Hi like your sound and songs,
just discovered you on soundclick through the grovera website. I sell my cd too on cdbaby.
Really like yours!!!
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So last Friday I cruise into the LitNet office and Erns hooks me up with a CD by the artist Moshang. Jean Marais, or MoShang, originally comes from Bellville, now lives in Taiwan, and makes music of his experiences in the East. He walks around with his MiniDisk permanently ready for action and records sounds that inspire him – then he uses these recordings in his studio.

MoShang’s new 13-song LP called Made in Taiwan is a colourful art piece – the kind one encounters very rarely. One notices this immediately from the bright yellow/blue/red patterns on the album’s cover … very nice. If I have to classify it in a musical genre, it would probably be “Surrounding Electronic”. The musical structure is most unusual for electronic music, which is very refreshing and enjoyable. The longest song on the LP is 4:52, which is much shorter than the standard seven-minute song on classic dance music LP’s, and this keeps things interesting.

MoShang’s music touches one’s soul and gives insight into his world – a world full of inspiration, surprises, emotion, energy and a healthy table spoon of weirdness. From the jazzy “Street Song” to the up-tempo “Under My Skin” MoShang succeeds in creating a genuine Eastern theme throughout the whole album. Full marks!

(translated from Afrikaans)
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When Jean Marais moved to Taichung two years ago, he figured that the quickest way to get to grips with the unfamiliar city sounds was to take to the streets with his mini-disc player and record everything he heard. 

Having amassed several hours of the city's most vibrant sounds, Marais then decided to take his folly to the next level and record an album featuring an eclectic mix of some Taichung sounds and electronica. 

Entitled Made in Taiwan, the result of Marais's offbeat stroll through the streets of Taichung was released last month. A far cry from his previous recording ventures, which included working with pop-duo 12Hc and poet Breyten Breytenbach in his native South Africa, Marais's latest album is a blend of ambient world beat and then some chill-out electonica. 

The fusion of street sounds, which range from the clatter of traffic to the hum of monks chanting and the reverberation of a public karaoke performance, with samples of Oriental instrumentation and ambient world beat-based electronica make Made in Taiwan an enticing listen and, thanks to Marais's studio smarts, one that never misses a beat.

His ambient creations might seem a bit over the top; but Marais isn't out to make a statement he's simply out to entertain. And regardless of theme, be it a funeral, dragon boats or learning Mandarin, all of the tunes are fresh, tight and, most importantly uncluttered. If it's simplistic, yet original localized chill-out you crave then, Made in Taiwan is not a bad place to begin.
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