"Bearing Witness" NewSound
At the brief return to Tokyo, my business colleague, Hiroyuki Yagi delivered this brand new CD by his participating band, NewSound. I had a couple of chances to witness their live performances during my business trip to Malaysia and I was impressed by their performing capabilities and the contemporary sound. And the leader of the band, John Dip Silas informed their on-going recording on his Facebook page and I have been curious about the sound they would create. Finally, I am hearing it.
I believe that this CD has captured their wide range of musical backgrounds and having some guests with the appropriate allocation, this CD proves that the quality of the band is much higher than expected. Especially for Japanese audience, we, or they don't have so many opportunities to be exposed to the band mainly consisting of Malaysian musicians and the sound here should be somewhat surprising.
This CD contains variety of music, but the piano sound by John Dip Silas is totally consistent and I believe that my first impression when I heard his piano in Kuala Lumper was correct. That is, John Dip Silas is a very talented piano player with beautiful phrasing. Other musicians, including Hiroyuki Yagi, contribute to the album and this CD is quite enjoyable as a whole.
Frankly speaking, however, this CD is not perfect and there still remains a room for improvement in its sound. For example, an original tune by Scott Murphy titled "Stickit Nick" has a Brecker Brothers-like riff and the guitar played by a guest Muhammad Nazrin has a very strong rock and somewhat bluesy flavor. The song itself is quite exciting, and the guitarist reminded me of a player like Nguyên Lê. But I believe that the drums at the ending of this song heard behind the unison phrases should have sounded much stronger and heavier. When I heard this song's ending, "Let the Juice Loose" by Bill Evans in his live recording at Blue Note Tokyo came to my mind. In the Bill Evans' tune, the drummer is Dennis Chambers, who delivered quite powerful drumming and this song should have sounded just like that at least for the closing part. If I were a mixing engineer, I would boost the bass drum a little bit to generate more excitement or to create heavier sound.
Even though I can find such a tiny issue, this CD has reached the level to satisfy many people. As a listener, I also enjoyed the music here. Indonesian singer, Amelia Ong provided a beautiful song "In My Eyes" and I enjoyed her singing once again just like when I heard her self titled album (You can find an article about her CD here). Amelia Ong appears on John Dips Silas' original "For Brad" and we can hear her scat vocal and this arrangement is quite interesting for the tune they play usually without a voice.
I assume that the tunes played here will bring more excitement when they are played live. NewSound will appear at No Black Tie in KL on February 4 and the CD will be included in the music charge. If you have been impressed by their performance, the live gig to enjoy their performance and to get this CD should not be missed.
Finally, I want to congratulate all the musicians in this CD. Well done!
Personnel: John Dip Silas(key), Scott Murphy(ts), Hiroyuki Yagi(ss, ts), Hor Chee Seng(g), Icco Elnoel(b), Terrence Ling(ds), Amelia Ong(vo), Rodrigo Parejo(fl), Lean Yuen(hca), Muhammad Nazrin(g)
ということで,国際親善のために英語で記事を書いた私である(笑)。
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