Sandy Lam - Late Night Solitude (1988)

I had no idea how good Cantopop was until I heard this song. The Cantonese language is already a very relative based melodic language made up of multiple tone inflections. So, to create a melody within a melodic language is pretty impressive and kind of an incredible thing to hear be done in the style of synth pop.

This track is absolutely anchored on the synth bass which is completely played in a sequencer. I know that because the songs tempo doesn't waver at all. that's kind of the big difference between the early 80s and the later 80s. The early 80s had super rudimentary sequencers and almost no midi functionality, so the synths were performed live. Whereas the later 80s had composer who could record their performance in a sequencer and fix all the mistakes in timing. As a result, the 80s got more and more robotic and metallic as they went. Further and further from the warmer swimming fat tones of the early part of the decade.

Having said all that, I absolutely love the vocal performance in this track as well. Sandy Lam is a legitimately entertaining vocalist who is still making music these days. Though the real gems are the stuff she did in the 80s.

Most of which came with Cantonese music videos which I find super fascinating. Observe: