Sheng-Xiang & Band (生祥樂隊)

Sheng-Xiang Lin (林生祥) is one of the best singer-songwriters in the history of Taiwanese music.

His former group Labor Exchange Band (交工樂隊) has been recognized as the most important protest band against unfair reconstruction of a huge dam which would destroy local ecosystem and beautiful environment.

After the group disbanded, Sheng-Xiang keeps a long term cooperation with a famous poet Yong-Feng Zhong (鍾永豐). The duo kept on writing songs and has won numerous music awards. Sheng-Xiang has also tried to build an electric yueqin (月琴) to put this traditional instrument into a more modern rock’n’roll context.

On their new double-disc concept album, “Village Besieged” (圍庄), they try to make people more aware of the environment pollution and the huge damage that petrochemical industry might bring.

Sheng-Xiang has teamed up with a Japanese guitarist Ken Ohtake (大竹延), bassist Toru Hayakawa (早川徹), percussionist Alex Wu (吳政君) from Sizhukong (絲竹空樂團), drummer Noriaki Fukushima (福島紀明) and Suona (嗩吶) musician Po-Yu Huang (黃博裕).

The big band brings the audience more delicate sound structures and meaningful Hakka lyrics. With the combination of Beiguan (北管) and punk music, there is no doubt the album “Village Besieged” will start a new chapter in the history of the Taiwanese music scene.

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Sheng-Xiang & Band on YouTube, Facebook.

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