Category: Music

  • Quickies on Hu Tu Tu

    You do probably know that my Hindi should suck, but that doesn’t stop me from keeping my iTunes library in order… which means I take all of the tracks from Indian movies that I’ve downloaded and try to give an English translation — after all, I should know, at least, what the title of a song means! That, of course, means that titles from hard-to-find movies/OSTs have to do with my own interpretation. One of them is Hu Tu Tu, because no one’s bothered to translate the songs… and my copy of the movie doesn’t come with subtitles in the sung parts.

    Most of the titles are easy- Chhai Chhapa Chhai is classic onomatopoeic Gulzar (Jhini Mini Jhini from Maqbool gave me a clue), Jai Hind Hind (Hail, India!), Bandobast Hai (It’s the System), Ghapla Hai Bhai (It’s a Mess, Brother), and Jago Jago Jagte Raho (Get Up, Always Be Awake) seem quite straight forward. Even Yeh Nam Aankhein (These Drenched Eyes) can seem easy when compared to Itna Lamba Kash Lo Yaaron and Nikla Neem Ke Talese Nikla.

    So what do those last titles mean?

    I’ve sort of translated Itna Lamba Kash Lo Yaaron– since Itna refers to a Quantity (this much or so much), Lamba refers to the Length (height or otherwise), Kash means to Take a Puff or a Smoke (considering the scene), and Yaaron refers to Friends. I sorta translated it to It’s Such a Long Smoke, My Friend. And in the lyrics~

    Itna lamba kash lo yaaron, dam nikal jaaye
    Zindagi sulagaao yaaron, gam nikal jaaye
    Yaaron, yaaron

    Dam = (staying) Power
    Nikal = Get out/get lost
    Sulagaao/Sulagana = Ignite/set on fire
    Gam = Regret

    It’s such a long smoke, my friend.
    Power, be gone.
    Life is set on fire, my friend.
    Regret, be gone.

    How did I do with that?

    Though, Nikla Neem Ke Talese Nikla escapes my comprehension. It doesn’t even look Hindi to me- oh, wait. Never mind. *goes crazy* Why is Talese together when it should be Tale Se? As in Nikla Neem Ke Tale Se Nikla (निकला नीम के तले से निकला) *growls*

    Anyone ANYONE who is able to help me out with that title and make my life easier?- I’ll love you forever! LOL From the deep Google that I did, Nikla seemed to refer to “being out,” or “something that sticks out” and I know Neem can refer to the bitterness of the Neem tree [1] or the tree itself, and Tale is “the bottom or base of something” — Does that mean… The Bottom of the Neem Tree Turned Upside Down? LOL, I need to watch this movie again. xD


  • From the Vault: Marit and Marion for Pretty Boy in Mandarin

    If you bother to scan comments from Marit Larsen’s (or Marion’s) fandoms, you’d notice that she has a sizable following in South East Asia (Malaysia and Singapore pop up a lot), as well as Latin Americans (Mexico and Chile are the most frequent), and it just suddenly clicked to me why this might have happened. One of them is, of course, this clip of M2M singing the Mandarin version of their Shades of Purple single Pretty Boy. Then there’s the even rarer version of M2M’s Everything You Do [MV] in Spanish- aptly translated to Todo lo que Haces [MV].

    My Mandarin is not perfect, but it sounds pretty okay… as does their Spanish. As the Japanese would say~~~ ah, natsukashii na.

    Also~ I can’t wait for Marit’s new album.


  • The Tabu Filmography in Just Music

    In honor of the release of Haider today/tomorrow and me not being able to watch it until it hits the DVD/Bluray shelves… or EROSNOW (or someone else) decides to VOD it early or *cough*… I had been curating a YouTube playlist of all the music sequences -choreographed or not- (and item songs or special apperances) in Tabu’s filmography, which has resulted in a list of over 83 clips (est: 6 hours) from Tabu’s participation not only in Hindi films, but also Telugu, Tamil… and the random Malayalam clip that I was able to find.

    The list has time to expand with rarer to find clips, I suppose, including (at least) one or two more clips for Idee Sanghati, as well as other regional movies that aren’t on YouTube. There are also clips that are included in their dubbed version (with the original title and the language they’re on), because the original audio isn’t available… as well as repeated clips in better resolutions than their “official” uploads.


  • That Day with Jamyang Dolma

    Not exactly new talent, but just discovered~

    Jamyang Dolma (降央卓玛) is a Chinese singer, though I’m sure people would identify as Tibetan (for the obvious folk roots in her music, as well), who has been featured on CCTV programming. I’m pretty sure she would identify as Chinese or Chinese Tibet, otherwise she wouldn’t be featured on the channel. She’s also done her music school at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music [1], where all the famous people in the industry have studied… including famed Super Girl Chris Lee [1][2] ;P

    And lately Chen Bing [1].

    I just sorta fell in love with that song That Day (那一天), which is included on this 2014 album called Golden Calling II (金色的呼唤 II), which you can preview on Xiami, while some of her stuff is also available on iTunes.


  • Monday Blues, How About You!

    I finally get the LOEN 1theK thing re-brand. WON-DAH-K, Wonder K? Right? Too slow? Didn’t care much maybe? ANYWAY~

    SunnyHill released the first part of their Sunny Blues album (which is pretty good), and have just released one of them videos where they teach how to dance for Monday Blues, but they never seem to time that release to an ACTUAL Monday. But still~~~ SeungAh is being ridiculously over-the-top Aegyo cute. I can’t seem to resist it.

    How can this be dork, cute and sexy all at the same time?


  • Marit Doesn’t Wanna Talk About It

    I felt kinda okay-ish when the song was leaked a couple of weeks ago, but now I kinda have started to really like it. Marit Larsen’s I Don’t Want to Talk About It shall be included in Marit’s 4th full-length studio album titled When the Morning Comes [1].

    I wonder if it will be available in Amazon. I think it’d be sad to discontinue my Marit album collection, even though -according to my records- I’ve shifted 99% of my music activities to stream and downloads. With a record of just one physical album released in 2013 (which was a special gift I got).


  • Chen Bing for Mayday’s Eternal Summer

    Since I was kinda lukewarm with Season 2 of The Voice of China, and the format of the show seems to have expanded… and I don’t have my dad to watch with, I haven’t been following this year’s season. Just reading Cfensi’s recaps. xD

    Also, there’s not as much variety of music genres and voices like in the first season. However, I’m always game for someone who wants to sing Mayday, because as my dad would note… there is a certain flare to Mayday’s music, as well as Ashin’s voice (plus composition skills!). Nobody can really do Mayday’s music like Mayday can.

    But damn~ Chen Bing (陈冰), aka. Kiki, does it pretty well.

    I’m not sure about being Kiki Chen, though. And it can’t be plain Kiki, because there’s Kiki from Milk@Coffee.

    You can also get the clean song on Xiami, because those damn The Voice special effects can get in the way.


  • The Late 2012-2013 Music Highlights

    amys-2012-2013-music-highlights-yammag

    I think I could work more on the 2013 list, but then it will be 2015! LOL I also hate that I don’t have my font pack at hand because this graphic is UHHHH-GLAY. My Frankenstein Computer is back! I’m so happy~

    Anyway, here are 30 album picks by all different artists that released (almost) full-length albums these last two years. And here are all their covers in gallery form, and here’s a Facebook Gallery, it contains some playlists and iTunes links. And here’s a Xiami playlist, where you can (almost) access all the albums. And a Weibo post in case you’re there.

    And here’s the YAM Magazine list that contains all my ramblings, with playlist/streaming and buy links.


  • Take the Night (or Day) Off for this Laura Marling Medley

    Not so much ‘big vocal chops’ as ‘lyricist to watch out for,’ but Laura Marling’s voice is lovely nonetheless. This is a lovely medley she did for WNYC with -probably- the strongest segment in her album Once I Was an Eagle; Take the Night Off, I Was an Eagle, You Know and Breathe.

    She’s a 24-year-old from the UK… and this is hardly ‘new talent’ as she’s on her 4th album already. She’s 4 or 5 years younger than Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and 2 years younger than Rihanna.

    Whatever happened to the US music industry?