#26: January 2023
the best Mandopop of the month from XIANG and Kiazly soft-boy emo R&B to Taiwan's new idol groups to a solo downtempo house vacation
The idol groups in Taiwan were S.H.E and Fahrenheit and after that, there was no replicating the same success, so the format was abandoned. But in the ever-growing popularity of idol groups across Asia, the interest in creating idol groups in Taiwan isn’t quite a renewed interest, but a new interest, an attempt to copy pre-existing models from other countries. Dancing Diamond 52, a Produce-style series has been more or less successful,1 creating three groups with their own distinct identities: G.O.F. pulls from traditional instrumentation, HUR did goofy electropop that occasionally strayed into hyperpop territory, and PINK FUN are quietly inventive while sticking to the cutesy aesthetic they’ve built themselves around.
ATOM BOYZ attempted to do something similar last year with a group of male trainees.2 Initially planned for 2021, the series was delayed to 2022 due to COVID outbreaks (which gave rise to the six-member crew, ΛTLΛNTIX). The competition’s format itself is innovative, splitting the eighty trainees into eight planetary groups with their own distinct identities that helped gauge where exactly Taiwanese idol fans had vested interests. Earth is the casually ordinary group, Mercury is the group of young (but not that young) kids, while Venus is the sensual, more feminine-presenting group. It works but it also doesn’t work: Jupiter’s selling point is that they’re tall. That’s it. The group obviously doesn’t go that far.
Its opening two episodes are a three-hour introduction with eight performances and a whole lot of wasted potential. One of the most intriguing parts of the Produce-series has always been those ninety-second introductions, where these contestants manufacture the weirdest version of themselves. Yet when ATOM BOYZ introduces each group, they do it based on the group’s identity, then glaze over the ten members of the group. At one stage, five of the members are selected to perform for the first round and you’re expected to hold your breath wondering who the last one will be despite knowing nothing about them. It’s a boring exercise, not helped by the judges —Ella from S.H.E, NICKTHEREAL, Hsieh Kun-Da, and Popping Ed—giving some of the most benign feedback that basically amounts to generic stan-speak. It comes down to the performances, which are a pretty mixed bag: largely produced by ATUNES and Boiii P, some feel like cheap imitations of K-pop, often without the distinctive genre blending, and even some of the more captivating are set to awkward choreography. The rest of the show coasts on this, going at a snail’s pace, often only giving you a sense of few contestants.
It comes down to then, whether or not the groups are interesting in the aftermath, which itself shows potential despite the fact that there’s a bit of disconnect in terms of identity. Although G.O.F., HUR, and PINK FUN each retained their own distinctive identities, some of the groups that debuted end up losing whatever was part of their distinctive identity. Some build upon what they were on the show, others seem to just relish survival. They’re all only months old, so whether or not that changes is yet to be seen but here’s a rundown of the five groups’ output in the short course of months:
AcQUA
AcQUA were the first group to debut and were originally Mercury, the younger pool of contestants—their debut line-up consists of five members who range from sixteen to twenty-one. Picked up by Seed Music after being long-time fan favourites, their debut single, “AcQUArius” (produced by G5SH and Felipe.Z, two names involved in HUR’s debut), sheds youthfulness for a more grown-up crush song with an awkward, submersive drop but their later two singles have circled back to that freshness: “My Only” explicitly name-checks their advertiser Oatly but the sweet and sprightly “e Love” from last week fares best at capturing the feeling of a teenage crush, with lyrical contributions from two of AcQUA’s members.
Ozone
Ozone were technically the popular vote on ATOM BOYZ—technically since it more or less is five members of the Earth team with another random member added. Listening to “Unicorn” the title track off their debut EP, it becomes abundantly clear he’s there because they wanted to emulate the rapping of K-pop (the group even training in South Korea for a big shortly before debuting; see relay dances) yet it works better without it. Throughout Unicorn, they merge the boy-next door ordinariness of ATOM BOYZ Earth with a colourful brightness that gives their music videos a charmingly dreamy portal fiction vibe. Buoyed by an electric guitar, “Unicorn” resolves nicely on the chorus even if the word “feels” is used way too liberally and no group should introduce a rapper just to have them rap, “there’s no room for sadness bae.” Ozone are at the top of the five in terms of popularity, see: streaming numbers and the retrospective inclusion of their track “Can’t control it” for the latest boy’s love drama (benefits of being on Sony).
FEniX
Two groups were built off TPOP Entertainment in the aftermath, one through crowd-sourced funding (the next one), the other through fan-input. All of these groups have horribly awkward names that are supposedly built on contrived meanings but FEniX has to be the worst: supposedly derived from the word “phoenix,” the “F” stands for five people, “ni” represents non-entity to symbolize coming together as a phoenix. Uh, yeah, okay. Anyway this song sounds like a bland K-pop boy group b-side—understandable when you look at the credits and see two South Korean writers who have written for a handful of K-pop acts, Junsoo and DONGHWAN of ATUNES.
VERA
VERA were the softer, more feminine and sensual group on ATOM BOYZ Venus but there’s a more playful take on what it means to be an idol group here, occasionally ballooning up from six official members to include previous members of ATOM BOYZ Venus, down to giving one member, Bobby, a disco-funk influenced solo on their debut EP, Venus ERA. “Playboyz”—also written by ATUNES—sets uncanny empty-stared raps to a twinkling trap instrumental: “sorry y’all ain’t shit in my eyes / acting all like ‘em sneaky bitches.” A verse from Karencici puts it over the top alongside its music video which features freakishly dollish set-up and an off-putting house party. Of all the groups, VERA are the most effective at evolving their concept from the show.
U:NUS
Despite being the winners, U:NUS took the longest time to debut, just debuting last month, perhaps due to complications in the group. Previously ATOM BOYZ Uranus on the series, fan-favourite Xiao Hai is currently embroiled in sort of romantic scandal/legal dispute (yet his separate participation in events seems to indicate he’ll join the group at a later date) and they’ve dwindled from the winning line-up of seven members to four members. Debut single “U & US” sounds like an extension of their work on the show with writing credits from the four members. Piano melodies and handclaps build to sentimental raps with a muted ‘10s EDM drop and though it underwhelms that the group debut with what’s essentially a fan song, it’s still a rather touching sentiment.
Happy new year! This month saw fewer releases (combination of COVID outbreaks in China and new year’s festivities) but I wrote about Bibi Zhou’s new EP as well as singles by CoCo Lee, Your Woman Sleeps with Others, and XIANG.
Albums
Bibi Zhou - Dating Oneself
Bibi Zhou got her start as the runner-up of the second season of Super Girl—a long-running singing competition series in the same vein as American Idol—back in 2005, right behind Chris Lee. Neither looked like the version of what you’d expect a pop idol to look like, Lee with her spiky hair and androgynous appearance, Zhou with a short bob and glasses, but in the end their output remained overwhelmingly… conventional.3 Zhou's debut was filled with cloying ballads set to western classical music, with the inclusion of unpleasant experiments in pop-rock and dance; much of her following albums stuck to the same standard and dull approach.
Four years after leaving Yuehua Entertainment in 2013 to set up a personal studio, Begins Studio, for her releases, Zhou finally carved her own niche. Not Typical was sleek and stylish as it catered to Zhou’s interests in chilled-out electronic music, produced abroad to find the right producers. From the coolly-inverted flirtation of “Fascination,” produced by K-pop writers Daniel “Obi” Klein and Charli taft, to the bouncy and roomy “强迫症” (“Obsessive Compulsive Disorder”), Not Typical was lustrous. Zhou’s voice still had that cool edge but was less aggressive as she took towards its mellow yet confident atmosphere.
Zhou would continue flirting with art-pop and electronic elements through the tail of 2020, Jessie Ware enlisted Chinese producer Sihan and her for a remix of “Adore You,” transforming its romantic downtempo house track to an unsettling piece of alternative R&B. The confession of “I adore you,” no longer felt like idle worship in Sihan’s aloof production, especially as Zhou’s cooler voice acted as a counter to Ware’s warmth. On her new EP, Dating Oneself, Zhou embraces something in between the original version and the remix of “Adore You,” suspended in the middle of cool-headed alternative R&B and relaxed downtempo dance beats.
It’s a day spent happily alone—Zhou greets a sunny morning in laziness, its atmosphere warm and spacious. Listless stretches and the aroma of coffee, she cozies up to Leo1Bee’s peppy beat. Later, the afternoon stroll of “Lonely You” is something of a balmy vacation. The air weighs heavy but Zhou’s voice is at its warmest here, she’s at leisure as she resolves, “lazy time is not a waste, this time I’m going to do what I want to do.” There’s the thrilling yet nervous anticipation of a date in its muted pulse but her former embarrassment and insecurity are easily cast aside as she embraces her solo outing.
Dating Oneself lazes through the day but comes alive at night, channeling all of its energy into commanding self-love in ecstacy on the dancefloor. Hints of disco and funk appear across the soulful “LOOPOOL.” “yiqi” cowritten by British-Pakistani singer-songwriter Leo Kalyan, fuses Italo-disco and retro house as Zhou gives her most commanding performance, a set of romantic instructions commanded with vigour as it passes by a bit-pop crowd: “what I need from you is to step inside of my fantasies / it’s you, it’s me, it’s true,” she sings, before revealing the statement of self-love at the end. Zhou’s been singing her own praises throughout so it doesn’t come as a revelation, instead, a stirring statement of affirmation. On Dating Oneself, Zhou is easily content in that solitude—lazy and relaxed during the day, the diva house queen at night.
Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify
Singles
Your Woman Sleep with Others - “Till We Meet at the End of Love”
“Till We Meet at the End of Love” begins with two whispers, softly intertwined, yet still attempting to break apart. Your Woman Sleeps with Others recounts a night when two lovers were separated, then repeat it until separation feels natural and reconnecting would be too painful. An acoustic guitar, then a deeper cello, more and more until it feels overwhelming. It should break out here into shouts yet it doesn’t. For a moment, vocalist Zhang Lichang briefly does separate from the harmony in realization of its real build. The melody shifts to something more jovial in its folksy circular loop, “at the end of love, I saw you,” he sings—then the pair sing together until they’re reattaching to one another. The twist should be something more tragic: “maybe it isn’t me kissing the corner of you mouth now, maybe you and him are like you and me were.” Yet “Till We Meet at the End of Love” soldiers on, looping it over and over until the pair come to an understanding in beautiful stillness.
CoCo Lee - “Candy (feat. Masiwei)”
2023 is the year of Asians adding some lyrics en español: Lexie Liu, who must have learned it all from reggaeton, GOT the beat, and Tizzy Bac (it gets very hard to take her KTV ballad seriously when she randomly switches to Spanish to sing “mi corazón te pertenece” throughout). Anyway, points to this new CoCo Lee single for throwing in “yo no necesito a nadie” right as it tries on a reggaeton beat just to kind of reject both. “Candy” unfortunately features a member of the Higher Brothers and its instrumental is basically a bunch of incongruous shorthand signifiers for “Latin music” yet somehow, Lee makes good fun out of it, español and everything.
XIANG - “ 為何妳要假裝忘了我 (feat. Kaizly)”
Off Taiwan’s mainstream R&B scene is one that draws from soft-boy aesthetics and tragic lovelorn romanticism. Flowers and beaches, sepia filters and pastel colours, the intimacy of its video’s false border—XIANG and Kaizly have immortalized their relationship as something beautiful, making the question of “為何妳要假裝忘了我” (“Why Are You Pretending You Forgot Me”) so crushing. “為何妳要假裝忘了我” sounds too comfortable to really ask for an answer, just a pair of overlapping monologues over its soft beat and growing space. Both XIANG and Kaizly run verses that admit outright to being a letdown of a partner: “in fact, I realized long ago that your thoughts are no longer by my side, sorry I think I’m still fit to be a lonely wanderer,” Kaizly raps. Filled with apologies, their own hand stops them from reaching out. XIANG and Kaizly recognize how justified it is to be left in despair. They just didn’t realize it’d hurt so badly.
see also: “我想有妳在的Day&Night” // Kaizly - “適合戀愛的季節” // Mikeyyy Jen & Xinz - “整個世界因為你而停擺”
Find the latest Canto Wrap and Mando Gap playlists on Spotify and me on Twitter here.
There’s some sort of contract and label dispute going on with G.O.F. where apparently the members never actually signed one and have now been in limbo since their debut back in 2020, now over two years ago
At some point (less than thirty minutes into the first episode) someone gave up on actually adding English subtitles — but check out performances on their channel
Chris Lee’s music might have had fewer ballads but her combination of pop-rock and electropop influences are often also not so pleasant