About Zhu Xingjie's album, it can also be regarded as a small witness.
In May last year, Zhu Xingjie's album planning and supervising producer LiuShui Ji once sent a demo named "xingyechutao", listening to the whole song, I felt that Zhu Xingjie's creation and expression could maintain the smooth and pleasant melody under the dynamic of one breath, and still be able to fully present the ups and downs of the rhythm, vertical and horizontal, and three-dimensional.
This song is actually "Starry Night Escape" from this album.
Speaking of this "JLOOP" album, my first concern is whether it is an album or not, and this has almost become my own rating of whether an album is excellent in recent years.
In addition to using Intro, Interlude (two segments) and Outro as a musical series, the entire album also divides nine works other than "Fantasy" into a trilogy, and each part is divided into trilogies, forming a double correlation of size, and also makes the album "JLOOP" have a more three-dimensional concept than the general concept album.
As the debut album of a young musician, "JLOOP" can be said to be a highly conceptual and story-based album, which also reflects the higher shaping and integration of an album on the basis of song-based, so that the integration of songs and songs, and independently become a whole in another dimension.
Isn't that what it means to make an album? Otherwise, there is no difference between making an album and doing a single multiplied by 10, and the word album becomes meaningless, and it can be completely replaced by a single set, a song selection, and so on.
In addition to the fact that "JLOOP" has completed a good conceptual framework from the album level, the works on the album also revitalize this concept very well, so that the whole album has both a highly unified concept and spiritual vivid details.
Although the "Space Trilogy" tells the story of the scientists of the future world in search of the disappearing lovers, it is also remarkable at the musical level, and there is a creative sense of "tailor-made" in the synchronization of musical style and theme.
For example, the electrified rock of "Starry Night Escape" has both a futuristic sense created by the sound of electronic synthesizers and a sound full of realistic tension such as rock, which also makes the concept of "space" a good reflection of the dual texture between virtual reality and reality.
"Know it" is also the same thing. Underneath synthwave's base, elements from Funk and Bossa Nova are also interspersed. This combination of retro and technology is actually a combination of abstraction and figuration. It is also this combination that makes people have a sense of substitution, can form a fulcrum of empathy and resonance, compared to the ethereal abstraction, this balance is precisely a test of musicians' creation and expression.
It is worth mentioning that the vocal design and overall choreography of "Know it" have made the work a soundtrack without images like images, with ups and downs, mysterious and unpredictable, and as exciting as star wars blockbusters.
"Falling" is a work that can reflect Zhu Xingjie's situation creation and emotional expression after the rhythm. The weak whispering method, the different chanting directions of true voice and harmony, also reflect the sensitivity and complexity of human nature to the fullest.
A good album has a lot of features, but it's also important to have a relationship with you and me, which is well reflected in the second part of the JLOOP album, "Through the Trilogy.".
The rhythm and timbre of the R&B in "Millennium Love Project" can undoubtedly remind people of those spring, summer, autumn and winter of twenty years ago, and such feelings have also firmly grasped the hearts of countless listeners, making music a tribute, and the memories of singers and fans are warm because of such overlap.
"Obsessed with You" is full of The Hong Kong style of the 1980s, and the use of the saxophone style is just right, which also makes the tone of the work also have the atmosphere of the European and American radio love songs of the 1980s. Through music and breath, crossing is no longer just a dream, but a real touch.
"Mirror Flower Water Moon" is the most prominent work of the whole album, from the aspects of music technology, integration and innovation.
This work is not only a crossing, but also a completely new structure through the deconstruction of music. Although it can be said to be a work with a "Chinese style" theme, the work that integrates a large number of elements such as opera, electronics and rap has actually reached a higher latitude.
Among them, the atmosphere of oriental wind music such as shakuhachi, loss and flute, the integration of electronic beats and opera singing voices, coupled with Zhu Xingjie's interpretation and expression of R&B and national style in one, also makes "Mirror Flower Water Moon" have multiple time and space mirrors, mirror and water, flower and moon, quite a real and false time and true oriental aesthetic effect.
The "Crossing Trilogy" has reached this point, which is both a crossing and a return, a tribute and a creation. Although the album is a story, the story is related to the music.
By the time of the Evolution Trilogy, the story begins to come to an end and the sense of reality is stronger.
"Tonight's Life-Saving Action", which shangguan likes to cooperate with, makes the adventure more conflicting, which comes from the "confrontation" between male and female voices, but also from the cold and cold personality conflict, as well as the "opposition" between classical and jazz. And Zhu Xingjie's "whistle" is really the finishing touch, so that a retro rhythm work has a modern horn feeling.
The clichés and romance in "Mint Sugar Beach" are intertwined, so that the sensitivity and aesthetics of the individual are presented in a three-dimensional way in an interlaced way. You hear a real Zhu Xingjie, but also a romantic musician, they interlaced and glued to each other, building a beach, but also shaping a most complete musician at this stage - Zhu Xingjie.
As for Mary, it's more of an open-ended ending. Mary is not only a figurative person, but also an abstract emotion, as direct and ambiguous as all artistic creations, realistic but romantic, and it is this complexity that makes music have a cute, hateful and mysterious multi-dimensional sense of hearing and feeling.
Everything is like a movie, more exciting than a movie. In addition to letting people hear a complete and thrilling story, the whole album also includes these wonderful dramatic plots, Zhu Xingjie and his friends, through the music's changeable and ingenious gameplay, finally realized the synchronization of musical creativity and album concept.
Returning to the topic of album concept, when the album has become an old form and a symbol of feelings, the album "JLOOP" not only uses detailed works, plus the concept of structural three-dimensionality, combined into a complete album, even if it is put into the golden age of records, it is an ideal album. More importantly, through the collocation of the film concept MV, through the interaction and complementarity of hearing and vision, "JLOOP" is based on the traditional concept album, extending a more modern "concept video story album", which not only completes the inheritance in the classic, but also completes the upgrade.