"Bloom" Audiophile Female Voices from pop pop music

At a time when most music labels are either considering closing business or opportunistically digging out tonnes of back catalogs to entice the last remaining buyers of CDs, local Chinese Jazz label pop pop music’s insistence of an all-new full-length album with 100% in-house production seems precious and noble.

“Bloom Vol .1”,  to be launched in the first week of august 2013, is the first ever various artiste compilation album from pop pop. You can say it is their own version of ”Audiophile Female Voices”, only with more class and consistency.

This is the only time where all their music stalwarts like Tay Cher Siang and Roger Wang come together under one roof with their 4 beautiful voices, namely Winnie Ho, Serena Chong (new member of 2V1G), Z Yan (Bossa Princess) and Lydia Chew (lead singer of JZ8).  It’s like their strongest statement to the market that they are still one of the premier Chinese Jazz audiophile music labels in the world.

Pop pop’s alternative thinking and alternative business model ensures their longevity in the cut-throat market where opportunistic-commercialism is the order of the day. Not only their albums sell in large quantities, their live shows also draw big crowd and loyal supporters.

For this all-important release, they engaged HK's leading audiophile engineer Kent Poon to do the mastering, indicating that apart from from their high-quality music, they demand the best in sound quality.

Regional distributors for this album are: InterGlobal (Malaysia), Joy Audio (Taiwan), More Music (Hong Kong), S2S (Singapore).

"Bloom" will be making its debut at next Friday (2nd August) Popular Book Fair @ KLCC Convention centre. Every CD comes with a unique serial number.

For more information, please visit http://poppopmusic.blogspot.com

Jazz CD Review : Bloom : Vol. 1 (綻放)

September 11, 2013


A celebration of of talents, maestros, devotees and beauties. A tour-de-force of the Malaysian Chinese Jazz scene.


After hours were spent listening to the latest CD, Bloom : Vol. 1 from local audiophile Chinese jazz label pop pop music, I'm finally able to post my thoughts on the CD. This is a compilation album featuring the label's ensemble group of talents; four female vocalists, Z Yan (欣彥), Winnie Ho (何芸妮), Serena (張盈慧), and Lydia (莉迪雅), Guitarist Roger Wang, and Pianist Tay Cher Siang.

According to pop pop music's CEO, Leslie Loh, this is a monumental milestone for his label. Bloom : Vol. 1 is the label's first compilation album, comprising of all brand new recordings. Every key process were meticulously chronicled on the company's blog, generating interest and keeping followers up to date. From the mastering process to the detailed album inlays, no expense were spared in the production of this audiophile CD.

The music

Bloom : Vol. 1 is split into two parts, side A and side B. Each part has its unique musical style. Side A, has a more light and easy acoustic panache; the hallmark of Roger Wang and his guitar. Side B thrives on Tay Cher Siang's sultry and funky arrangements; and involves more instruments.

The first three tracks, (The Sky, Living In Solitude, Flowery Words) featuring Winnie and Serena on vocals; and Roger Wang on guitar, were intended to hook listeners from the start, and succeeded at that. The intimacy of Winnie's vocal was well complemented by Serena's effortless melodious voice. It was a joy to listen to Roger on the guitar. One would mistake the presence of more than one guitar at times, but that is sheer evidence of his skillful finger-style plucking.

The following tracks (Autumnal Night, Those Flowers) features Z Yan sultry vocals and a harmonious ensemble of piano, drums, saxophone, and accordion. Track six (The Moon Speaks For My Heart) showcases Roger Wang in solo at his finest.

Moving on to the imaginary side B, track seven (Unforgettable Melody) highlights emotional vocals by Serena, and pianist Tay Cher Siang's jazzy melodies. Track eight and nine (Last Bit of Tenderness, Love Me) features sweet and mature vocals from Lydia.

Track ten (Fragrance of The Night) would be my favorite track of the album. This famous nostalgic number has been given a new lease of life countless times before. This time; Winnie's airy voice, Tay's piano, the punchy drums and sultry saxophone, elevated the song to another level. I can't help but to feel transported back to the 1960s.

The recording

With audiophiles and our eccentricities, we are never short of opinions and criticisms. Bloom : Vol. 1 would definitely be held to a high regard, as it is marketed as an audiophile recording. After auditioning it in a variety of systems, I find that this CD is a demanding one, where low-end, non-audiophile systems would render it close to inaudibility. The vocals would appear convoluted with boomy bass.

Insert this CD into a simple audiophile setup, and everything becomes crystal clear. The minimalist and purist route is evident in the recording, mixing, and mastering process. The vocals were not subjected to excess effects to give it extra warmth, and the instruments were recorded and mixed, as is. The result is a very intimate listening experience, that is not adulterated with gimmicky processing.

The costlier the setup, the more noticeable the fine recording process became. I was surprised with how genuinely raw the album sounded. For example, reverb was not artificially added into the mix to separate or layer the instruments. They were pretty much left to their own devices, culminating in unpretentious clarity.

Some might prefer the music to not resemble a pair of high-end studio monitors, however the transparency that Bloom : Vol. 1 provided was immensely enjoyable. The producer's attention to meticulous detail seem to have paid off. I like for a fact that the Bloom : Vol. 1 even has CDDB track listing embedded, a rare oddity with commercial CDs.

Source

Kam fei 

it is certainly cool of you to promote our stuff here.

Thanks!

Hi maggielurva,

Using the word "promote" would sound too serious and commercial.
"Sharing" would be the more appropriate word as I enjoy the album (so it should be me to thank you, instead).

Personally, I like the fifth track by Zyan the most.
The song really delivers the "leisure" and "roominess" when I lay my back on a couch.

Keep up the good work and hope to see more of our home-grown albums.

Cheers,

Nice, I need to get one of this soon.