Audrey Lily

Another top class CD form the guys at Harbour Records, released last year but I have only got round to listening to it today. The sleeve notes are a bit cryptic so I had no idea who or what Audrey Lily is - until I came across this Time Out article and found out that she is, in fact, a person, who does pretty much everything with her voice, guitar and a computer. The Time Out writer has her down as Kid-A era Radiohead meets Cantopop, while Audrey herself says she grew up listening to Anita Mui and the Byrds. Before I read any of that, I was already hearing Faye Wong meets Joy Division. This is my favourite. Track 6 - 'inspired by My Little Airport' - watch the video and tell me if I'm wrong...

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - Hei Wong / Amino Shower

This makes it ten, so I'll squeeze two into one. Hei Wong released his April the seventh CD this year and seems to performed most of it on YouTube. This is a song about MSN and Facebook. As YouTube video quality goes, it doesn't get much worse than this, but the sound quality is good and it's a nice song. And another song about Facebook by Amino Shower, who played a storming set at Hidden Agenda last night.

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - 在草地上/JoyTrendySound

Some happy metal from JoyTrendySound. Their CD has been a long time coming but worth the wait. 12 great tracks at just under 30 minutes means I can hear the whole CD on my way to work. And thanks for translating all the lyrics into English! This is a song called vegetables and its about surviving (on vegetables).

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - Very Ape

I want to post something from The Underground Compilation #3 that came out earlier this year, so here is Very Ape. Any band with a song called You are just ape and we are very ape has got to be worth listening to. Very Ape rip the house down live and just love making noise. Like they say, they are really very ape.

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - Ghost Style

Ghost Style and DJ Weezy lightin' up the universe. What you gotta do when you gotta get it done / I'm the ET originate from the sun / I tap into the power and I drink from the source / I live in the now and I have no remorse. Let's live on the brighter side, yeah-er!

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - King Lychee

King Lychee will never let you down... In Mandarin, Cantonese and English, CNHC. I guess it means China Hardcore. Not on CD as far as I know but you can download from their website.

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - Chet Lam

We also interviewed Chet Lam about the time he released his English album, Camping. His second English album, Back To The Stars came out earlier this year. It's a concept album with every track written for a different character in The Little Prince, and incredibly popular book in Hong Kong. I'll probably be deported for saying I don't really get it, but the album works just as well without the concept and Chet shows he's probably the best English lyric writer in Hong Kong right now.

And here's a bilingual song that shows he can rock it up as well - Vancouver Skyline.

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - Corey Tam

Corey Tam has come over from Toronto to play his guitar and sing his songs. This is him talking about himself and singing Champagne Eyes (around 1:20). Also wears a hat and plays electric, which sounds pretty good in his open air videos, but I'm picking this one because the recording is better.

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - Rachel Believes In Me

Here's a band with an album, or at least with an album release party. Nice videos of Waiting and Old Songs. I'm choosing Old Songs, because I really like the double-track vocal. Rachel Believes In Me will also get me out of the house at last - they are on the bill at Fruitpunch's show at Hidden Agenda on 26th December.

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - Kevin Kaho Tsui

Not much on this blog since last year when I was whingeing about the lack of CDs on Time Out's best of HK indie list(and I still don't get out of the house enough). So I'll have a go myself this year and I'll stick to YouTube and see if I can get to ten.

This is Kevin Kaho Tsui. He came back from university in Manchester (yeah!) last year, he's a big fan of John Lennon, (I guess Dear Florence is a nod to Dear Prudence), and he likes making videos with his iPhone. Highlights of this one: Kevin strumming on a bench in Sha Tin and the girl with the stripy legs.

Kevin does covers too and I love his Telephone, which sent me to Lady Gaga at the Brit Awards. Really, I don't get Lady Gaga, but that performance is something worth watching.

Mensheng

This is Mensheng (which means disciple in Mandarin), who put out their debut CD last year. Love the cover. Not my kind of music and I don't have the CD. But from the two tracks on their MySpace, I'd say they are pretty good at what they do. Is that what you young people call screamo?

Chochukmo

Here is Chochukmo, The King Lost His Pink, one of a hundred odd Hong Kong indie CD covers in a new Flickr set. Now, you can't just walk into a shop and buy any Hong Kong indie CD you like, so please tell me what I am missing!

Chochukmo won a Time Out Hong Kong 'we'll make your album' competition and brought out the album at the end of last year. The production is good, which is nice because there's some pretty clever stuff going on in there. Whatever indie means, Chochukmo are definitely indie because they say so on their sleeve notes: 'we're still indie and we'll stay indie'. They also say that nobody forced them to wear anything they didn't enjoy, which I guess explains the cover.

How about A-day? Are they indie? Well, they did have a track on the excellent 3-CD Come Out and Play compilation in 2004. Now they have an album and credits for hairstyling, make up and styling (okay, I'm just jealous). Some nice acoustic tracks, but overall a bit cantopoppy for me. Wish them well!