Here We Go is the fabled unicorn of a cappella: can something so unique and beautiful really exist?

If you're an a cappella purist, Here We Go sure ain't for you, but it's required listening anyway because nothing that's passed through RARB sounds quite like it. We often point to our friends in the nordic region as the trailblazers of a cappella, the ones who are boldly sculpting out new styles to sing and new soundscapes to explore in our genre, but we're adding Singapore to the Hot Spot list. Building on the success of the group's previous release, the self-titled EP MICappella , Here We Go is really our new standard of excellence and demonstrates an unmatched triple threat of vocal performance, arranging, and audio engineering.

Fusing cultures and genres effortlessly, the album starts with a two-pack of works that set the tone for a decidedly club-slant of an album. This is a release for dancers and party socialites; all you a cappella nerds out there will seem cooler by association with these flashy tunes rolling, so pop your collar and grab top-shelf bottles for this experience. MICappella's group anthem Here We Go is the headliner, and note for note, it might be the best a cappella track ever recorded. Arrangers will want to study Tom Anderson's continuous transitions and style shifts that create the form and structure of this piece, because it's all so very novel, and coupled with perfect audio enhancements from Ed Boyer to boot. It's almost silly that there's a remix at the end of the album, because any reinvention is simply unnecessary. A cappella unicorns are real, and this is the proof.

And for your example of pristine vocal performance, I direct you to Zhiming and Chunjiao for the delicious honey and cream harmonies. It's all style and skill for MICappella, with a genuine unified exuberance to tie it all together.

Where our American a cappella scene typically has a standard line-up for recordings that includes arrangers, mixers, a mastering service, and an album producer, MICappella is operating at a level that also includes distributors, marketers, managers, stylists, make-up artists, video and photography directors, plus album and logo designers. It's all rather Hollywood, and the very expensive-looking and wildly shiny album booklet (far beyond liners) probably had a larger budget than most collegiate groups operate on for the year. It'd have been nice to find translations in the booklet, but I understand that we're the secondary audience. Anyway, all of this is to say that your cash is supporting the most professional and ambitious of a cappella endeavors, and it's all worth every cent.