June 28 - Peter CottonTale / Rex Orange County

So I was supposed to be on my way to the airport, but I just bought myself a bit more time. So I'll kill a bit of it by sharing two songs with you. But not continuing to write about Taiwan. Sorry. That'll come soon. Maybe this weekend.

Ok, back to the Taiwan story. We went out to Kenting the next morning. This was supposed to be our nature and hiking day, but as it turns out, distances are much further than they look on a map. So we thought we'd make it another bike day. But everyone told us no bikes, just scooters. So we got a scooter. Which turned out to be the right idea because, again, distances are much further than they look on a map. Also, it was super hilly. Like, not bikeable hilly. Our scooter even had trouble with one hill in particular. So it was a good choice. Then we just scooted around all afternoon, down to the beach and up to viewpoints (including the southernmost point in Taiwan) and just checked out the nature around the national park. But there are no real hiking or walking trails. It's basically a paved road along the coast, with lots of beaches as you move along, and various other viewpoints. There is some stone forest or something near the actual Kenting Town where you can maybe do some hikes, but we didn't buy tickets and go in. Anyway it was a great afternoon scooting around, with a great sunset on the beach.

Plus we met our favorite Taiwanese woman, Misha. As we were getting to the end of our ride along the east coast of the island, we passed this random Hello Kitty house in the middle of nowhere. It is not technically Hello Kitty, but if you think of Hello Kitty, then you have the right idea. It looks like a frosted cupcake with a giant pink bow on top. In the middle of nowhere. So we figured we had to stop and take pictures on the way back, right? And when we did, there was a woman sitting out front. That was Misha. It turns out it's her place that she rents out as a B&B, and she gave us the entire tour. It is adorable. And then she forced us into a photo shoot on the lounge chairs out front, and with the fake sheep statues out front (yup, she's got those, too), plus a bunch of selfies inside. The place is adorable, and she is hilarious, and it was pretty fantastic to find this random woman in the middle of nowhere who was so nice and had such a weird and fun home. And she added us on Facebook to share photos and now follows us on Instagram, too. Yay for new friends!

Ok, so that was day 1 in Kenting (with a night market, of course) and on day 2, we basically just spent the morning at the beach. But they did have activities, so we did that banana boat thing and another similar thing where you sit on an inflatable and get dragged around at dangerously fast speeds by a jet ski with no protection. This was clearly the Chinese part of Taiwan. Plus we did some pretty decent snorkeling. And then it was back to Kaohsiung. We only had the evening, but we spent it at Pier 2, their outdoor arts district. It's actually more shops than galleries or anything, but it is covered in art, and there's fun little things to buy and a bunch of local artisans. Great for an afternoon wander, and very, very Instagrammable. Like, too Instagrammable. It's difficult to pick what to post. But anyway super cool. And then the next morning I had to fly out really early, and Hanna spent one more day on her own.

Overall, we loved it. I definitely want to go back to Taiwan, specifically Taipei and the north now. I've always heard it's a mix between China and Japan, and it totally looked like it could have been a tropical Japan that stopped being maintained in the 80s. A lot of the buildings and layout of the city were quite Japanesey, but run down. And it's full of Chinese people and Chinese food. And I've also heard Taiwan is like China with manners, and that is also very true. Much less pushy, must more welcoming, just really wonderful. We had a great time. I can't wait to go back to Taiwan.

As for music, here's a couple things. Peter CottonTale has, to me, just popped up from nowhere. But apparently he's been working together in the background of other projects for years, generally alongside Chance The Rapper. Which is an ok start, can't say I know much Chance The Rapper. But on top of that he produced Anything, my favorite track from SZA's official debut last year. And also one of my favorite albums of last year. I don't know if he's gearing up for a solo project or what, but he's released two songs, the second of which, Forever Always, is weirdly wonderful. It features a whole ton of people that I'm not going to mention here. But you can see their names in the embedded video below. This song is super melancholy, a la Frank Ocean style, so you know I love it. It is also extremely different from his other single, which is also quite good, so I will definitely be watching out for this guy.

I guess while I'm talking about Forever Always, I can talk about Rex Orange County, who's featured on it. First of all, he is not from Orange County, he's from the UK. And being from Orange County, I have no clue why he would choose to put it in his name. But anyway, he did. Which had my attention already. But then the song Loving is Easy was making the rounds of the blogs, and it is a lovely little song. Super chill and pretty. I thought about blogging it a while ago, but then wasn't too impressed by older stuff from him so I put it off. But considering the Peter CottonTale link, why not? So here is Loving is Easy, and hopefully whatever comes out from here on out will also be this lovely.

June 27 - Braille Face / Nick Mulvey

OK let's actually talk about Taiwan. Like a month late, but better late than never, right? Hanna and I went for a weekend cause she had to do a visa run. It was actually very difficult for us to choose where to go, because we needed somewhere that I could easily get to Malaysia from for work. So we were looking at Southeast Asia, but flight schedules were not great. Flights to Taiwan and Japan were great, but from there to Malaysia was much more difficult. But in the end, we did it and I just dealt with my annoying work flights.

Now I have been in Asia like 10 years, and this was my first time in Taiwan. Insane, right? I've really really really wanted to go for years, but for some reason I just haven't. And Hanna had actually done a little tour in Taipei on a previous trip to China, cause they do those long layover free tour things. So despite being my first time, we decided not go to to Taipei, but to go south to Kaohsiung instead. And we loved it. A lot.

Kaohsiung is Taiwan's third city, down in the south, and it is pretty tiny. There is not actually so much to do, but we decided to spend a day and a half there, and then go on an overnight trip to Kenting National Park, all the way at the southern tip of Taiwan. Hanna wanted to get out into nature, so we figured we'd go out there and hike a bit, but not before seeing the town. Our first day was spent biking around Cijin Island, which is a 5 minute ferry ride from downtown Kaohsiung. It's this tiny little stretch of land that you could mistake for a sandbar on a map, but it's a vibrant part of the city. There's quite a lot of people living on the island, and there's also a big university, but most tourists go there to visit the big hilltop forts leftover by the Brits in the late 19th century with great views of the city and surrounding ocean, and also to just bike along the coast and go to the beach. We did all of these things, although without any beach swimming. Just ate lunch by the beach. Street food, of course. It was super hot and humid and I ended up very dehydrated, but it was totally worth it cause it was a beautiful day and the locals are wonderful. You just walk around and people yell greetings at you, welcoming you to Taiwan wherever you go. It's wonderful. Then in the evening we went up to Lotus Lake. This is a big lake in the north of the city that's surrounded by super colorful and gaudy Buddhist temples, all of which have enormous pagodas and statues of animals and gods. It's pretty fantastic to just wander around and climb all over the temples. Plus there's some big dragons you can run through, which are supposed to bring luck and blessings. It may look from photos like it's just going to be ok, which is what we though. We went cause it looked like a nice way to spend maybe 30 minutes in a town where there isn't necessarily so much to do, and we ended up loving it. The temples are great. And of course, this was all followed by our first visit to a night market.

Now, #spoileralert, we went to night markets every night. And I was so excited for them. But I have to say, they were a bit disappointing. Everyone makes a huge deal of Taiwanese food and Taiwanese night markets, and the food is good, but it's nothing incredible. And it's nothing very diverse. We went to 3 night markets in 2 cities over 3 nights, and all of them were pretty much the same. You might find one or two interesting stalls with something different, but overall it was the same thing everywhere. That was quite disappointing to me. For 3 nights it was alright, but if we had stayed longer I think we would have taken a break from night markets.

I'm gonna pause here and go into music stuff, and come back and tell you more about Taiwan tomorrow. Including our meeting with our favorite Taiwanese Woman, Misha.

Today we have a bit of weird music. Actually a lot. I only planned to share one song from each of these artists, but now it's 3 from one artist and 2 from the other. Oh well. Let's start out with Braille Face. I actually thought I wrote about him before, because I was quite intrigued by him when he put out his debut album, Koya, back in 2016. But apparently not. So this guy put out his album Koya in 2016, after spending 2015 making 12 EPs, one in each month of the year. Already interesting, right? Although if I'm being honest, I'm pretty sure I did not listen to any of those EPs. Anyway, then Koya was a super interesting indie-pop album (or as he calls it exploratory ambient pop). So we'll pause here and listen to a song off Koya, Bristlecone Pine.





So that's my favorite song off of Koya. And exploratory ambient pop is pretty accurate, don't you think? So after that, he put out a new EP, Lightletting, earlier this year. Lightletting is definitely an evolution, and much more complex, as evidenced by the opening track, Run For Your Life. Especially around 2:30 where those great cymbals kick in.





But he still keeps his ambient poppiness with my other favorite, Faraway. Pretty feel good song right here.





Our other weird artist for the day is Nick Mulvey. I do not believe I had heard him before, although it seems he's been around for quite some time. He was even nominated for a Mercury Prize back in 2014 for his first album, First Mind. But still, I somehow missed him. But now he's put out a new EP also, called Dancing For The Answers. This is on the heels of 2017's Wake Up Now. I never even heard Wake Up Now. This guy didn't show up on my radar until Dancing For The Answers came out in May. And then it was the title track of this 3 track EP (technically 4 tracks, but the last track is just a shorter version of the first track) that popped up all over the place. And the title track is a great track. Kind of reminds me of Ben Howard a bit. It's also a long track, which we all know I love. And you should listen to the end, cause at about 7:30 it gets nice and dirty.




Also kind of ambient experimental exploratory pop, or whatever you want to call it, no? Also, gotta love that tile pattern on the cover. So that tile pattern is very similar to the tile pattern on his album from last year, so I went and listened to it thinking this is somehow an expansion on that, and it is not even close to as good as this. There are a couple of good songs, but overall it's just ok. But Dancing For The Answers is a great track. And then the following track, Give It To Kali, is also great. Super weird, but fantastic percussion. I'm a bit sad that last year's Wake Up Now was not more of this weird goodness. But I guess I'll go give that debut album a listen and see what I think. For now, this is just a great EP.

June 23 - Young Galaxy / Royce Wood Junior / serpentwithfeet

First things first, Beth is coming back to Shanghai! Beth is the one who got me start writing a blog. And she's amazing. And she's coming in September! I'm actually not supposed to be here when she does, but I'll work that out and be here. Very exciting news!

Other than that, this turned out to be a very long week. First, I was in Beijing over the weekend and was supposed to come back Monday night (it was a long weekend) but my flight was cancelled. They said due to weather, which was a blatant lie. I think it was because Kim Jong Un showed up in Beijing the next morning, and the military was restricting airspace for that. This happens a lot in China. And they said weather because then they don't have to give you a hotel or anything. It was very annoying. Anyway, I'm telling you this to say that it was a 4 day week, but it felt like a 10 day week. Work was long a stressful, and our CEO in Germany is trying to micromanage this assignment he gave us which he never should have given us in the first place, but he's the CEO. Blergh.

Anyway, now it's the weekend and today is beautiful. Started out rainy, but now it's gorgeous. Although I'm sure it will change back, because this is still Shanghai and the weather generally sucks. I had plans like non-stop, but my afternoon plans today turned out to be evening plans, which means I was double booked and I now have a free afternoon. Hence writing this. And also going to get a haircut and packing, cause I'm leaving again tomorrow.

But I'll write you a quick music post first. This is going to be the chill music blog post. And there's a couple things to share. First up is Young Galaxy, who put out an album in April. These guys have been around for a long time. I think I first heard them in like 2007. I liked a couple songs, but didn't pay too much attention. But they have this new album, Down Time, which has a couple great tracks. First up is Catch Your Breath, which is a beautiful track. Kind of The Knife-y vocals, and some great instrumentation and percussion. And I love the way they sing "catch your breath" rising upwards at the end of the chorus (if you can call it a chorus).





So that song really caught my attention early on in the album. And then a few tracks later comes River. Other than that the album is a bit sleepy, but still good. And quite different from their earlier stuff. Definitely worth a listen.

Then we've got Royce Wood Junior. This guy is actually not so great. And I don't know much about him. He's got an album and an EP or something like that. I listened to both and they were fine. But there's one song from his old EP called Valentine Virus Part II (Ode to Prod) which my yoga teacher plays sometimes and it's really good. Great for a chill yoga session. Or chill anything session. Just great, actually. As far as I can tell there is no Part I, which is too bad cause Part II is great. But don't bother with the rest of his music.

And last up is serpentwithfeet. Now this guy is interesting. Very interesting. He put out his debut EP, blisters, back in 2016 and was getting quite some buzz. Including a ton of buzz from Bjork, who featured him on her latest album. And now he has his own debut album, soil. This guy has one of the most interesting and unique voices and singing styles I've heard in a while. He mostly uses it to make moody love songs that generally sound heartbroken or full of longing, and which are also unapologetically queer. The album starts with whisper, which is one of the best songs.




Beautiful, right? And I love how his songs grow. The most obvious comparison would be to Moses Sumney, I guess, but that's only because they're both black and queer (maybe? I'm not actually sure Moses Sumney is. Could be. Who knows. Who cares.), making unique, beautiful, moody music, with unique, beautiful, powerful voices (literally, not figuratively). So we have a full album of this, and thn we end with bless ur heart, which also grows just as beautifully as everything else, but is more positive. So great album opener, and even better album closer, on an overall really good album from a very interesting new(ish) artist.

June 14 - Valley Queen / Snail Mail

I'm doing another quick post for you today just to try and catch up on music. Yesterday was poppy. Today is rocky.

Starting out with Valley Queen. I first came across them with one of their latest singles, Supergiant. This is the title track of their debut album, also called Supergiant, which is coming out in July. And with a title track like this, obviously I had to pay attention.





So I only just now realized that song is under 3 minutes. That is disappointing. I thought it was like 6 minutes. Damn. But still, it's a damn good 3 minutes. So if you read about them, everyone talks about how they're this California band that's bringing bluesy, folksy, country sound back to rock and is different from other bands in LA. Maybe because the singer, who was where the band actually started, is from Arkansas? There's that, then everyone talks about her voice. Which is pretty interesting. Wonderfully so. And luckily, they already have a pretty good EP out, called Destroyer. And I'm also sharing a song from that. The closer, Pulled By The Weather. And this one is like 6 minutes long. So thanks for that, Valley Queen.





But we're not stopping there! We're going to keep the lady rock going. Cause there's some damn good ladies making rock (which reminds me, I need to see what Sharon Van Etten is up to. I miss her. She's amazing). Which includes Snail Mail. Aside from a great name, this band has great music, and a great debut album, Lush, that came out last week. So I'm gonna give you one of their singles from the album, Heat Wave.

June 13 - Janelle Monae / Cautious Clay

We're going a bit poppy today. I actually have a lot of music to catch you up on, so I'm just gonna jump right into it because I want to actually write something, but I don't have much time. I need to go to a meeting in like twenty minutes. But I think I'm going to try to write like every day next week, cause I'm in the office pretty much all week. Then I can get all caught up.

First up is Janelle Monae. She released her 3rd album, Dirty Computer, a couple months ago, and I think it's her best to date. People love this lady, I've always enjoyed her, but really this album is great. This woman is on point with pretty much all of her commentary. Especially the last track, Americans. It is much poppier than you'd probably expect from me, but I love it. And I feel very similarly about America at the moment as my interpretation of this song.




And then there's this new guy, Cautious Clay. This Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist has a couple of EPs out, and is making quite the buzz. I also find him to be a bit poppy, but still pleasant. But his debut single, Cold War, is really a great one. The layered vocals are probably the best part of it, and he does that on a lot of his songs, which is probably what makes me like him despite the pretty mainstream sound. Definitely worth watching.