Live review from Underground 107:
Setlist:
1.
2. 清晰畫面
3. That’s My Way to Love You
4. Colour Wheel
5. Waterfall
6. 鯨魚又會出現
7. 劃破黑白
Purple Eye has been around for a few years, in one form or another, and for fewer of those few years, they have had a different singer, Carol. Now, I have primarily heard them with their previous singer, so I was curious as to how they would sound with a different style of singer. As it turns out, Carol suits their style quite a lot better than their earlier singer, with her less forceful, more melodic manner of singing and, frankly, more focus on singing. Indeed, her lighter touch suits the light pop-Latin elements in Purple Eye’s sound better, giving them greater finesse. She also avoids several singing pitfalls that many vocalists do fall into, such as over-breathiness. She sings well, and no hamming, perhaps best exemplified on 隨先隨影. They’ve tended towards lightly broody melodies, always sounding sweet by dint of the acoustic guitars used, like That’s My… and Colour Wheel. But, it’s more than that, the sweet sound is created as much by the melodies as by the instrumental timbre, which is a mix of the delicate generic acoustic-pop sound, mixed in with some Gipsy-Kings overtones and a Joan Baez-like folky feel. It was interesting to see, though, that some of their songs which were apparently newer compositions were indeed more stripped down, as they announced, and didn’t have the same veneer of slightly gloomy sound that their earlier ones tend to have. This works out differently on different songs, while Waterfall is much like 90s throwaway pop, 鯨魚又會出現 has the feel of a serene-yet-rousing lullaby, like a non-whiney Alanis Morissette.
Now, there’s nothing really revolutionary here, so there is a feeling of already-covered ground there. Their lyrics in English are a tad hackneyed, but I’m reliably informed that this isn’t the case in Chinese. They do their best to keep things interesting with some deep-toned spoken word and jokey trumpet-imitation by guitarist Bonnie. Combine that with how the styles of the two guitarists contrast with each other – one stolidly laying the foundation of the music and the other gently elaborating on the base – is fascinating, and they’re engaging on stage, judging by the reaction from their audience, and they clearly seem to have identified a new line of attack that’s promising, so perhaps there are even better things to come in the future.
— Shashwati Kala
Message from Purple Eye about CD 4 Launch Party A:
Thanks Chris B and Koya san who support local music heartily! The venue is cool with good gimmick, of course with good music (XD) to make this wonderful night! We enjoyed meeting different bands that night and pleased to meet music fans who show their support to local music!
Hope this CD and parties launch for years and years! We look forward to playing The Underground again soon.
– Purple Eye
