My hunt for info on yesterday's Sodagreen entry brought up a personal forgotten Hong Kong gem called AT17. I became immediately interested in the band when I saw the cover for their 2003 album entitled Kiss Kiss Kiss. Girls, you done Paul and Gene good! As the cover may lead you to believe, AT17 is not your typical Cantopop duo, who favor lyrical and musical quality to being pop idols. AT17 consists of Canadian, Ellen Joyce Loo and HK native Eman Lam, who are both involved considerably in the songwriting and production for their albums. Loo plays the guitar and piano, while Lam plays the guitar and various percussion instruments. Loo and Lam met each other at a singing competition called 'Original Music 2000' (原音2000) held by Tom Lee Music Hong Kong, where Loo won the 3rd Prize and Lam won the 2nd Prize. They were the youngest participants. They began to tour universities together and about a year later were discovered by, Anthony Wong Yiu Ming, the chairman of the music production company People Mountain People Sea and a renowned singer of the 90's. Lam and Loo was then signed by the company on 1 January 2002, and the group was named at17.
While I think their first few albums sometimes suffered for the typical Chinese pop over-production, their most recent effort is very well packaged. Just out this August, Bian Bian Bian feels like the album they really wanted to make. The acoustic element so important in their live shows (check their performance of Radiohead's Paranoid Android) finally comes to life on the album as well.The sound is pleasantly stripped down where it needs to be and tastefully fills in along the journey.
There is nothing in life I enjoy more
than music. Like Tower Records says,
No Music No Life. This blog is dedicated
to the music that makes me smile.
I hope you’ll like it too!
The picture of me is by my awesome
sister, Kelly! It makes me smile a lot!
My hunt for info on yesterday's Sodagreen entry brought up a personal forgotten Hong Kong gem called AT17. I became immediately interested in the band when I saw the cover for their 2003 album entitled Kiss Kiss Kiss. Girls, you done Paul and Gene good! As the cover may lead you to believe, AT17 is not your typical Cantopop duo, who favor lyrical and musical quality to being pop idols. AT17 consists of Canadian, Ellen Joyce Loo and HK native Eman Lam, who are both involved considerably in the songwriting and production for their albums. Loo plays the guitar and piano, while Lam plays the guitar and various percussion instruments. 
Loo and Lam met each other at a singing competition called 'Original Music 2000' (原音2000) held by Tom Lee Music Hong Kong, where Loo won the 3rd Prize and Lam won the 2nd Prize. They were the youngest participants. They began to tour universities together and about a year later were discovered by, Anthony Wong Yiu Ming, the chairman of the music production company People Mountain People Sea and a renowned singer of the 90's. Lam and Loo was then signed by the company on 1 January 2002, and the group was named at17.
While I think their first few albums sometimes suffered for the typical Chinese pop over-production, their most recent effort is very well packaged. Just out this August, Bian Bian Bian feels like the album they really wanted to make. The acoustic element so important in their live shows (check their performance of Radiohead's Paranoid Android) finally comes to life on the album as well.The sound is pleasantly stripped down where it needs to be and tastefully fills in along the journey. 
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