In Taiwan, the chill-out lounge and the temple gardens are within comfortable walking distance from one another... on your way, you will hear ads blared from blue-trucks, street processions, Buddhist funeral chants, snippets of songs wafting from windows. Like a musical diary, "Made in Taiwan" reflects one foreigner’s first impressions of Asia and captures moments from everyday life. Whilst taking delight in its strangeness, it places it in the more familiar musical context of western electronica with styles ranging from downtempo to breakbeat. Whereas an Asian audience will be more familiar with the sounds that are so exotic to foreigners, they will hear these sounds interpreted in a fresh and personal way. Either way, "Made in Taiwan" is a unique and engaging listening experience. MoShang is a sound jeweler living in Taiwan. He collects rough audio-diamonds from the streets of Taiwan (be they overheard conversations, street-ads blared from the ubiquitous blue-trucks, street processions or funeral chants) and fuses them with traditional Chinese instruments and laid-back beats to create a unique blend of downtempo electronica he likes to call "Chinese Chill". Although he is slightly embarrassed to admit it, MoShang (aka Jean Marais) started his musical career as a choral singer in his native South Africa in the early 1980's. Around the same time, he received his first computer - a Commodore VIC-20. His passion for music and computers would eventually culminate in the release of his debut solo album "Made In Taiwan" in 2004. Along the way, MoShang was the front man of Duusman (an Afrikaans language art rock band), played the saxophone for Tsunami (on the Gallo Jazz label), and produced 10 tracks on three award-winning music and poetry albums with the celebrated South African poet Breyten Breytenbach. He was half of the Afrikaans pop-duo 12Hz with Riku Latti (their debut "Nou" has been described as the most progressive Afrikaans album ever) and he received a South African AVANTI award for his music to the short film "Angels in a Cage". Moshang's track "Nun Other" was a finalist in the 2005/2006 International Songwriting Competition. *** "Hi!!! I Bought your cd! It's some phat beats you've got in there plus the use of hehe - Delay Lama to create that monk funeral chant thingee... it's sweet!" Gene Boo, SoundClick message board *** "Fabulous CD. I ordered it off CDbaby a week or two ago. Very enjoyable. I played 'Dragonbeat' for the Chinese New Year at our little local club night. Perfect." DJ Evily, Myspace message