Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Guardian Review, 12 Oct 2007
If the campaign to promote her doesn't backfire, Sa Dingding deserves to be the first Chinese singer-songwriter to become a celebrity in the west. Her debut CD includes a glossy booklet that claims she is "an unprecedented and mysterious artist" and shows her meditating in exotic robes, like some glamorous new age princess. I suspect that there's rather more to her. She has indeed studied Buddhism, as well as a variety of languages, and her songs are inventive and adventurous. She has a fine, versatile voice and can switch from soulful ballads, in which she is backed by keyboards or her own zheng (Chinese zither), to sections where gutsy, Tibetan-influenced male chanting is set against a subtle use of electronica that is far more successful than on the recent album by that other Asian diva, Uzbekistan's Savara Nazarkhan. Sa Dingding's blend of the traditional east and modern west actually works.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing record, 14 Sep 2007
SA DING DING represents a modern China, she beautifully combines rhythms of different Asian regions including Tibet and Mongolia with Western electronica and influences of classical and soul. The result is a richly layered tapestry of the ethereal, escapist, eclectic and simply unforgettable, resulting in her being the biggest star in South East Asia, selling in excess of 2 million albums.
With engaging beauty and graceful reverence, Sa Ding Ding sing lyrics in Mandarin, Tibetan, Sanskrit, and a unique language the artist came up with herself, Sa Ding Sing's album should come as a fresh breeze to the World Music scene.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fly Review, 15 Oct 2007
If she were singing in English, Sa Ding Ding might already be a global superstar. Her striking voice is unmistakably East Asian, but with an elegance and soulful poise with which a broader audience should easily be able to connect.
The songs (sung in Tibetan, Mandarin, Sanskrit or Sa Ding Ding's own self-created language) are built around traditional Chinese folk music but exquisitely executed with refined use of programmed electronic sounds and beats in tandem with Chinese instrumentation -gu zheng zither (sounding particularly effective on the title track), ma tou qin violin and bamboo flute.
`Haunting' is a word that comes constantly to mind, especially on the aforementioned title track and another highlight `Lagu Lagu', on which Sa Ding Ding really pushes her voice to its emotional limits, one moment delicately, playfully dancing over washes of keyboard and ethereal backing vocals, the next stretching her voice out almost to a shout against a thudding percussion backbeat.
An exceptional track but the centrepieces of the album are the pair of tracks that appear in two forms on the album (delivered first in Tibetan, then Mandarin). `Holy Incense' is delicately flavoured, hauntingly melodic and with atmospheric male backing.
Contrastingly, the title track is magnificent in its brooding, stalking defiance, with Sa Ding Ding's voice at its sweet but unyielding best as programmed beats and guitar crash against traditional instruments. A great brace of songs on a very impressive album.
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~ Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
~ Rachel Unthank And The Winterset
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