by Kenneth Yu in Cool Travel, New Music on Sunday 7 January 2007

Malaysia has a surprisingly thriving singer-songwriter scene, with many local troubadours strumming guitars, parking themselves on stools, and wearing hearts on sleeves across hushed bars and cafes across the country. Out of all of them, Pete Teo is the veteran of this nascent cottage industry. Transcending local adulation, his work has been featured on USA’s NPR, Canada’s CBC and the BBC World Service. It is no wonder as Teo takes music in the tradition of Cohen, Dylan, Springsteen, and Waits, and sprinkles into it a dash of five-spice powder, alchemizing a potent concoction of Western lyrics and Eastern melodies. Teo’s world is Dylan-esque Americana, albeit saturated in humid monsoon rain-stained Wong Kar Wai-like hues. His music can be found on iTunes and through select websites.