I wanted to write about asian music in general, but that’d be a bit too much at once. Furthermore, i already wrote about japanese music (even though my view since then changed in a few points), and i didn’t look for any mongolian, korean, indian and so on music, only chinese and vietnamese, after i stumbled upon an indonesian ska band on a blog. However, if you happen to know any music, literally any, it doesn’t have to be asian, it could be south american or arabic as well, i don’t mind the language and the style as long as it’s good and my kind of music. Check my last.fm profile for what i like, or just read on, what kind of music i found. By the way, if you’re on last.fm, and know me, feel free to add me as a friend.

First from Indonesia, then. The band is tipe-x, and i mostly listen to their Journey album. Before any misunderstanding would arise, i don’t understand a word of what they’re singing (except those few international phrases, that probably pop up without anyone realising), and this goes for all the music i’m writing about tonight. Tipe-X is ska, or something along those lines, and i like it. Fast, catchy, exotic, what else would i need? The only bad point is that there are a couple of recurring themes on this one album, but this might be on intention. Since i don’t understand the lyrics, i don’t get the connections between the songs or the story, if there’s any. It’s also interesting that i thought i heard a few tunes common with a bulgarian folk song…

I found UnlimiteD from Vietnam thanks to Szandi, on a YouTube user’s page full of vietnamese music. Their UnlimiteD Symphony concert dvd is simply amazing, they perform with an orchestra in the background, and play great music. I wondered if i could take metal, especially symphonic metal seriously if i heard it in vietnamese, and the answer is a huge yes. This is simply good.

I had a hard time finding a chinese band to write about here, but thanks to the help of a great knower of chinese rock, i found 小雨 (no idea how to read it in chinese), a female fronted symphonic-melodic kind of metal band. I first had to get used to how they balance the vocals and the instruments, but then, wow. The vocalist has an amazing voice, and their song Sound of destiny is “instant love”. Not to mention that when one of the guys is singing as well, he makes it even better. And as presented in the title song of their 林中楼阁 album (among others), when it comes to english, it sounds just as good. Although they don’t seem to be popular yet, i found my chinese favourite…