Thrift Score Rec. V.A. : Teen Dance Music from China and Malaysia (SING,MAL,HK,TW,60’s-‘70s)***°
This really is a great compilation of varied mostly late sixties music from the east that has an a go-go exotism (especially in the rhythms), inspiration from spaghetti westerns (and James Bond of course) with the inevitable Shadows/Ventures guitars, organ sounds, a bit of fuzz here and there and psychedelica, a-go-go dance elements, chachacha. After track 13, starting with the Man Chau Po Orchestra some tracks are a bit more silly or fun tracks, but also such tracks are charming enough to hear. In the end I think I still like this Man Chau Po Orchestra the best (there are 5 tracks of them listed troughout the album), but I liked the compilation album better with each listen.
* One small flaw I must mention is that several tracks have tiny skips I think caused by skating of the pick-up used to record the original LP or single tracks.
* About the title I must say that this compilation can impossibly span music from China. I guess the Chinese fonts can work confusing. There were a few countries that gained independence from China, like Taiwan (?) and Hong Kong (which is now back under Chinese government). Countries with comparable music style influences were Malaysia and Singapore.
