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Pop music reviews will be added regularly. Both indie artists/bands and the well known and signed acts. So, browse around and take a look, you are bound to find something you enjoy. If it's your first time at Rikks Revues be sure to check out the archives as well. Enjoy your stay and the review of Ming & Ping's mingping.com.

To visit Ming & Ping's website click on their cd cover, to hear an MP3 lo-fi sample, click on the text link after the review.

Ming & Ping
mingping.com

Ming & Ping - mingping.com

I really thought the eighties had died and gone by the way side. You know what I mean, the euro synth-pop we all seemed to love so much like Dead or Alive, the Thompson Twins, Thomas Dolby, New Order, and the like. Well, recently, not just with the resurgence of eighties (80s) music, but also some artists were a bit younger and were brought up on this stuff, and they are recording new intelligent (sometimes) songs that are sure to keep the synth-pop movement alive and well. Enter Ming & Ping, twin brothers from Hong Kong, now sharing an apartment in San Francisco.

Well, Ming & Ping on their CD mingping.com which is also a great way to advertise your website, title your CD the site's name, make a good point, this music is still good and CAN (doesn't always) sound fresh even in the new millenium. There are times the CD gets redundant like on Mission Control which would do well in dance clubs but means next to nothing but repetitive when you are listening on your own. Ming & Ping not only sound like, but they look the part too with the overabundance of eyeliner and mousse, maybe gel too.

The twins are at home in the techno synth world, I could have done without the bit of banter the two try and pull off between some of the tracks, but hey it's their project not mine. There are times on the CD ypou may feel like you are in an eighties arcade too, some of the sounds are flashbacks to Pac-Man and other era video games. The thing is you can feel the energy the two are trying to put across, and this works. I hear more of the German 1 hit wonder Peter Schilling on this than the euro synth-pop, but that ain't bad either because in my opinion Schilling should have left a more lasting impression than Major Tom (Coming Home).

Ming & Ping are part of the new breed and fans of the sound will be all too happy to welcome the twins with open ears. As far as any social relevance or redeeming qualities, if you are looking for political overtones in the lyrics, skip along to something else, but if you are looking for a fresh and enjoyable synth-pop experience you can find it here. Ming & Ping create fun sounding tracks that give us a glimpse of the past as well as the future of synthesized music. Bend your ear to the new breed with standouts like "A.I", "City Lies" and "Bright Sunlight", and the electro-re-vamping of Coldplay's "Yellow", and keep listening after the last track for a cool surprise, this will not be the last we hear from the twins Ming & Ping.

  ( 5 Stars out of 6 )