MoShang - Chill Out Music - Musician and Producer

In preparation for the podcast I’ll be guest hosting with Mark Forman on the weekend, I thought I’d check up on the artists I’ve done remixes for in the past – the idea is that I’ll be playing these remixes on the show, and give some current info about the artists.

Skyd of Pure-H got back to me and included a review by J-Sin over at Smother.net of his Fabriksampler / Vol.1, which included my track Sun Gong Moon Song from Made In Taiwan. The review included the line: “Mo Shang is the Taiwanese sonic knob twiddler whose music I’ve heard before, and whom I’ve come to like quite a bit.” Hehehe, he said “knob twiddler”… Actually, I won’t hold it against J-Sin, since he wrote quite a nice review of Chill Dynasty which I’m very grateful for.

Things are as they should be and I’m currently twiddling knobs on a downtempo bossa track, tentatively entitled Roots. Here’s a taster.
Let’s see if I can stick to my new production schedule of a new track every two weeks – down from a track a week; life got in the way.

Under the links section at moshang.net, I’ve added links to some of the podcasts that have featured my music. Thank you very much to all these podcasters! The list is by no means complete – if I’ve left you out, I’m very sorry (info supplied by the Podsafe Music Network). Do drop me a line as a comment to this post, and I’ll rectify the omission as soon as possible. Bumper requests are welcome!

I’ve just received great news about the multi-media piece, Contain, that I created with artist Olaf Bischoff last year. Not only did it receive a Merit Award at this year’s South African Sasol New Signatures competition, but the work has also been bought by the sponsor for their permanent collection.

The work features animated visuals of swallows in flight that are projected onto two landscape paintings by Bisschoff. I picked the first half of my soundtrack to the piece as the album opener for Chill Dynasty.

The work was entered for the prestigious South African Brett Kebble Art Awards in 2005 and was selected as a finalist. In a weird and traumatic twist of fate, the Awards were canceled following the murder of the patron, Brett Kebble, in September 2005.

Currently listening to: Bebel Gilberto – Tanto Tempo Remixes

My favorite track is definitely Mais Feliz (Monoaural Remix) – must hunt for more of Monoaural’s stuff!

I’ve just created a photo section at moshang.net – if you are reading this blog at moshang.net, click on the photo link on the left. If you’re reading this elsewhere, here’s the link: pics

I was invited to play with the Rhythm Clowns at last year’s Taichung Jazz Festival – rather out of the blue and unprepared, but it went over rather nicely. To put you in the picture, the Taichung city government sponsors a yearly jazz event in the People’s Park – delicious autumn weather (still hot in Taiwan!), cool beer, and great music on 3 or 4 free stages… Though I’ll probably not be playing again, I’m really looking forward to this years festival as you’ve probably gathered. This time I’ll get a schedule, so I won’t miss out on some international greats like I did last year.

More gig pics to come…

At the suggestion of Mark Forman, the reigning Shogun of Taiwan, moshang.net is now blog-based.

So, why a blog?

Well, hopefully it will encourage discussion – one of the benefits of being an independent musician is the option of interacting with listeners on a much more personal basis. So feel free to comment on my ravings or music and I’ll get back to you.

Besides, all the cool kids are doing it…

That’s it for now. In future I’ll keep you posted on the day-to-day efforts that go into being sound jeweler.

currently listening to : Quantic – An Announcement To Answer