Music Review: "Pulse of the Metropolis"

By Algene Tan

Classical music is wondeful. You can interpret the music in any way you want with a dash of imagination, allowing your emotions to be carried away by the swift expertise of the musicians concerned.

So if you enjoy listening to 'modern' classical artists such as Vanessa Mae, Bond, and Maksim, you will surely love Joanne Yeoh's debut album entitled "Pulse of the Metropolis". And it is proudly 100% Malaysian-made, too! It is a wonderful emotional journey that takes listeners through the depths of melancholy and then surfaces back into the joy of life. It is also a feast for the ears as you listen to Yeoh 'speak' to you through her electric violin, backed up by her excellent band. Most tracks are laced with 'flavours' from all over the world, which further distinguishes her music from Western modern classical artists.

Track One is the title track of the album. Yeoh invites you on a ride to the centre of the metropolis and to feel the hustle and bustle of life as expected in a large and busy city. Listening to this track vividly delivers the message that for city folks such as myself, busyness is a part of life and we thrive on it. And somehow, Yeoh manages to make it all sound exciting!

"Island Paradise" is also similarly very fast-paced, but me it is simply a collection of repetitous melodies and failed to appeal to my emotions (and imagination).

"Valley of the Kings", "The Silk Road" and "New World" gives the listener a feel of mystery, exotica and adventure, as Yeoh tells the story of historical Egypt and the discovery of new lands respectively. So as you can expect, these tracks have a tinge of East Asian music.

Track Four "'Villa' from The Merry Widow" and Track Nine "Yuan's Theme" are personal favourites of mine. Those tracks are like the multicoloured splatters of paint on a white-washed wall so fond as images of postmodern art, and as the climax builds up, even more colours show up on the wall, and the end result is far more chaotic than the beginning. By the end of the tracks, I am left with a mixture of emotions: happy, soothed and sad. Very joyously melancholic.

If you have your Bible, turn to Revelations 16:18 before you listen to the track aptly named "Revelation 1618". I personally felt the fury and fear that Yeoh was trying to portray to her listeners, and had a glimpse in my mind as to how that verse would come to pass in the near future.

Yeoh opens a door to the past and seems to want listeners to reminisce upon the journey in life we have made so far with the tracks "I Remember" and "Jauh-Jauh". They are soothing tunes and nostalgia is what you would feel while listening to the tracks.

I would certainly recommend "Pulse of the Metropolis" to every classical music listener. If you are not, perhaps listening to Joanne Yeoh can make you a convert!