Jun Ray Song Chang

Asa-Chang & Junray | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 17, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: The Leaf Label
• ASIN: B000067UCW
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #426,571 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Off-the-wall as a norm for centered being., July 18, 2003

By 

Phil Avetxori - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jun Ray Song Chang (Audio CD)

What do you get when you combine chattering, idiosyncratic tabla rhythms, squelchy analog electronics, and a drunken, back alley vibe worthy of early 80s Tom Waits? Asa-Chang & Junray deliver just such a concoction. Surprisingly, it goes down smooth and tastes remarkably sweet. As bands like Cornelius, the Boredoms, and Ground Zero have demonstrated, the Japanese have a knack for taking aspects of widely disparate musical styles and mashing them into garish, technicolor hybrids. Like Acid Mothers Temple, Asa-Chang and Junray take their assortment of influences and stretch, splice, and mutate them into an individual language. Unlike AMT, A-C & J don't have their image invested in a particular era. Despite the predominance of tablas, there are no cutesy pomo references to Indian culture. In the absence of a conceptual agenda, hybridity becomes an identity in and of itself. The key to the group's unique sound is found in the arrangments, where changes in various instrumental and vocal sounds seem to automatically trigger changes in others. Zig-zagging tabla runs are shadowed by spoken word vocals, and hairpin rhythmic stops cause electronic tones to slide up or down a scale. Orchestral backdrops suddenly shift in tone without changing timbre, like a sheet of sound being whipped about in the breeze, its shadows and contortions changing continuously despite the static print. I can state with confidence that this disc is like nothing else you've ever heard. Its alien beauty seems to be indicative of a new era, where the visible seams of postmodern pastiche have given way to nomadic hybridity as a natural state. The cultural tributaries that have rapidly converged with the advances in global communications technologies of the last couple of decades have created an environment where a group with seemingly incompatible influences can create a sound that simultaneously evokes manic exploration, and a relaxed conversation among friends

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Different Language, January 13, 2003

By 

"apple_port" (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jun Ray Song Chang (Audio CD)

I heard Hana(flower) for the first time in dublab.com's Ten Elements Show and felt like struck by a lightning. Far from conventional categories and styles, and alienating fusion experiments, it invites you to the unexplored territories in audio experience. Contrary to King Solomon, something new under our old sun. Frankly, that is all I can utter as a translation of musical experience into words. Listen and think...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hana Is Overwhelming., March 16, 2009

By 

J. Hubi (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jun Ray Song Chang (MP3 Download)

The track Hana was so overwhelming for me. When I first heard the track on last.fm. I had such a emotional explosion. One in which only a rare few songs make me feel. I am a huge fan of Daft Punk, I love techno, French Touch, House, and Disco but this song is a must, no matter what type of music you prefer.

This song never fails to lift me into such a emotional state of mind. Simply magnificent!