🐣 LEELEK — 騰雲幫

This morsel of music by Taipei trackcrafter LeeLek is a buffet of beats, one dish after another flies through the jagged peaks of hard experimental electronica and each one is delicious. We start with stuttering chords over bristling brassy percussion, move into the sway of a beat that towers over and swaggers forward, powerful kicks spun throughout with webs of menacing sharp chords, soar a into section that laserbeams forward with serious electro bassline pulsing below, fall into a patch of arpeggiating melodies where the kicks rapid-fire wild and rhythmic. Segment after segment it's a barrage of continuous excitement.

But as much as it employs unstinting swathes of clear synthetic sound, the modulating synth chords, hefty dollops of acid bass, thin twangs of melody, the stomp-clap shuffling hi-hat beat itself, there is also an organic side to '騰雲幫' (which means, like... soaring cloud society? or something? maybe) where stringed pluckings glitter mutedly and where gongs crash and metallic percussion crackles and sheafs and where golden flutes glide painting pictures of gentler things than the beat alone summons. This is a duelling dance track where it's future vs. traditional, electronic vs. natural, but the clash and contrast weaves together into this monster that's part-lion dance, part-dark rave.

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• 🔔 This track arrives on the compilation WAREHOUSE curated by Taipei creative collective, UnderU (available on Bandcamp). As the title may suggest, it's filled with pieces like this one, fit for a big old abandoned warehouse, to make you "dance and lose control." It is the antithesis to previously released compilation, GREENHOUSE, much more chill, which "brings you to a space where you can enjoy the sunshine while you photosynthesize with flowers and plants."

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📠
☟ LeeLek Internet Presence ☟
facebook • soundcloud

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🛩VISITS — HUALIEN🇹🇼

Hualien is home to the stunning natural scenery of Taroko National Park, a lush landscape shaped by turquoise waters that run snakelike at the bottom of a marble gorge, slicing through the land and revealing layers of rock and creating mountains that jut jagged into the sky with peaks swathed in clouds.

A place to base yourself in order to explore the National Park, the town of Hualien itself is filled with wide streets and scooters, somewhat sprawling but walkable. Picking our way along the pathways was a real initiation into a Tawianese town: an assault course of parked 'peds, hosepipes, street kitchens, old folks' hang-outs and various slopes and steps from one shopfront to the next. Clothes shops sit next to dumpling shops, mobile phone retailer next to furniture place, massage shop next to bank; it is all of everything and nothing has its own special district, a jumbled wonder of Taiwanese proportions merging with a wonder of nature—a show of what this island often does: reminds you that extreme terrain and actual jungle have the majority.

From Hualien the bus to Taroko National Park takes up to an hour depending on how how far into the gorge you want to explore. The bus runs along the coast, past a Taiwanese military base (not an actual stop) and Chishingtan Beach (七星潭風景區) to the right – a popular group/couple selfie spot – before starting to wind its way up through the gorge, taking tumultuous turnings as it climbs high in to the peaks. Some bus drivers can be overzealous with their turnings which is exciting and horrifying for those aboard, particularly if you're on the side of bus where the view of the carved-out gorge grows ever deeper. Seat belts are legally required but rarely worn, as proven by the band of baby cockroaches that erupted across our lap when we tried to pull the seatbelt out. C'est la vie.

Getting an all-day pass for the bus allows you to hop on and off all the way from Hualien Train Station to the route's terminus at Tianxiang (天祥). It's pretty chill to soak up the magnificent scenery on the way, choosing what stops to get off at and allowing you to explore further by foot. Alternatives include cycling, biking, driving or getting a taxi, but unless you insist on your own autonomy, or fancy tackling the turns of the road yourself, the bus is more than satisfactory. Swallow Grotto (or Yanzikou, 燕子口), named for the crowds of swallows that frequent it, is a narrow point of the gorge where the pale colours of the monstrous marble walls swirl, worn and warped over millennia by the shifting earth and its weather. Here you can follow the road by foot for a little while as it tunnels through the solid rock, taking care not to "linger", as the signs put it—falling rocks are real. You can tell from the stands lending out hard hats.

However chill it may be, the bus provides only a glimpse of what the area has to offer, so on our second day we took a stroll on one of the Park's many, many trails that range in length and precariousness. Though one of Taroko's easiest and most accessible, the Shakadang Trail (also known as "Mysterious Valley") very easily pays off. We were able to see more secluded and even more breathtaking views of the twisting bright blue water set in the gorge, ancient rock towering above, surrounded by tropical jungle. Starting on a walkway through the forest canopy where hand-sized golden orb spiders sat in the centre of their huge masterpiece webs, over a rope bridge and along a trail cut into the cliff itself, we rolled almost level with the stream until the path was cut short by a landslide, which is all too common in any of Taiwan's national parks. Many tourists still pushed on past the no entry sign, onwards to epic selfies and photoshoots atop giant boulders cast in the wide shallow trough of the river: the natural world as nothing but a backdrop.

Far from the sheer cliffs and green cloaked mountains you can ease your hunger by eating your way through the delights of a tasty Taiwanese night market. Eating is a big thing in Taiwan and Hualien is no different, albeit with a small, sad twist: all of the town's night markets have been moved from their previous probably years-occupied sites to one giant conglomerate Dongdamen Tourist Night Market (東大門自強夜市) as of July 2015. The locals' night market, as well as the aboriginal night market, the Futing (formerly "Rainbow") Night Market, "Provinces Market" (各省一條街), and others, have all been resettled to this huge unsettling area of permanence and tourism. However! It is fun, especially when busy, and exudes a sort of festivalic theme park atmosphere. And what it lacks in physical and spiritual authenticity it makes up for in one of Taiwan's top treats, which is food and lots of it. There is also a green park-like area and a display of some military vehicles. We did find some non-touristic nocturnal food stall activity around here on Zhongshan Rd though, which was followed by a surprise expedition through a few cool, quiet roads beyond.

Hot and humid when we visited, we felt Hualien was more than just a "base". Whilst it is synonymous with the National Park, and perhaps is seen as a stop-off point for that very reason, the city is an easygoing place that is open and relaxed when it comes to tourists—even its major night market serves however garishly as a comprehensive collection of what Hualien plates up at snacktime. Away from this we found ourselves inducted into the intriguing life of smaller town Taiwan. Wandering around the backstreets, snacking at street-side restaurants and getting lost trying to appease your appetite at the night market, the real life of this city begins to reveal itself and you realise that sometimes nature is exactly a backdrop.

THINGS THAT ARE TASTY 🌭 Dongdamen Tourist Night Market (東大門自強夜市) 400 stalls. 9 hectares. One stomach. What do you go for? There's no question of being spoilt for choice at this massive night market, so try to avoid arriving indecisive and hungry. One night, we grabbed some snacks and sat on a grassy hill overlooking a junction at the market and watched it all unfold below, buskers and tourists, in the midst of other sitters and kids running around. We snacked on deep fried tofu: they look like potato fries, but that they ain't, they're rich and hearty with a satisfy mouth-filling texture. Check out that mustard for extra zing. We also ate what was billed as an "Aboriginal Sausage Wrap", which was very tasty but there is no real context for us to judge its relation to Taiwanese Aboriginal food quite yet. It consisted of a gloriously greasy pancake wrapped around tangy sauced meat and shredded cabbage and other veg. For dessert? Try out marshmallow and lashings of chocolate spread in a fried bread toasty. Naughty and sweet but oh so tasty. We only know about these from Japanese convenience stores, and therefore as an "American Dog" (アメリカンドッグ), but this is indeed a corn dog. A hot dog smothered in thick doughnut-esque batter – better known as cornmeal, hence the name. Deep fried, terribly delicious, comes in two sizes: large or small. Went for large. All the sauces. 🍜 Ba Fang Yun Ji (八方雲集) Dumplings This dumpling place, part of a franchise known in English as 8 Way Dumplings or something, serves fresh fresh dumplings of various fillings at low low prices (starts at NTD$5 apiece). Steamed or potsticker versions available. Comprehensive sauce station. Small sitting area inside which is basic and unfancy, a fine venue for filling up on platefuls of dumplings. It's on Zhongshan Road, here according to Google Maps, but more on the corner of Zhongshan and Mingguo Rd. 🍪 台灣bolo If you do not know the humble yet tasty pineapple bun, it's a bun of soft, slightly stodgy dough topped with a different type of sweeter, crumbly cookie-like dough (same ingredients as Streusel, apparently). Well, that gets a foodular remix here, served hot with a slab of butter inserted. Actually already a thing originating in Hong Kong called 菠蘿油 - that's "bo lo yau", bo lo meaning pineapple and yau meaning oil. Hence the name of this particular establishment, bolo台灣. It is unquestionably delicious. You'll find it here on Zhongshan Rd. Multiple locations nationwide. We ate most of ours before we took a photo. 👎👎👎 THINGS THAT ARE NOT SO TASTY / HYPEFRAUD 🍜 Crepe Stand (Savoury) There's a savoury crepe stand at the market, thin on the filling and so crispy so that they actually shatter as you bite them and what there is of the filling falls on you and the floor and you end up feeling tearful. Anyway, much better options for dinner are available all over the market.

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🛏
accommodation

The Taiwanese government are keen on developing its overseas tourist scene and spreading the tourist money around the country. The focus on attracting tourists further afield than Taipei means there are many options for reasonably priced accommodation across Taiwan with many new, squeaky clean hostels and guesthouses popping up in every city. Hualien is no exception. We stayed at Lovely Bean Inn (facebook.com/lbhostel). Features modern rooms with sanitary shared bathrooms – complete with an array of hairdryers – on each floor, plus an AC-refrigerated basement with a pool table and a big TV on the wall. A double room cost us £23/NTD$1000 per night, but there are dorm rooms available if you don't mind that sort of thing. There's free bike hire. The owner is also sweet: after a confusing mix-up with the free McDonald's breakfast voucher we should've been receiving (really), he shared his breakfast with us and made us coffee.

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See more from VISITS in Taiwan:

Taipei • Taitung • Kaohsiung • Tainan • Taichung

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🛩VISITS — TAIPEI🇹🇼

Taipei brims with life, youthful, historical, progressive; modernity on a backdrop of cracking facades and twisting back alleys. Crammed full of fun and food, Taiwan's capital has built upon its rocky historical roots and transformed itself into a city where young people are unafraid to be themselves—they push the boundaries past the unforgotten years of history and political unrest to produce a city that thrives on its misfortunes, combining a penchant for Japanese culture with the ancient history of China and the mad buzz of Southeast Asian cities to become a tangled whirlwind of unimaginably delicious street food, surprising angsty androgynous fashion and intriguing design: a city that is intrinsically Taiwanese and proud. Understanding Taiwanese history and their ongoing strained relations with the PRC is important before being too impressed by the grandeur Liberty Square; it's worth a look to see scale of the square, the traditional architecture as was used by the Kuomintang in their monuments even on the Chinese mainland, but we can understand why some might feel that the area could be put to better use. Previously known as Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Square, this large glorification of the late President of the Republic of China stands in stark opposition to "China" as the world knows it, but sadly feels as authoritarian and as cold as that against which it stands. Politics haunts many aspects of this city. Google "White Terror". This is the name given to the early years of martial law imposed by the Kuomintang throughout Taiwan until 1987. It's astounding to think that less than 30 years ago, this unique country was just emerging from a 38-year period of harsh rule that saw the notorious Taiwan Garrison Command, the "secret service", crack down on everything from democratisation and criticising the government, to something as innocuous as language (Mandarin being favoured over the semi-native Hokkien and indigenous Taiwanese languages). In this period it's estimated that around 140,000 individuals were arrested, tortured, executed, or a combination of the three, right up until the same year The Smiths broke up. And even then, this was only the beginning of the road to democracy paved well into the 1990s. Taking a walk around the sights and temples of Qing and Japanese-era Taipei can be interesting to put this history into architectural context – you'll find many examples of Qing influence around the Songshan area. Actual context can be found at The 228 Museum, housed in a radio station used by the Japanese and then Kuomintang, in the 228 Peace Memorial Park. It's got foreign language audio guides, a modern layout and an offers a seemingly unbiased view into Taiwan's tumultuous modern history. Whilst here an old Taiwanese gentlemen accosted us. "I hate the Chinese, they're dirty," he said. "I had a Japanese education." His Indonesian carer abashedly tried to pull him away from us. It was possible to imagine that he wasn't alone in his opinions. After reading about Taiwan in the 20th Century at this illuminating museum, a walk around the Park will feel more profound. Fast-forward to the present day and the city is awash with creativity and a long overdue sense of liberalism. We thought we'd find a concentrated bastion of this sentiment at the Huashan 1914 Creative Park. This renovated warehouse area, however, is pretty much an Instagram theme park stuffed with overpriced art gallery-style shops and incongruent exhibitions (think Where's Wally?—seriously). There's an upside-down house. All of it can be seen in 30 minutes, but, whilst some of the Park consists of ticketed attractions, a wander around the factories and warehouses resurrected from their days of 20th century toil and disuse feels like a wander through an urban botanical garden. An urbanical garden? As if on cue, coffee shops around the area sell stupidly priced coffee. Keep clear unless you want to fall into what feels another tourist trap set up to take Mainland Chinese tourists' money. Another more odd place was the Taipei Artists Village, hyped by a guidebook (Lonely Planet), we literally could not understand this place, it was deserted and didn't seem to be more than an empty restaurant in a courtyard. Maybe we turned up on the wrong day or something, maybe there's a schedule. The central district of Ximending is electric. A place where same sex couples are open about their relationships, this area is an excitingly eye-opening view into the liberalism of Taipei. Androgyny is huge here with clothing strikingly reflecting the openness of sexuality, the visibly dark vibe of muted palettes, punchy statement t-shirts and cleverly satirical pairings are all worn with the type of knowing apathy that grunge demands. Trends and tourists whirl together, streets formed by currents of gloss and grit. Get lost and find out for yourself what the future of Taipei has to offer: it is exciting. For some greenery, a quick metro ride out the centre of town are the intriguing residential areas almost swallowed up by the jungle at the feet of Elephant Mountain. A 15-minute hike up endless stairs reveals a view of the city and the famous silhouette of Taipei 101 all on a hill that is shaped like an elephant raising its trunk. A little touristy at times but locals also make the climb to get fresh air and a view of the spread of Taipei and the surrounding mountains to get a better understanding of where you really are. Equally natural, The Taipei Botanical Garden is a slice of natural calmness in the busy city. Enjoy a coffee from a local food place on one of the roads that lead into the gardens and sip on it while munching on tasty onion bread and take in the lotus pond, while locals meet with friends around you. The different walkways and areas are really well laid out, rare birds can be seen – we encountered a group of twitchers playing bird noises through their phones – and it's free. Another element of the city deserves a particularly special mention: Food. Food is everywhere in Taipei and pretty much all of it is worth trying. Alleyways and street corners are home to multitudes of food stands providing passers by with seriously fulfilling snacks like the deliciousness that is onion bread or red bean waffles. Small restaurants and independent cafes have taken up down backstreets in otherwise run-down buildings with urban designs and modern, Westernised menus selling fresh coffee and sandwiches. Old ways of doing things like buying and eating food also fervently exist among the older generations, who still dominate a lot of the city's areas with shops and socialising and daytime markets and all manner of daily life. And then of course, there are the famous night markets of Taipei consisting of row upon row of resident food vendors, each cooking up their own eye-popping combination of traditional tidbits, western junk food and modern Taiwanese creations (like coffin bread), they are places of sheer wonder for the hungry, from the traditional Taiwanese pig's blood cake to deep-fried taro, everyone can find themselves something new and mouthwatering to chow down, probably daily. To wash all of the greasy goodness down, monster sized watermelons are juiced and sold with ice everywhere – or try a bubble tea, an inconceivably huge Taiwanese creation that has led to pretty much everyone wandering around with plastic cup of tea in plastic bag. Alongside stuffing yourself silly night markets are a great place to fill up on the energy of the city, locals hanging out with friends, ladies cooking up a storm, children fishing goldfish at stalls; life, more than in the day, comes out at night and it is the best place see the hot and sweaty happenings of Taipei.

THINGS THAT ARE TASTY 🍔 H.M Burger Down the graffitied back alleys of Ximending, you'll find young Taipei-ites hanging out with their friends in here. With very decent burgers, of course, and towers of French toast layered with fillings amongst other things on the menu, it's a tasty business for late Sunday breakfasts and lunch. The menu's in English, the staff are friendly, and their veggie burger is well meaning: it just comes without a burger patty. It's a collaboration between two previous establishments, Hometown Development x Mary's Burger茉莉漢堡. 🌯 Raohe Night Market What wonders the night markets of Taipei ushered in to our lives... Raohe Night Market, glitzed up and packed with throngs of people, got us salivating like crazy over rolled barbecued pork stuffed with green onions and spiced to taste. Then there was a green onion pancake wrap with meat, peanut dust, tofu and chilli sauce. This is a big claim, but we think it's the best wrap we ate in Taiwan (vegetarian option: minus the meat and more vegetables). 🍖 Shilin Night Market One of the most fun night markets in Taiwan. The gurgling energy of the city can be found as you walk along the sidestreets casually grabbing snacks from a crazy array of vendors; people gather near the metro station and spill out on to the surrounding streets, meeting up with friends and enjoying what the city has to offer. Also equals delicious food. Has its own site. We tried stinky tofu here, the spicy type, and yes: the smell is almost blinding, but the taste is somewhat neutral, with a hint of that fermented-foodstuff tang. We found a more heavenly morsel in the form of Taiwan-style green onion bread rolls stuffed with minced pork. 🍺 Drink At A Roadside Bar Not really a "roadside bar" but we made do. Drinking is not so big in Taiwanese culture, but beer can be bought and drunk in small local roadside eateries, pretty cheaply too. We went somewhere down the same road as this Italian restaurant, for example. Foreign beers are on offer but when in Taiwan it's Taiwan Beer for us please sir. 🍢 Ningxia Night Market This smaller market is sensibly located on Ningxia Road. Try out the tasty Taiwanese pig's blood cake, they are more doughy and salty, much less bloody than you'd imagine from the name. Here we also sampled another type of green onion pancake wrap, this time filled with sliced beef and onions, greens, bean sprouts and egg. Salty, sweet, warm and gooey in equal parts, the deep-fried combo of pickled egg yolk inside a mashed taro ball is unusual but worth a try (see below). The stall, piled with pyramidal stacks of these bitesized snacks ready for the plunge, is quite famous and seems to be known to some people as "Deep Fried Taro Balls and the Ones with Pickled Egg Yolk" (劉芋仔香酥芋丸蛋黃芋餅). Google Maps says it's here, but just go to the market and you'll find it easily enough. 🧀 Prince Cheese Potatoes A classic Taipei street food, this stall in Ximending featured its own menu guy who quickly dealt with dithering patrons to keep things rolling. Deep-fried potato croquette islands in a flood of cheesy cheese sauce and topped with anything from meat and vegetables to pineapple and egg. So, so good, especially with a Taiwan Beer. 🍉 Smoothie/juice/bubble tea Every corner, everywhere, try out the juices and bubble teas—the constant antidote for the humidity of the summer in the city. 🍞 Green Onion Bread Walking around the sights of Taipei in the heat, green onion bread (a thick version of the thinner pancake version, 葱油饼 Tong Yo Bin) sold by street vendors is a life-saver. Cheap, filling and tasty it is the perfect, most basic snack for taking a break in the park or Botanical Garden. A real delicacy for lovers of stodgy, properly mouth-filling food. Our favourite lady served us from behind a glass shelf stacked with piles of the stuff in a tiny shop somewhere on Hengyang Road, maybe at this point, on the way to the 228 Park from Ximen MRT. It was yellow, if that helps. 👎👎👎 THINGS THAT ARE NOT SO TASTY / HYPEFRAUD 🍜 Ay-Chung Flour Rice Noodles One of those following-the-guidebook mistakes that we felt had to be included to warn people, the "famous" Ay-Chung Flour Rice Noodles of Ximending will be busy with Chinese and Hong Kong tourists and, unless you like stodgy noodles and unidentifiable grey meat, we'd say steer clear: there's way too much tasty food in Taipei to waste a valuable meal on hype. Google the name and you'll see waves of approval from many blogs and online publications espousing its greatness. Maybe we're missing the right tastebuds or something. Judge for yourself if you want, but for us these gloopy noodles tasted like the smell of a cheap supermarket, and the meat – probably supposed to embody "Q" (bounciness in Taiwanese food terms) – was impervious to innumerable chews, making it literally hard to swallow. No, no, no.

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🛏
accommodation

We stayed at Tomorrow Hotel, perfectly located almost on top of Ximen MRT. We paid the equivalent of £20 per night for a twin room and that's with breakfast included. There's a 24hr 7-Eleven in the always bustling lobby. There's free breakfast, which is either a 70NTD$ voucher for the 7-Eleven or an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet downstairs, with rice and noodles and various vegetables, and also steamed buns, toast, smiley faces (or chips, some days) and a vat of creamy scrambled eggs—possibly our favourite scrambled eggs ever eaten. Fill up and take yourself safe from hunger into the city. The location provides constant excitement: one entrance is 60 seconds' walk from Exit 6 of Ximen MRT, another is on Chengdu Road, and one spills into the alleys towards Ximending's pedestrianised area. For this, and for that breakfast—DAMN!—yeah, stay here. Hotel staff aren't the best English speakers but if that bothers you maybe reconsider a trip out of the Anglosphere altogether. Visit their site at longchengroup.com/TomorrowHotel.

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See more from VISITS in Taiwan:

Hualien • Taitung • Kaohsiung • Tainan • Taichung

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食品まつり A.K.A FOODMAN 核 [NUCLEUS] FT. ​ARISTOPHANES 貍貓

It's always a really fun thing to experience a new song from Aristophanes貍貓. She's a rapper from Taiwan who is also a teacher (mainly helping to write children write stories, as I found out when I interviewed her) – the subjects she talks about in her raps range from the politics of Taiwan and the prospective lives of unborn children, to her own versions of Chinese folk tales; her voice is elastic, shaped and pulled by its master to express feelings and passions in each rap very effectively.

But what's also exciting about Aristophanes is how she presents her work: each song is a collaboration with an awesome producer. There's Lidly's blissful beats, the harsh electro of Sonic Deadhorse, canooooopy's experimentalism and Petechan's traditional boom-bap breed of hip hop, and the chill of Luviia (who recently provided a guest mix for YES/NO), to name a few. It's a varied bunch of beatsmiths and trackmakers who help to augment Aristophanes' intense flow sharp, interesting soundscapes.

And it's happened again. She's collaborated with Nagoya-based trackmaker, DJ and painter, 食品まつり aka Foodman (the Japanese, 'shokuhin matsuri', means 'Food Festival') to produce the wildly experimental track '核' – which in Chinese ('Hé') means 'Nucleus' or 'Nuclear' or 'Stone' (just 'Nucleus' – 'Kaku' – in Japanese). Prepare your ears.

I've been meaning, or rather waiting, to write about Foodman for a while, having kept my eyes and ears on his SoundCloud since I stumbled across it a few months ago; right now, it seems a good a time as ever to feature his surreal, noisy music. Screaming into life, his latest work with Aristophanes features endlessly distorted samples, placed in simple melodic patterns that sound like electric guitar riffs put through an industrial blender with a ZX Spectrum. The almost indistinct beat carries with it a juke rhythm punctuated by booming heart-thuds of kick drum, your mind picking out the typical syncopation carried in the genre amidst the atonal white noise screeches and permitting your head to nod a little. It's juicily grating.

The perfect partner for Foodman's fractured sounds, Aristophanes' rap is typically frenetic, marked by burning intakes of breath and the spitting out of sharp syllables in a harsh yet near-lethargic, sometimes sensual whispering. Her flow is vital and colourful, the perfect match for her words which are unique in that they discuss subject matter not typically discussed in rap. Through quantum mechanics and metaphysics she poses existential questions and statements: "Can you get closer to the truth after burning your imagination?" – "You need gods, so you create them" – "penetrate the line between life and death by your thoughts." Thankfully there is a translation of her Mandarin rhymes, and what becomes evident is Aristophanes' eminence as a cerebral, poetic rapper whose lyrics aim to provoke as much thought and cause as much alarm as other rappers do; but being an individual person, she does it her way.

Read through those lyrics by clicking round about here.

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Find Aristophanes 貍貓 on Weibo
Like Aristophanes 貍貓 on Facebook
Listen to Aristophanes 貍貓 on Soundcloud
Follow Aristophanes 貍貓 on Twitter

Listen to 食品まつり aka Foodman on SoundCloud
Like 食品まつり aka Foodman on Facebook
Follow 食品まつり aka Foodman on Twitter

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LUVIIA P2P FEELINGS EP

Is it the case now that you can pretty much replace any "f" at the beginning of a word with "ph"? I think it's probably allowed, isn't it? It gives the word extra oomph (not oomf), basically acting as additional emphasis (not emfasis). I remember back in the day "fat" had already become "phat" or sometimes descriptively "P-H fat". Same should happen with a lot of words. Graphiti. Phrog. Phunky. Phridge-phreezer.

And quite rightly so, fresh becomes PHRESH. And that is exactly how this new EP from Luviia sonds. P-h-r-e-s-h. Who is Luviia, you ask? Or perhaps you don't. But I'll tell thee. He's a Taiwanese beat-maker and hip hopper from Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan. Wrote about his song 'Coppertone' the other week, after I discovered his connection to a pivotal digit of Taipei's hip hop scene, MICRO'Session. He's been on the bill there a few times now, and with good reason. His silky smooth beats would be enough to successfully atmospherise (or atmosferise) any place.

And his new EP, P2P Feelings (out on Singaporean label Darker Than Wax), is a perfect example of his way with beats. They seem to ooze naturally from him, perfectly produced, each track on the EP a little pearl of sample-affected swagger clouded with a swirling chilled vibe. Sometimes it's of the retro persuasion, shown by the groovesome slap bass funk of first track 'KeyofLivn'' and kitsch vocal samples in 'Theme for "Shaft"' - even the final track, 'Swinging Along' features a looped melody that could have been lifted from some 1980s lounge music. And that last thing kinda says it all: lounge. This music is entirely laid-back, you could certainly lounge to it, but then again you could also shuffle to it. It has a versatile mellowness throughout.

His basslines are wonderful, they're the kind that two-step through your veins like an auto-rhythmic miniaturised submarine - it's certainly the lead in 'Questions', otherwise a mesh of ambient hovering synth sounds and ethereal samples. In 'Kingdom Hall' the bass is delicious, a real double bass sound dripping with reality, as its piano melody takes you off to a magical cocktail bar on an island in the sky - the beat in this one is very nicely ornamented with extra percussion, making it a real tasty number. Sometimes this otherworldly feeling comes from the sheer mellowness of a song, like the constant waves of soft sounds in 'Lock 'Em Down', but at other times it's in the sampling, like when the flute sounds in '99 bypass' evokes some unseen, unbeen place, as do the twanging instruments in the background of 'Theme for "Shaft"'.

It feels good. This whole EP feels good. Hip hop is sometimes a difficult one to talk about because it's kind of defined by sampling and beats - a similar structure is at the core of the entire genre, basically. But this is not to say it is all the same. We, as people, are all similar structures - yet we are wildly different. Some people stand out more than others. And so it is that Luviia, a secret of Taiwan - an island, I'm discovering, which is overrun with beat-makers, MCs, and the sound of hip hop everywhere - manages to stand up and get noticed, thanks to his own skill and creative vision in a well-done and long-practiced field of music.

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Like Luviia on Facebook
Listen to Luviia on Soundcloud
Hear more Luviia on bandcamp
Follow Luviia on Twitter
Check Luviia on Tumblr

ARISTOPHANES 貍貓 THE PEACH BLOSSOM

Well I have to be honest, this is something that I didn't think would exist. It's very bad of me I suppose because any kind of music can come from anywhere. It just so happens that this is quite different at the same time as being unusual, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I found this track the other day and I was blown away by it. Not only by the general sound of the music but by the voice too - it's a haunting, mesmerising voice.

And it is the voice of Aristophanes 貍貓 (I think her real name is Li Mou but those Chinese characters are like a play on words and say... I don't know what they say: raccoon cat? leopard cat? I dunno), a Taipei-based (Taiwanese) MC who rhymes and flows in Mandarin Chinese. It's that thing again of not being able to understand something, yet understanding or actually FEELING the emotion or atmosphere that has been brought across by the way the words have been sung, or rapped in this case.

Also the track has been produced by Tokyo producer Lidly, who makes beats for many people. These particular beats he's made, however, are gloriously chilled, like a memory that moves as a slowmotion skateboard compilation or long pans of sun-tinted afternoon landscapes. A truly beautiful hip hop sound that Li Mou's achingly passionate vocals, starkly echoing, almost nude in the way that they float with languor atop the fluid beats, compliment excellently.

What a chilled vibe, but at the same time there is something agitated and pained in Li Mou's flows, especially in the break where she ups the tempo and lets out a heartrending 'ahhh!' before the beat comes back in, accompanied by a brain-tilting synth solo that sounds as stretched out as Li Mou's earlier vocals. Lovely.

The interesting thing about this song (aside from, y'know, how good it sounds) is that the lyrics actually deal with a take on a classical Chinese story called The Peach Blossom Land (written in 421 AD by Tao Yuanming). In the story, a fisherman sails up a river in a forest made up entirely of blossoming peach trees to its source, where he finds a utopian village of people living in harmony. In the version told by Aristophanes, a man dreams of finding the place, travels a long time to get there, but finds it ruined. Bummer. But you can definitely hear the dreamlike atmosphere in the song, the long journey, as well as the sadness of a destroyed kind of Shangri-La.

Check out Aristophanes' SoundCloud cause there are some other great tracks on there, featuring fresh collaborations with a number of talented producers and of course her distinctive vocal flow. She is also involved with MICRO'Session, a group that puts on nights for Taiwanese DJs, beatmakers and MCs.

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