• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Az Samad Lessons

Guitar, Ukulele and Music Lessons

  • About
  • Lessons
  • Music Reviews
  • Book, Video & Course Reviews
  • Podcast
  • Creative Fridays
  • Store
  • Contact

Music Review: City Lights by KC Lau

January 17, 2021 by azsamadlessons Leave a Comment

City Lights is the first single from Los Angeles based guitarist KC Lau.

KC describes the track as:

City Lights is a guitar instrumental piece composed and arranged by myself. Co produced, mixed and mastered by Singapore based producer, composer and keyboardist Jerry Poh. City Lights is heavily centered around the genre of Pop/Singer Songwriter with a splash of Fusion, Jazz and RnB Elements. City Lights was inspired during my drive through the City Lights of LA downtown, getting lost under the lights of a beautiful yet crazy little city of LA.

A disclaimer: KC is a former guitar student of mine. That said, this review reflects my thoughts on his admirable first release.

The track begins with a clean guitar part that sets the groove along with light shakers. Then the theme comes before the drums, bass and extra layers filling up the space.

The drums and the prominent backbeat build to a more intense B section with a more distorted electric guitar tone. This part still focuses on a strong melodic line before going to an interlude type part with a nice groovy riff.

It dovetails into the guitar solo section featuring KC’s tasteful soloing. The guitar solo begins with a strong pickup, melodic vocal playing.

Also, this has some nice Mateus Asato vibes – which makes sense since KC has studied with Mateus in 2017.

I love it goes to the B section and then builds up with lots of tasty legato playing and bends. It’s more bluesy vibes before the theme comes back.

Recapitulation to the theme brings it back down… but this time with more embellishments in the electric guitar part.

All in all, this is a good instrumental guitar track with with good pop production. It shows a lot of promise with KC combining his musical influences in one track.

The best part of the track is how honest the music feels.

The danger with pop instrumental tracks is when guitar solos get edited into a sterile thing.

Not with this!

KC has done well showcasing his musical development so far. It’s nice to listen to & with repeated listens becomes even nicer.

Definitely have a listen to this if you’re into instrumental guitar.

TLDR: If you enjoy instrumental guitar with Mateus Asato vibes, do check out this single from KC Lau.

Rating: 3.5/5

Listen to City Lights here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/kclau/city-lights

Credits:

Composed and Arranged by KC Lau
All Guitars by KC Lau
Produced by KC Lau, Jerry Poh
Mixed and Mastered by Jerry Poh Qingle

[About]

A freelance guitarist based in Los Angeles. KC aims to provide service in guitar for musicians in both live and studio settings. Over the years, KC has been playing live shows regularly and has his guitar work featured in both Singapore and LA Artiste.

Filed Under: Music Review Tagged With: city lights kc lau, instrumental guitar, instrumental rock guitar, kc lau, los angeles instrumentalist, music review, singapore, singapore musicians

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Sign Up For Free Guitar & Music Tips!

Search for a topic, review or lesson:

Recent Posts

  • Video Review: Perfect Practice Makes Perfect with Sheryl Bailey (Chase’s Guitar Academy)
  • Video Review: Martin Miller Mechanics Workshop by Martin Miller (Cracking The Code)
  • Video Review: Comping Fundamentals with Rodney Jones (Chase’s Guitar Academy)
  • Video Review: How to Learn Tunes with Rodney Jones (Chase’s Guitar Academy)
  • Video Review: Practice Essentials with Rodney Jones (Chase’s Guitar Academy)

Categories

  • Ask Az (2)
  • Beyond Music (122)
  • Blues Guitar (15)
  • Book Reviews (228)
  • business book (27)
  • Chord Melody (46)
  • Composition (33)
  • Course Reviews (20)
  • Creative Fridays (14)
  • Film Review (1)
  • Fingerstyle Guitar (30)
  • grant cardone (1)
  • Guitar Chords (134)
  • Guitar Scales (124)
  • Guitar Shopping (3)
  • Guitar Technique (320)
  • Gypsy Jazz (13)
  • Interviews (23)
  • Jazz (109)
  • Jazz Guitar (241)
  • Jazz Guitar Harmony (169)
  • Jazz Guitar Harmony (79)
  • Licks (218)
  • Music Business (14)
  • Music Review (49)
  • Music Theory (217)
  • News (4)
  • Philosophy (155)
  • Practice Secrets (347)
  • Reviews (12)
  • Rhythm Lessons (26)
  • Strategi Bina Kerjaya Muzik (6)
  • Transcription Set Review (6)
  • Ukulele (3)
  • Ulasan Filem (1)
  • Ulasan Muzik (2)
  • Ulasan Video (1)
  • Uncategorized (21)
  • Video Games (3)
  • Video Lessons (143)

Recent Posts

  • Video Review: Perfect Practice Makes Perfect with Sheryl Bailey (Chase’s Guitar Academy)
  • Video Review: Martin Miller Mechanics Workshop by Martin Miller (Cracking The Code)
  • Video Review: Comping Fundamentals with Rodney Jones (Chase’s Guitar Academy)
  • Video Review: How to Learn Tunes with Rodney Jones (Chase’s Guitar Academy)
  • Video Review: Practice Essentials with Rodney Jones (Chase’s Guitar Academy)

Copyright © 2025 · Genesis Sample on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in