Brasileiro Princess, Z Yan.

Brasileiro Princess, how's this for a musical Christmas gift idea?

As many of our readers would know by now, Brasileiro Princess is the pretty Z Yan, and she is Pop Pop Music's latest artist release. Her music is mostly Mandarin classics and modern pop re-interpreted with a lightly twist of Bossa. There's also one Cantopop track inside which at least for me, didn't amount to much.

From the very first intro prologue, the princess's voice struck me as being larger than her petite frame would suggest in real life. And she wisely avoided singing with that typical queer sounding "falsetto" that many Chinese female audiophile vocalist do, consciously or otherwise. Her voice has enough range to carry off the relaxing & easy going, songs presented here. ML has a knack for spotting talents and moulding diamonds out of carbon. He has also wisely retain the services of Maestro Tey Cher Siang on most of the arrangement and piano work, Roger Wang on guitars, last but not least the highly talented Salvador Guerzo of the Solianos fame, on saxophone. These guys are some of the best musicians in the local music scene.

Amongst my favorite tunes here are Autumnal Night, Let's Go See The Clouds, Romance In The Rain(Cher Siang's Jazz timing signature arrangement is very much at play here), Coyness(a Faye Wong classic remake in typical striped down signature of Pop Pop Music style!), and surely Autumnal Poetry which Salvador's saxophone is so well recorded, that beautifully warm burnish tone, finger and mouth piece control, breathing technique is all exposed evidently that it competes fairly for attention against Z Yan's vocal.

The recording quality is the best yet from Pop Pop Music. The excellent acoustics quality of The Ark Studios is well preserved, most evidently on the highs. Compared to my favorite Jz8 album(another excellent Pop Pop Music recording), the Brasileiro Princess album's highs are very much livelier, less dark and more open. There's more studio ambiance to be heard and instrument placing in the sound stage is less congested and more convincingly spaced, with good depth perception. There's very little additive EQ-ing or reverbs used in this otherwise natural sounding recording.

This is a highly enjoyable album, and during this silly season of giving, I think it makes a perfectly meaningful gift of music for any audiophile or music loving family member and friends.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!