weekiversary, and update on...Everything!

“Bonjour Mesdames, Monsieur, here’s your industrious technician reporting on the latest updates…” (‘Oh spare us…’) Hehe but I am afraid I am very compelled to; it is merely a week since the ensemble was born, and I can barely believe how fast this little alcove gets this live and buzzing with life. Zhu and I have been revamping the place again on this weekiversary, and the newly added features are—

- New members and members’ profile, see zhu’s post or the link in top column of sidebar.
- Permalink to individual post, at bottom of each post.
- Took out the autoplay function in the radio, so that you don’t have to listen to the same song every time you enter. Turn the knob on the radio yourself~!
- And with that, a new, superb radio! Check it out!

Now, allow me to get a bit excited over this newly found gem…radio No.4 has really great picks, not just in diversity of genre/artist (jazz, blues, rock, alternative, folk, what-have-you), not just in language (English, French, Spanish (if am not wrong), Hindi (or a similar language)…), but the number of items in it is also…staggering. It could sustain me for at least three days. So allow me to introduce some of my much adored artists featured in this long, alphabetically ordered super-radio.

Billie Holliday – I’ll be seeing you
One of the greatest and most influential jazz singers, Billie’s melodious and often melancholic voice would hypnotize you, enchant you, and leave her lingering sounds in your heart for very long. A bit of her dramatic life and career here on wikipedia.

Cocteau Twins – Alice
If you appreciate the early works of Faye Wong, notably Impatience [Fu Zao], you should be aware of the influences of artists like Cocteau Twins and Bjork on Faye’s dreamy, nonchalant and chanting way of interpreting songs. ‘Alice’ might not be a best illustration of that, but it sure makes an interesting listening.

Damien Rice – the blower’s daughter
Ah my new favorite, I’ll do a longer post on him later…for now, let’s just say, if you watched Closer (the critically acclaimed movie of 2005, staring Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen), if you remember the ending scene of a glowing Natalie walking down the street, you’d sure remember the poignant song that accompanied it. The music and words put shudders and goose bumps all over me when I first watched the movie—only particular, wonderful kinds of songs do that to me—and this is one of them. Listen to it.

Gabriel Yared – Betty Blue
Mr. Yared has been the one of the common favourite of zhu and me ever since we sat watching The English Patient together. His composition seems to always have that inexorable power to instantly transport the ear drums, together with the rest of which attaches to it, to another time-space, often the exotic, the quaint, the melodramatic, and the most moving. His prominent work in movie soundtrack include The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain, City of Angels, L’amant (The Lover, of Duras’ novel), Camille Claudel (critically acclaimed biofilm of Rodin’s lover, a most talented sculptress), and a whole lot of French films that I haven’t a chance to see. ‘Betty Blue’ was for the French movie of the same name (or ’37.2 degres Le Matin’, its original French title), and though I can’t say it fully exhibits the power of Gabriel Yared’s scores, it is a very fitting item to the movie (if you have seen it.) Compared to other great music composers like John Williams or James Horner, I’d think Gabriel Yared’s no less great, if not more full of delights and wonders of his own kind. Overall: highly recommended. See Wikipedia entry, and Official site (also contained in sidebar).

Indochine – le grand secret
This is a famous French rock band, christened after the French colony in Indochina. I knew little about them, except they are a cool looking bunch of lads, write their own songs and lyrics, and has quite a following in France. ‘Le grand secret’ sounds kinda soft and tender with the guest female singer, which I totally adore, but I am sure they have more rocky stuff up their sleeves. I’ll check them out personally…

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Arrrhhhh I am seriously overshooting the length I set for myself…sighs, ladies and gentleman, watch this space for update part 2 then…

Coming: Keren Ann, Yann Tiersen, and more..