BREAKIN’ NEW YEAR

Description

A Malaysian double-header 7” capturing the explosion of synth-pop and breakdance in the mid-80s. Both tracks are reissued for the first time on vinyl, with the artwork playing upon the design of a Lunar New Year red packet. The A-side leads with the ‘King of Hakka Songs’ Chong Sau-Lin with the Shaolin Band, and the track ‘恭喜恭喜’ (‘Gongxi Gongxi’) - a Mandarin greeting commonly made at Chinese New Year. Chong channels the early 80s sound of Grandmaster Flash or Beat Street, while deftly placing traditional gongs alongside vinyl scratching, drum machines and synth riffs dripping in attitude. With very few Melectronic artists creating music inspired by Chinese New Year, it’s refreshingly quirky and smile-inducing. On the flip is a never-before reissued Malay power ballad by Mazuin Hamzah, a catchy slice of nostalgic synth-pop guaranteed to restyle your hair into a voluminous perm. Hamzah was part of the Malaysian disco supergroup Quinary MM with her siblings, until she left to pursue a solo career in the early 80s. ‘Cinta Di MBawah Seribu Warna’ (translation: ‘Love Beneath A Thousand Colours’) is taken from her last album in 1987 before she left the music industry to marry into the royal family of Brunei. Chong Sau-Lin (called Jeung Siu Lam and Zhang Shaolin in Cantonese and Mandarin respectively) is a popular artist from Malaysia, known for enthusiastically singing in Hakka dialect and Mandarin Chinese about mundane situations or local attractions. Chong has been releasing music since the late 70s including covers of Michael Jackson, while his 90s Eurobeat/hi-NRG song ‘Jalan Alor’ has recently Mbeen re-circulating among international audiences.