:
Strange Land is the first in a series of compilation albums focusing on the current work of an international community of musicians and producers living in Singapore, a group of people of various races, ages, linguistic backgrounds, and musical talents.

Unique convergences take place in Singapore. As varied as is the talent pool in a place like Los Angeles, or Paris, or Tokyo, most of the music on Strange Land couldnât have been made anywhere but Singapore.

ARTISTS:

Julaiha is a 34-year-old Singaporean woman of Indonesian descent whose jazz-pop world music maintains a strong Indonesian influence.

âMy Answerâ is Julaihaâs recommendation for dealing with adversity. Its Malay lyrics are about bravery and acceptance. What sounds a little like Rap is the influence of Dikir Barat, a traditional Malay music-and-movement form.

The musical texture includes the sampled sounds of the Javanese Gamelan orchestra playing motifs from traditional pieces, and several subtle layers of Kalimba, the African âthumb pianoâ, played by Mohamed Noor Bin Syed Yakob. What sounds like a drum set is a box drum, which is exactly what its name makes it sound like. You might have seen one on American Idol â Singapore guys have been playing gigs with them for a long time, and Mohamed Noor started that. (His profile is below.)

Zapin Besok is a hip-hop-influenced âupdateâ of the traditional Malay music-and-dance form called Zapin, which is itself a localized âupdateâ of a middle-eastern form. Julaihaâs entirely improvised vocal floats between a wordless approach and the Arabic in which she prays.

My Answer and Zapin Besok are from Julaihaâs upcoming album, âBisikanâ.

Alemay is one of Singaporeâs rising jazz talents, but here lends her soulfulness to a happy dance track called âMessage Meâ, a love song for users of text messaging. (Texting is very popular in Singapore.) Alemay is a lovely Eurasian Singaporean in her twenties. She is single, teaches drama, and enjoys water-skiing.

Tachikoma 7 only writes music when heâs depressed, so itâs a good thing heâs depressed a lot. He names himself after a class of childlike robots in a Japanese anime series. They long for the day when they are grown up enough to be released from their guardians, and that is the inspiration for âWaiting For The Dayâ. When asked to put a name to the genre of this tune, Tachikomaâs answer was, âorganic-electro.â

Amy Azizah, Singaporeâs dancing queen of hip-hop, is an up-and-coming recording star in the Malay language. Here she sings in English, wondering where his head at.

Earl Norman, traveling producer-composer-instrumentalist, is an American whose Singapore experience has inspired volumes of challenging music. Two of his haunting short pieces are featured here.

Transformasi is an evolving polyglot band led by Shawn Letts, an Oklahoma native in his 18th year in Singapore. The band, a pop music project, is heavily influenced by Malay music, and âLookin For Another Youâ, in particular, is built on the rhythm of the Malaysian theatre of shadow puppetry, a dying art. So, a pop-jazz song-of-lost-love on a funky Asian rhythm bed.

On âHoneymoon With Demonsâ, Malay multi-disciplinary artist Mohamed Herman presents his own Malay lyrics and a Javanese childrenâs song in a futuristic context which makes them feel downright suspicious. His vocal effects are real, not electronic. The group shouts, horns and percussion were recorded on a portable DAT recorder in a hotel lobby in Cairo, Egypt during an Arab wedding party. This song scares some women and children and if youâre going to dance to it, youâll have to dance pretty fast.


âLookin For Another Youâ and âHoneymoon With Demonsâ are from the upcoming Transformasi album.

Mohamed Noor Bin Syed Yakob is one of Singaporeâs most accomplished and well-traveled musicians. A true multi-instrumentalist, he concentrates on drums and percussion. On âSemangat Utanâ (Malay for âSpirit of the Jungleâ), Mat Noor tunes the Kalimba, an African instrument, to an Indian scale and then takes a loosely Indian approach to improvising on it. His accompaniment is his own ravishing work on the Indian drums called Tablas and a wooden flute which he had never played before this one take. Mat Noor is currently creating an album with his band, âTribal Tideâ.

Richard Philip is a Singaporean singer-songwriter of Indian heritage. He counts Bob Marley and Dave Matthews as major influences, but he doesnât sound like anyone but Richard Philip. âBrotherâs Keeperâ is a response to a particular world problem, child abuse in Africa, but its basic message is broad and universal.

Producer-Writer-Bassman Will Wright of New York has considerable tenure in Singapore. In âJungle Jazzâ and âJust Chillinââ, Will creates moody, funky hip-hop-jazz and keeps it melodic while still allowing his bass playing to influence the writing. Only a hint of a faraway feeling betrays his location.

English DJ-producer Ben Galvin believes music, including his own, can change the world. In the case of his ongoing production project, FXion (pronounced like âaffectionâ), the world changes and we can dance to it. Singer Nazneen is a half-Malay, half Pakistani hottie.

âAmuletâ is inspired by the Malay music-and-movement form called âDikir Baratâ, in which a gender-specific group of hand-drummers and unison singers accompanies two lead singers (of the same gender, of course). Performances are ritualistic, but energy, humor, and improvisation within a framework are hallmarks. The unison singers perform rehearsed arm-and-hand movements which can be quite dazzling.

RAJA LAUT is a male Dikir Barat group, DIRGAHAYU is a female one, and Mohd. Herman is a superb solo singer in this very Arab-influenced style. Adi Gajah Putih (King White Elephant) is the leader of the guy group and the lovely Shariffah Widad is the leader of the girls. The leaders call, their respective groups respond. There is more to Dikir Barat than that. âAmuletâ is a fusion based on a conceptual âsnapshotâ of an art form, but the energy comes from the people and these people are the people. The song is the brag of one who possesses a âlucky charmâ and is therefore immune to most black magic.

âMeditationâ is a piece of music meant for meditation. The piano plays the part of the Saron players in a gamelan orchestra, the synthesized bass drone plays the part of the Tampura in an Indian ensemble, and the meandering melody is played on a succession of lovely keyboard samples of lovely Asian instruments. Woozyworld is a boring friendly guy who is always on time and has really short hair.