Korean music (not Gangnam or K-pop)

NOT?!?!?!? Gangnam or K-pop!?!? Well I'll believe it when I see it.

Argh I have loads of great 70s Korean croony MOR with insane synths and lounge stylings on MP3 from a friend there. How to share it, though?

And then there is this:

baboon2004 said:

That guy deserves better than obscurity (the drummer).

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He's fucking amazing! But maybe he's not obscure in Korea? Could do with some bass...

I like the tunes in your first post, very nice.

@ blacktulip: if you're worried about filesharing you can convert MP3s into videos using various free programs and then upload them to youtube. The 'video' itself can just be a blank page with the name of the track and artist, like a lot of the music ones are. Bit of a faff to do for a lot of files, though.

That drummer is indeed a star in Korea - he was the drummer in the country's first ever rock band, Add4.

Another great Korean artist - in a totally different vein. Kim Doo Soo. Nick Drake-esque folk (and that's no coincidence). When we were in Korea a couple of years ago, we saw him live, which culminated in an all-night drinking (and eating - that's what you do in bars over there) session with him, his pals, a wee bulldog, and Jap-psych-folk star Kan Mikami. Good times!

Oh yeah and Sin Jung Hyun was in Add4 too, IIRC. Sorry - this is coming back to me in fits and snatches.

That MOR stuff is called Trot BTW. It's still really popular, and grannies in visors dance to a techno-megacharged version of it to this day on cross-country coaches. No joke. Korea is a hell of a place. Fucking love it.

blacktulip said:

That MOR stuff is called Trot BTW. It's still really popular, and grannies in visors dance to a techno-megacharged version of it to this day on cross-country coaches. No joke.

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Each thing I learn about the country makes another scene in Gangnam Style make a bit more sense...it does sound a pretty amazing place, a lot of the guys where I work go out to Korea because we have big clients there, usually for a few weeks but sometimes for months. Might be worth seeing if I can get myself assigned to Support for a bit.

I'm kind of grimly intrigued by the idea of what they have for pop music in North Korea...

Some Korean traditional music is interesting if you're into that sort of thing. Sinawi is this kind of improvisational ensemble shamanic drone jazz music. Bubble Pop it aint.

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San ul lim is one the first names to get mentioned by those looking for interesting records with a western rockish feel to them. His first few lps are worth a listen but I ultimately find them a little bogus.

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As for other more modern forms, S.Koreans love their folk ssw stuff and pretty middle of the road rock, but unfortunately, unlike the Japanese they're mostly too conservative to reach into the the more interesting extremities of any musical style.

Most Trot I find pretty unbearable, but it's hugely popular in Korea. It's like the easy listening crooner music of Korea and in a similar way to what you'd find over here, it bleeds into other musical forms to occasionally give you something listenable, but on the whole I pass.

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North Korea is too oppressed to have pop music as far as I'm aware. I know that on occasion the S.Korean military have been know to blast Girls Generation across the border using ridiculously powerful military sound systems and I don't doubt there is a black market for kpop in N.Korea, but I don't think you'd be allowed to do anything creative in N.Korea that doesn't praise their dear leader, so I duno about home grown popmusic.

These little kids shred tho
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(gets good about halfway in)

There's also this mix on Shadow Radio ft. the funkier lounge acts of S.Korea

amazingly I randomly happened on a song from that album yesterday "Towards the Sunlight" straight to faves really great album good find!

also talking of Japanese folk (sorry to derail) I heard this recently, probably one of the best vocal recordings I have heard in a long time, really haunting.

Really not sure if there's any Korean stuff out there that you're looking for. There's a certain kind of trot called ppongjjak (named after the kind of beat they use) that sounds pretty out there, all weird synth sounds and trot style singing over the top. I've heard it a few times when I've walked into shops run by older people who are into trot and it sounds pretty cool but I haven't been brave enough to wade through most of the crappy trot to find it.

My friend rates an indie band called Jaurim, but I haven't even heard them. Whoever said most Korean music is conservative is right - tbh I come to Dissensus to get away from it.

By the way that scene in the Gangnam Style video when he's on the bus is referring to these party tours that older married people go on to pick up other older married types, a bit like a swingers group. They go out to the countryside, go hiking together and go to parties and pick each other up. I happened to stumble across a party like this on a river cruise in the countryside one time, the whole lower level was given over to this party where they played trot. I reminded me a little of a rave, except instead of offering me chewing gum partygoers offered me dried squid.

baboon2004 said:

Dried squid at a rave? I want that...

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I'm sure you really, really don't.

The Chinese food shop in Bow sells dried squid, it even calls itself "The 'chewing gum' of the Orientals". Mmm, your breath smells lovely - you've been chewing dried squid, right?

http://lightintheattic.net/releases...ound-of-south-korea-s-shin-joong-hyun-1958-74

Also this is a really good album (synth & trot, I guess):

there is this electroacoustic artist who uses an amplified traditional instrument (something like a harp) to produce these chilling and often propulsive moire patterns with wicked overtones... like a more minimal and psychedelic rhys chatham. but i forget her name right now.

This Vice doc is a pretty interesting watch.


It's takes a look at modern S.Korea through the prism of fashion. So not entirely music related, although it does touch on how certain music was banned by the S.Korean Gov. as recently as the 80s.