Customer Reviews

Jun Ray Song Chang

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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

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...

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!

I admit, "Hana," the first track on Asa-Chang & Junray's album JUN RAY SONG CHANG, blows me away. Against a backdrop of cinematic strings comes a Japanese spoken word piece, both male and female, regular and distorted, perfectly accompanied with a tabla. As the voices speed up, so do the strings. Beautifully bizarre. The rest of the album doesn't quite live up to the promise in "Hana," though, though the circus-on-acid "Preach" and the freaky festival of "Goo-Gung-Gung." Much of the album seems to be examining the textures of the Japanese language itself, stretching it and cutting it up, with some tracks more successful than others. "Kobana" simply seems to be a restatement of "Hana," with a harmonica instead of strings, but "Jippun" speeds us through a swirling landscape, with bits of shakuhachi floating on the surface, finally puncturing the surface with a scat-like vocal. "Kokoni Sachiari" is all organized clutter, with heavy metal feedback and folksy plucking all in the same track. What a way to take Japan into the future!

first off...great cover design! the printing combined with the paper stock on this digipack is exquisite! i often study the patterns and overlapping colours of this package with admiration. now the music...tough to describe and impossible to catagorize. it's certainly electronic in nature...but with a wild exotic twist. there are lots of tablas in each song which gives it an indian feel in the percussion department. but then each tabla seems to be rigged to trigger a female japanese voice to speak whenever a beat is hit. that alone makes it a completely unique listening experience. but there are other factors involved here...rainstorm field recordings, twangy surfy guitar, trumpet, and samples (courtesy of the Boredom's yoshimi p-we). it's a strange cd that displays a true sense of genius, not just in the songwriting, but in the rhythmic sensibilities. a great sense of timing and a unique feeling. i cherish this cd (and the "Tsu Gi Ni Pu" mini ep which amazon doesn't seem to carry) but i often wonder about the staying power of this duo. the formula they've concocted may come across as too much of a gimmick if they continue making future music in this same style. but what a great first step they've made!

I just heard "Hana" on the radio. The strings in "Hana" (i.e. the cool part of the song) are taken from Sade's song "Pearls" on Love Deluxe. Loop the cool strings, add weird vocals and totally incongruous bongos, and hey, you've created an original song! Just kidding. I'm all for reasonable sampling--this however is a music rip-off (see related: Crazytown, "Butterfly").