The Turning Gate

The Korean soundWave XIII

Taru, Itta, Dear Cloud, Gourmet O.S.T.

I had an introduction, but accidentally deleted it. I don't remember what it said; I wrote it late last night. Nobody comes here for the introductions anyway. Welcome to The Korean soundWave XIII, and enjoy.

Taru with Sentimental Scenery

Taru is former vocalist of now-defunct pop-rock group The Melody. An exceptionally talented singer, Taru has been working with Pastel Music to relaunch her musical career as a solo vocalist. Since The Melody's split, she has appeared on record with Humming Urban Stereo and Sweetpea, and on stage with Swinging Popsicle, Sweetpea, Jiteun and others. While these have all been guest appearances, the recently released R.A.I.N.B.O.W. is Taru's first appearance as a vocal centerpiece.

Contrary to what you might read elsewhere, R.A.I.N.B.O.W. is not Taru's solo album. It's a mini-album, produced and written by Sentimental Scenery on which Taru provides the vocals and lyrics only.

The last time I saw Taru, several months ago, we were in a coffeehouse in Hongdae. She had her iPod with her and played me a demo she'd been working on for her eventual solo album, guitar and piano only at that point. I also helped her hash out some English lyrics that may or may not ever be used. My point is simply that she's been writing new songs, and the songs on R.A.I.N.B.O.W. aren't them. Unfortunately, I've been out of touch with her lately and I'm not sure what further progress she's made, or how her solo plans might have changed. Back then, R.A.I.N.B.O.W. wasn't even a blip on the radar.

And so, I was actually surprised when the album was released. There was nothing, and then, suddenly, there was R.A.I.N.B.O.W. The Melody played intricate pop-rock on which Taru was given ample opportunity to shine, with songs both fast and slow, big choruses, quiet interludes and plenty of interesting musical moments. They were a truly exceptional band, and only more so in concert. Taru has proven time and again that, despite her demure size, she is a force to be reckoned with on stage.

R.A.I.N.B.O.W. is something entirely different. It's a good record, full of catchy, melodic pop tunes. But it isn't The Melody. Whereas The Melody produced pop-rock, R.A.I.N.B.O.W. is just pop and sees Taru performing in a very different vein.

Having never been a Sentimental Scenery fan, I had approached the record with doubts. My doubts were short lived, however. This is the best work I've heard from him.

For her part, Taru really is excellent all over the songs, but I can't help but feel sentimental. Compared to the Melody, her highs aren't quite as high, her parts not as diverse, and, ultimately, R.A.I.N.B.O.W. doesn't quite showcase her talents the way her former band did. Good as they are, the songs here just don't take her in as many directions as her previous work. While a very good album, as Taru's first solo foray, R.A.I.N.B.O.W. is not quite the vocal showcase it could have been. The songs just don't give her the opportunities to show off what she can really do.

But enough equivocating! Bottom line, I really like this record. It's pop, not K-pop, but proper pop, and that's a good thing. One might even brand it electro-pop. It's heavy on synthesizers and programmed drums, and, luckily, heavy on Taru too. There are more Clazziquai moments in the songs than Humming Urban Stereo moments, and that's a good thing too. The songs are light, airy and full of hooks, making for a very comfortable listen. You'll find yourself dancing in your seat, if not standing up and dancing proper. I often find myself leaving the record on repeat for two or three turns at a go.

Love Today is the promotional single (watch the video; it's sugary sweet). It seems to me a relatively arbitrary choice for a single, as nearly any song on the album would hold up on radio. Had I been calling the shots, I might have chosen Yesterday as the single, but either is as good as the other. In fact, there's not much about the songs to set them apart from each other; they're like a series of very similar looking sisters born in rapid succession. In this case, though, that's not a bad thing. The sisters are all incredibly good looking.

Yesterday, Love Today, 오! 다시 (Oh! Again) and 날씨 맑음 (Clear Weather) are all up-tempo; Miss You is more mid-tempo; 제발 (Please) is slow and pretty with a lot of piano, but mid-tempo drum programming.

At first glance, the 10-track record seems to be of standard album length. Then you realize there are only six songs, and one of them is a Misty Blue cover, meaning that only five of those songs are new compositions. The mini-album rounds out with four alternate mixes - two versions of Love Today, and alternates of Miss You and Yesterday. And, as much as I like the first six songs on the album, it's with these alternate versions that I begin to take issue. They're mostly unnecessary, and in some ways counter productive.

The alternate version of Miss You is musically identical to the standard version. Both versions finish at 4:31, indicating that the songs really are produced from the same mix. The difference? The alternate version runs Taru's vocals through a meat-grinder. Whatever that shitty pop-singer vocal effect, used prominently by Cher and Madonna and mimicked thereafter by countless others, they're doing it to Taru now and it's preposterous. Taru's voice is incredible, and why you'd want to go and run perfection through a meat-grinder is quite beyond me. This alternate version is superfluous in the extreme.

Love Today (Sentimental Mix) is a proper dance remix. Beats and percussion are at the fore and the song has been made more dance-friendly. They run Taru through the meat-grinder again (why?!), but it's a little more tolerable in this musical context than on the previous track. Still doesn't make a lot of sense to me, though.

Yesterday (MR) and Love Today (MR) are musically indistinguishable from the standard versions earlier on the disc. The difference is that Taru's verses have been ripped out. Verses play out as instrumental sections, with Taru returning for the choruses. Again, I miss the point.

Nonetheless, R.A.I.N.B.O.W. is a charming little record. The bonus tracks are easily removed from a playlist, making for a brilliant EP. Taru is a wonderful person, and showing a lot of promise as a singer, both with The Melody and here. It will be interesting to follow her work into the future. She deserves the greatest success, and I hope she achieves it.

Right-click to download Yesterday.

Itta is one half of 10

"Well, that's all fine and dandy, Matt," I hear you say. "But what I really want is something really and truly strange."

Then Itta may be just the thing for you, I say.

I met up with Russ Elliot from RustyKorea a few weekend ago. He'd promised me something different and delivered on that promise 100% by taking me to an Itta performance. "Itta" is the Korean word for "exist".

The show took place in a small Hongdae art gallery. Itta and Japanese boyfriend/collaborator-in-noise Marquido - collectively known as "10" - played to just a handful of people. The show was experimental and mostly improvisational, the music comprised of Macbook noise and found sounds. Marquido ran two Macbook Pros vomiting beats, static and other nonconventional racket. Itta occupied herself with a pile of toys - toy drums and keys, rubber duckies, balloons and more. She threw the duckies at us (actually, one ducky, a hippo and some other rubber animals), but not before playing them. She ran around the room a bit, rattled drums in our ears, jumped up and down and wore monstrous, plastic glasses. They both wore red. They always do. And they had improvisational dancers.

Itta has a unique vocal style. At moments she reminds me of Bjork, or of Katherine Blake from Miranda Sex Garden. Ultimately, however, she defies comparison. She throws song structure out the window completely. In fact, she doesn't make songs. She makes music, but no songs. Itta is ethereal and unusual, unfettered by conventions, musical, fashionable or otherwise. You take her for what she is or you take her not at all, and she's certainly not for everyone. But if you like this sort of thing, you're likely to love Itta.

Here's a performance clip, and you can find several more on RustyKorea. Russ is a big Itta promoter.

For my part, I like some of it and some of it not so much. Itta's 11 album I think is bizarre and fantastic. At the show, I also picked up a disc of Itta and Marquido with Li Jianhong, See You New World, a single track of rambling sound 30 minutes long. I don't really care for it. At the gallery, though, Itta and Marquido were playing some of their works-in-progress from the Macbooks before and after the performance and during the interlude, and that all sounded very promising indeed! For a taste of that, check out ib on 10's myspace page. Itta also has a MySpace page of her own.

Sadly, Itta and Marquido are leaving Korea. There's little market for experimental music, and so they're bound for China where they'll hopefully have an easier time getting by in their chosen idiom. They have shows upcoming as well in London and elsewhere. Check out the dates on their MySpace page.

Also, be sure to read this really excellent article on London Korean Links, stemmed from an interview with Itta (published March 2007). She talks about her album 11, as well as her project with Marquido, 10.

Right-click to download 이야기 (Talk) and 이러한 기쁨 (Like This Joy).

Dear Cloud

I had a hell of a time actually finding Dear Cloud's album. Seeing them in concert, sharing a venue with Yozoh a few weeks ago, was the first I'd heard of them, and they were only listed in hangul on the poster, 디어 클라우드. I read hangul just fine, so I knew what to call them. But I didn't know how to render it in English to find them on the web. Deercloud? Deer Cloud? Dearcloud? Dear Cloud? Well, I've found it's the latter.

But neither could I find their record in Gangnam-gu, at Hot Tracks in Kyobo Tower or in Evan Records at the mall. I'd given up and forgotten about it until I bought Han Hee Jeong's album at Purple Records in Hongdae the other day. I was paying, and Dear Cloud's album was just sitting there on the counter. "I'll take this one too," I said and so I did.

The self-titled album is Dear Cloud's first, and I find it's not so impressive as their live show. Isn't that always the case here? The album is released on Seoul Records, a label with a tendency for mainstream rock. And so they've taken a band that's actually pretty good live, and they've produced the album so that it sounds like every other rock band on Korean radio. To wit, boring. It sounds like Nell with a girl singer, which is also to say they just sound like Nell, because although Nell's singer is not a girl, he usually sounds like one.

Dear Cloud's album isn't bad, per say. It's just formulaic and bland. The songs are pretty straight forward, guitars, bass, drums some keys. The instruments never do anything very interesting, but merely plod through the paces. Vocalist, Nine, has a great voice, the effect of which is mostly lost on record. On stage, she was very impressive indeed, powerful and compelling. Shame on Seoul Records for churning out another fodder-worthy commercial rock record from a band that could have been more.

But hurray for pretty keyboardists, because Dear Cloud most definitely has one of those! Jeong Ah (pictured) is her name and she's lovely. If you're in Seoul, do catch them live if you can. Otherwise, sample the band before you commit to purchase. Luckily, you can do that right here, right now.

Videos:

• Ice Fortress
• 넌 아름답기만 한 기억으로
• Press Kit

Right-click to download 넌 아름답기만 한 기억으로 (With The Memories Of You Being Beautiful) and Same Person.

For another take, check out Soompi's favorable review.

Gourmet O.S.T. offers tasty musical morsels

Pastel Music has released the soundtrack album to SBS television drama Gourmet featuring new songs by Casker, Fanny Fink, Sweetpea and Jiteun with Han Hee Jeong. Purchase the album from YesAsia.com.

About the drama:

Korean box office hit Le Grand Chef is given a second life on the small screens as Gourmet, starring Korea's handsome Romeo Kim Rae Won (What Planet Are You From?), the beautiful Nam Sang Mi (Time Between Dog and Wolf), funny man Kwon Oh Joong (Secret Lovers), and veteran actor Choi Bool Am. Written by popular screenwriter Choi Wan Gyu (Jumong, Hur Jun), this comic book-based drama series is already garnering huge attention with the star-studded list of musicians participating in its soundtrack. Produced by the same team behind the success of Pastel Music filled soundtracks such as The 1st Shop Of Coffee Prince O.S.T. and New Heart O.S.T., Gourmet O.S.T. features multi-award-winning artist Lee Juck and Tei, who became popular for his theme songs for dramas Bad Love and Lobbyist. Other noteworthy participants include Shin Hye Sung, sultry singer Lee So Ra, Korea's electronica front leader Casker, former member of The The Band and Bluedawn Han Hee Jeong, and Lee Pil Ho, the musical creator for such period dramas as Emperor Of The Sea and Dae Jo Yong.

Right-click to download Jiteun's 비밀 (Privacy), featuring Han Hee Jeong.

Coda

Last week having seen the release of Han Hee Jeong's solo album, I hadn't been expecting any more good news. Then, I today discovered the release of a new EP by Bluedawn's other half, Jung Sang Hoon, under the name Invisible Fish. The EP, Through the Glass Wall, is the first of three expected independent releases, and is not available in stores. Luckily, Mr. Kwang is stocking the album in limited quantity. Get it NOW, while you still can. The EP contains nine tracks, and an Internet URL from which to download four more. The second EP, Loss is dated for a November release. My copy of Through the Glass Wall is on order and I'll have a write-up in a few weeks, when I get my hands on it and have had a chance to take it in.

Seo Tai Ji's eighth album is also due for release within the next few days. He's been quiet lately, and I'm definitely curious to hear what he's been up to.

In my review of Han Hee Jeong's solo album, I mistakenly reported the title of the album as My Document. Pardon my terrible Korean translation skills, but the properly translated title should be Your Document. I've corrected the mistake in my review.

News found on Indieful ROK, Yozoh has apparently re-released her album, My Name Is Yozoh, packaged with the Nostalgia single on a bonus CD.

There's a new music blog, Fabulous Pleasure, with an interesting article on Korean psychedelic rock from the 70s and a few MP3 samples.

Otherwise, I'm nearly finished packing up my house for the move. What a headache. I've been lucky to have so much new music to keep my company while packing, though. I hope you'll enjoy the tunes as much as I have been.

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