The Turning Gate

The Korean soundWave, Part VI

Kim Kwang Seok, Instant Romantic Floor, Elsa, Bulssazo, the Grand Mint Festival and other upcoming events

There’s a whole lotta music going on in Seoul these days. We had Nine Inch Nails last Tuesday, Koop last Saturday and of course the usual bevy of Korean bands performing.

With so much activity, I’m feeling inspired for another round of The Korean soundWave, the bands, albums and concerts that make Korea sound good.

Kim Kwang Seok 김광석

“I hate this song,” my friend once told me in the Soraepogu fish market as Kim Kwang Seok’s 이등병의 편지 (Letter of a Private) began to play from a P.A. system somewhere, not because it’s a bad song, but because of the things is made him feel. The song is about a young man doing his time in the Korean military, as is mandatory for all Korean males, and it’s probably one of the most effecting Korean songs of all time.

Kim Kwang Seok’s other songs are no less potent. 너무 아픈 사랑은 사랑이 아니었음을 (rough translation, If It Hurts Too Much, It Ain’t Love), is a song of powerful that you needn’t even know the words to hear his heart breaking as it’s played.

Kim Kwang Seok was born in 1964 and committed suicide in 1996 at the age of 32. He debuted in 1984 with singer Kim Min Gi (김민기) and collaborated as singer with the band Dong Mool Won (동물원). He will most likely be remembered as a solo artist, however. In his short time, he became one of Korea’s most important and memorable song writers.

In many ways, Kim Kwang Seok might be called the Korean John Denver. A folk rock singer passed before his time, having left behind him a collection of timeless songs, ingraining him forever in the Korean cultural memory.

Letter of a Private was featured in the film J.S.A.: Joint Security Area – an unrealistic, but heartfelt film about military service and the tragedy of serving against one’s brethren in a divided country.

A live version of If It Hurts Too Much, It Ain’t Love, available below, was featured in the 2003 film The Classic.

Right-click to download 사랑이라는 이유로, 이등병의 편지 (Letter of a Private) and a live version of 너무 아픈 사랑은 사랑이 아니었음을 (If It Hurts Too Much, It Ain’t Love).

Instant Romantic Floor

A side-project of Lee Jeereen, a.k.a. Humming Urban Stereo, there’s not much, musically, that differentiates Instant Romantic Floor from his primary project. IRF is geared a bit more towards a club sound and has consistent vocalists. While Humming Urban Stereo albums feature a smattering of different vocalists, Instant Romantic Floor has the same three vocalists all the time, calling themselves by unusual names. Lee Jeereen is Brown Bunny, with Yeslow and Sugar Flow filling out the roster – cartoon representations pictured above (perhaps taking a cue from Gorillaz?).

I’ve seen them live twice and was unimpressed on both occasions. Their performances are little more than a karaoke show, after all – three singers performing to pre-recorded music. I must admit, this is a bad habit of Jeereen’s and something generally acceptable in Korea, where pop singers do it all the time. I’ve seen Humming Urban Stereo four times. Twice with a full band and the performances were awesome, and twice singing karaoke and the performances were lousy.

Live performance notwithstanding, there’s nothing bad to be said about Instant Romantic Floor’s music except that they sound a lot like Humming Urban Stereo. If you’re a Humming fan, you’ll definitely want to pick this one up. If not, then you’d be hard pressed to differentiate the two of them.

So far, Instant Romantic Floor as released an eight-track EP, and a three-track digital single. A full-length album is in the works, but with the good people at Pastel being as busy as they are, no one is quite sure when it’s coming. Soon-ish.

Right-click to download Luv Punch.

Elsa

I first saw Elsa‘s debut album, Purity, a few weeks ago at the Hot Tracks in Gangnam. They had piles of the album on a display table, with promo text labeling the record as “electro industrial rock music.“ Well aware of the danger in buzz words and record store marketing displays, I ignored the table and bought something else. Then, last Tuesday at the Nine Inch Nails concert, I was standing in the cue and a guy with a box handed me a CD in a cardboard sleeve. “Korean industrial rock,” he said, and scurried off to distribute more CDs. I looked at my hands and saw I was holding a three-track promo Elsa single. When I got home that evening, after an amazing performance by NIN, a gave the disc a spin and liked it well enough. A few days later I went back to Hot Tracks and – display table dismantled – rummage through the shelves until I found the full album.

Born in Italy, and then having been raised all over Europe and in the United States, it should come as no surprise that Elsa’s debut is so un-Korean. Purity‘s lyrics and liner notes are entirely in English, with one exception. The album’s final track, Rondine, is sung in Italian. There’s nothing here to mark this as a Korean record, save the names in the liner notes, and even those are written out in English. Furthermore, Purity draws heavily from Western industrial rock influences. Moody electronics creep and crawl over sinister bass lines and murky guitars, whilst lyrics invoke imagry of hurt and anger, loneliness and love gone wrong.

The album opens with Reproduction, in which Elsa sings, love is a word word of a disease love is a pain pain of pleasure love is so weak weak makes you strong love is a cult cult that makes you sick love is reproduction reproduction of more love love bring you wrapped gift not knowing there is a bomb.

hey you clowns living in a hole shit comes out when you speak is this what you eat? hey you clowns trained to talk so well lies, lies, lies you clowns are nothing but a suit money is all you need by fucking the pretty ones lined up like the animals to become their baits is this what you want? she sings in F.E.

Much of Korea’s popular commercial music is saccarine and sexy. A great deal more is melodramatic sap. Purity is neither, but no less commercial. It would be entirely understandable to mistake it for a new Evanescence record. Despite its lack of originality, however, Purity definitely isn’t a bad record, and I far prefer it to anything Evanescence has released. Production values are top notch, the songs are solid, and the record makes for a good listen.

Because the record company was handing out singles for free, I’ve no qualms in sharing the contents of that single in its entirety. Silence and All Under appear on Purity; If is a non-album track exclusive to this single.

Right-click to download Silence and All Under from Purity, and the non-album track If.

Bulssazo 불싸조

Noise. Lots and lots of noise. The album is released on Pastel Music, where the guitarist holds a day job. But hold thy tongue before crying nepotism. There’s something to this band, Bulssazo. They’re noisy, yes, but with song titles like Born to Fuck, Fuck to Fuck and Too Big to Fuck, can they possibly go wrong? Wait, wait, wait. Forget about the song titles; they’re not important. ZzzAaM aren’t the only shoegazers in Korea, and Bulssazo is here to prove it. There’s singing here, but the guitars bury it. Distortion? Check. Feedback? Check. Loudness? Check. Ridiculously long album title? Check! 너희가 재앙을 만날 때에 내가 웃을 것이며 너희에게 두려움이 임할 때에 내가 비웃으리라. I don’t know what that means, but if the song titles are any indication, it’s probably vulgar nonsense (EDIT: I’ve been corrected; it’s a verse from Proverbs). See Bulssazo on YouTube, or just listen below.

Right-click to download 어줍잖은 스텝 and 정리해고 (Annie, Are You Okay?).

Compilations

Several compilation albums have hit the shelves recently, offering up new tracks from old favorites.

Story of Cats, released on Happy Robot, is topping my list. I haven’t spent nearly enough time with it as of this writing, but have certainly liked what I’ve heard overall. The album features previously unreleased tracks from Casker, Humming Urban Stereo, Sweater and many others (some of whom may warrant further investigation for future entries here). The album insert is great, featuring photos of each artist with their feline friends. A second disc, Story of Dogs, is also available, though I didn’t pick it up. For me, the tracklist wasn’t as compelling – a little more pop, a little less indie – though the album does include Windy City. A full track list for both records can be had on the Happy Robot website. While you’re there, beware APLS; they suck.

House Sessions 2007, released on Pastel Music, offers up a collection of recent house music. Truth be told, I’m not a fan of this one. It’s not a total washout, though. There’s a remix of Casker’s 선인장 on the record that’s quite nice. The album also includes the album version of Humming Urban Stereo’s Space Loves Disco, but I already have that.

Pastel Music has also released a second soundtrack album for the television drama 커피프린스 (Coffee Prince), 커피프린스 1호점 OST 2집. The first album compiled new music made for the show; this second offering is a double-CD compilation of pre-existing songs having appeared in the drama, selected by Tearliner. Most, perhaps all, of these songs are available on the bands’ individual albums. If you don’t have those, however, the soundtrack should provide an excellent introduction to a number of talented artists on the Pastel Music label, including The Melody, Casker, Fanny Fink, Donawhale, Bluedawn, Misty Blue, Belle Epoque, Tearliner and more. The album also includes songs by non-Korean artists Maximilian Hecker and Ephemera.

Kite Operations

Not a Korean band, but a band of Koreans from New York. Joseph Kim, of Kite Operations contacted me to let me know they’d be playing in Seoul in October. The band will be performing alongside several Korean indie bands, including Bulssazo and Daydream (Daydream on YouTube). Refer to the Kite Operations website for details, but here are the dates and locations:

10/3/07
Club Spot

10/4/07
Bbang
w/ Bulssazo, Daydream

10/5/07
DGBD
w/ Bulssazo

10/6/07
2007 Korean Festival @ Daehakro

10/7/07
2007 Korean Festival @ Cheonggyecheon

You can hear some tunes on Kite Operation’s MySpace page.

Sticky Hot Liveness

Shows, shows and more shows!!

Tomorrow night, Friday September 21, The Melody, Big Bang and Instant Romantic Floor will be playing at Soundholic in Hongdae, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night is Sound Day in Hongdae, so there will be a number of additional shows in other Hongdae clubs as well. Your best bet for finding who and where is to keep an eye out for Sound Day posters on Hongdae Streets; the Sound Day website is nearly useless.

Pastel Music will be having a label showcase on September 28 at Rolling Hall in Hongdae. Tickets are 18,000 won in advance, 20,000 at the door and it looks like the show tops out at 200 people. Doors open at 7 p.m. The line-up includes Lucite Tokki, The Melody, Tearliner, Old Fish, Donawhale, Fanny Fink and Han Hee Jeong (former Bluedawn vocalist). Details, in Korean, are on the Pastel Music website.

The first Grand Mint Festival will be held at Olympic Park on Saturday and Sunday October 6 & 7. There will be three stages setup in the park, with a multitude of bands playing from Korea, a few from Japan and Europe, and The Cloud Room from the U.S. Detailed ticketing information is available on the event website in Korean; non-Koreans will probably need a Korean friend to procure tickets for them. A two-day ticket is 66,000 won; a single day is 44,000.

The line-up is as follows; I’ve added Englishizations where I can.

Saturday, Oct. 6

Mint Breeze Stage
11:00 JINU (Rollercoaster) / 90 min
12:30 MONGOOSE / 40 min
13:30 PETER PAN COMPLEX / 40 min
14:30 OMEGA 3 / 50 min
15:40 WINDY CITY
17:00 THE CLOUD ROOM (from US) / 60 min
18:30 PARIS MATCH (from Japan) / 60 min
19:50 BIG MAMA with serengeti / 60 min
21:20 TAHITI 80 (from France) / 80 min

Loving Forest Garden
13:00 LINUS BLANKET / 30 min
13:50 두번째달BARD / 40 min
15:00 정재형 (Jeong Jae Hyeong) / 50 min
16:10 PEPPERMINT CLUB (페퍼민트 클럽) / 40 min
17:20 이한철 (Lee Han Chul) / 60 min
18:50 이상은 (Lee Sang Eun) / 50 min
20:10 SWEETPEA / 60 min

Blossom House
12:00 GOLDEN POPS / 30 min
12:40 DOT / 30 min
13:20 PLASTIC PEOPLE / 30 min
14:00 한희정 (Han Hee Jeong, former Bluedawn vocalist) / 30 min
14:40 소규모 아카시아 밴드 (Sogyumo Acacia Band) / 30 min
15:20 HourmeltS (아워멜츠) / 30 min
16:00 FORTUNE COOKIE / 30 min
16:40 APLS / 30 min
17:20 CASKER / 30 min

Sunday, Oct. 7

Mint Breeze Stage
11:00 DJ soulscape a.k.a. espionne / 90 min
12:30 PEPPERTONES / 40 min
13:30 THE MELODY / 40 min
14:30 MOT / 40 min
13:40 VENUS PETER (from Japan) / 60 min
17:00 MY AUNT MARY / 40 min
18:00 이승열 (Lee Seung Yeol) / 40 min
19:10 윤상 (Yun Sang) / 60 min
20:40 이승환 (Lee Seung Hwan) / 90 min

Loving Forest Garden
13:00 SORRI / 40 min
14:00 장세용 (Jeong Sae Yong) / 40 min
15:00 이지형 (Lee Ji Hyun) / 50 min
16:10 SWEATER / 50 min
17:30 SPACE KELLY (from Germany) / 60 min
18:50 HUMMING URBAN STEREO / 50 min
20:10 LUCID FALL / 70 min

Blossom House
12:00 CABINET SINGALONGS / 30 min
12:40 SLOW 6 / 30 min
13:20 NO REPLY / 30 min
14:00 뎁(deb) / 30 min
14:40 THE SMILES / 30 min
15:20 THE CANVAS / 30 min
16:00 DEAR CLOUD / 30 min
16:40 VODKA RAIN / 30 min
17:20 NASTYONA / 30 min

A map of the festival:

Coda

And that’s the lo-down on recent albums and upcoming events that I’m aware of. As usual, feel free to drop me a line, leave comments, point me to something new or buy me a beer at a show. Also, be sure to check out my other articles on The Korean soundWave if you haven’t already done so.

Happy listening!

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