The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

Posted: 23 Oct 2011 11:57 PM PDT

The joy of discovering music can be experienced once again with Wowloud, the first cloud music service in Malaysia.

IMAGINE a cloud in the virtual sky, filled with over a million songs, ready to rain down into your PC and smart phone via the Internet ... all for free. That's what Wowloud, Malaysia's (and possibly Asia's) first cloud music service, promises to do. Well, metaphorically, of course.

All you have to do to acquire the service is log onto the website (wowloud.com), download the 37.7MB software, install it on your PC, and voila! You can now listen to over a million songs without having to worry about hard disk space or downloading time. And best of all, you can bring your favourite playlists along with you anywhere you go (as long as you have an Internet connection, of course), and you don't even have to pay a single cent!

According to Chung Jaan Hao, CEO of MNC Wireless Berhad, a mobile and Internet media company that developed Wowloud, the idea for Wowloud came about when he realised one day that he spent more time listening to music on his PC and smart phone than on his hi-fi stereo at home. "I spend so much time on the go these days that I have no time to listen to music on my stereo. I have stacks of CDs at home, but I don't have the time to go through them and look for music to listen to!" he said. "In fact, these days, I tend to listen to music only when I am at my PC, or on the phone."

The service is currently only available for the PC, but an app for smart phones will also be released soon.

Besides being the first cloud music service in Malaysia, Wowloud is also the first company in the region to have signed licensing agreements with all four major record labels in Malaysia, including Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony Music Entertainment and One Stop Music. This gives them access to more than a million songs from a myriad of genres, including mainstream pop, rock, hip-hop, dance, classical, children's music, K-pop, Canto-pop, and even Bollywood tunes.

"We are still in the midst of building the library, but we aim to have more than one million songs by the end of November," said Chung. "That's almost seven years of non-stop, no repeats music!"

All that music at your fingertips, and all for free? Sounds too good to be true? Well, you better believe it. Chung assured us that the service would definitely be free, as it is supported by ads. However, if you don't like having ads popping up in between every other song, then you can also choose to pay RM9.90 a month for a premium service that will not only be ad-free, but higher quality music files, as well.

Using the software is pretty easy, too. The search engine is fast and responsive, and it is fairly easy to navigate as well. There is hardly any buffering time or lag in the songs, and setting up the playlists is just a matter of searching for the songs you want, and dragging them into the playlist.

Another pretty nifty feature is its ability to recognise Chinese han yu phonetics. Type "Wang Fei" in the search box and it'll come up with a list of songs by Faye Wong. Of course, if you know the English names of the singers, you can also type in Faye Wong or Jacky Cheung and it'll get the job done as well (Unfortunately, the song titles and names are still in Chinese).

Chung said that the whole point of the service is to help people relive the thrill of discovering music. "We've lost the joy and experience of discovering music today. In the past, we used to spend hours listening to radio stations for new songs; or going to CD shops and trying out dozens of CDs to decide which one we should buy with the limited cash we had," he recalled. "People these days don't go to CD stores anymore. In fact, many young people these days have never bought a CD before! The joy of discovering music is gone, and we want to bring that back through Wowloud."

To sign up, visit wowloud.com.

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Heading South

Posted: 22 Oct 2011 11:50 PM PDT

The effervescent Joe South is destined to be known through cover versions of his great songs.

SINCE you're taking the trouble to read this music history column, I can confidently bet that you've caught yourself bellowing out a Joe South song at some point in your life. There's a fair chance though that you would not have been aware of it. For Joe South was a talented recording artiste and an even more magical songwriter whose fate it has been to have his songs carried to greater heights by other performers.

First off there's Hush, a hit by Deep Purple in the 1960s and Kula Shaker in the 1990s. And then there's the country evergeen (I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden which reaped all manner of success thanks to Lynn Anderson's version in 1971. Or how about the reggae hit Games People Play, which was a nightclub staple back in 1994?

Surely you've dug his stuff?

Well, Joe South (born Joe Souter in 1940) in his prime was an unmistakable talent. His very first foray into recorded music was as a teenager, recording a follow up of sorts to Sheb Wooley's chart-topping novelty song The Purple People Eater. His particular recording was The Purple People Eater Meets The Witch Doctor which came out in 1958.

That didn't bring him very far, but South became an accomplished session musician by the early 1960s. He backed Wilson Pickett, and played on Aretha Franklin's memorable hit Chain Of Fools. Never one to be confined by styles and sounds, his playing also graced Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde and some early Simon & Garfunkel recordings.

His talent as a songwriter also started showing itself when he provided Billy Joe Royal with Down In The Boondocks, which became a Top 10 hit in 1965. South wrote a number of other songs for Royal, but they weren't quite as successful. The last prominent single was Hush however, which then became a monster tune for Deep Purple, then in groovy 1960s hipsters mode as opposed to the heavy rock icons they would soon become.

In the late 1960s, South began recording his own albums. In a prolific period from 1969 to 1971, he recorded four albums including Introspect, Games People Play and Don't It Make You Want To Go Home. South's (ahem) Southern roots gave him a fantastic country-soul-rock blend that few have come close to achieving. He was capable of marrying great lyrics to simple catchy tunes, and yet was unafraid to experiment. He was one of the first users of the electric guitar/sitar and pieces like the jam-driven A Million Miles Away and Hole In Your Soul (a heady mix of Elvis, sitars and gospel voices) were bang in tune with the psychedelic era.

Another classic was Walk A Mile In My Shoes a plea for racial tolerance which was recorded by Harry Belafonte, Jerry Lee Lewis and even the afore-mentioned Elvis! South's compostions kept attracting fellow performers and the country performer Freddie Weller (These Are Not My People) and Paul Revere (Birds Of A Feather) also enjoyed success with his compositions. South himself pocketed a pair of Grammy's for his innovative recordings and the future looked rosy.

However in 1971, the tragedy of his brother's suicide changed things for Joe South. His brother Tommy was drummer in his performing band, and South soon found himself unable to continue. His greatest run of success however came at this point when Anderson had a string of hits with his tunes. (I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden alone became one of those immortal songs that will never stop playing.

Joe South is still alive but has played it pretty low-key since the mid-1970s. Those who come into contact with him say he's one of the friendliest, down-to-earth musicians there ever was. I can't help but wonder what more gems he could have served up myself.

● Martin Vengadesan, a music lover and history buff, combines his two passions in his fortnightly column. If you have an interesting story you want him to research, drop him an e-mail.

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Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Isnin, 24 Oktober 2011

The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

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