August 25, 2004
Fancy | Fancy Mix Vol. 2 |Fancy | Various Countries
Buy It
Fancy Mix II includes Cantopop godfather Sam Hui, Chinese garage nuggets, "Mao Sound" instrumentals, something that approaches Cambodian electro and the indescribable Korean vocalist E Pak Sa onto a disc that also includes a few non-Asian tracks. At $5 there's no reason to miss it.
Fancy is to fashion magazines what music concrete is to music: its editor takes her camera out on the streets of New York, takes pictures of everyday people and lays out the results in a haphazard pastiche of found fashion. The results are amusing and a little bit wondrous--the spreads of eccentrics, office workers, homeless people (with short interviews on their sense of style and interests) make you realize that consumption-oriented media filter out 99% of the life and people around you.
The two music mix CD-Rs the Fancy folk hawk on their website exemplify the same no-filter approach to music. Fancy Mix II is the standout for me, slapping Cantopop godfather Sam Hui, Chinese garage nuggets, "Mao Sound" instrumentals, something that approaches Cambodian electro and the indescribable Korean vocalist E Pak Sa onto a disc that also includes a few non-Asian tracks.
This is music found in a crack of the sidewalk--and lucky for us, it's the same crack we like to probe around here! Found fashion meets found sound. Tasty stuff... and at $5 the price is so right. There's lots of good Asian stuff on Vol. 1 too--so get 'em both.