Title - Hotel Bangkok
Artist - Blue Asia
Label - King (Japan)
UK distribution - Far Side Music
At first Hotel Bangkok by Blue Asia is the listening experience equivalent of trying to rub your stomach with one hand whilst patting your head with the other: the juxtaposition of rasping traditional instruments and shrill Eastern melodies, with soft jazz piano chords and chunky contemporary dance grooves, seems perverse and awkward in the extreme. But after the second of third listen, producer Makoto Kubota's vision of bringing these two disparate musical traditions together, starts to make sense. Kubota; who is Blue Asia - has already done similar projects in Turkey, Bali and Vietnam, but this is probably the most successful so far. So if you're curious as to what pop music from Jupiter might sound like, give this a listen!