Delving In

Sophomore year in high school or so, I really delved into trance music and acquired not only specific knowledge about the trance scene, but also the electronic dance music scene. Last year, I began exploring Korean lounge and Korean hip-hop, and, although I can’t consider myself a true connoisseur of those two genres, I have learned quite a bit and now listen to a variety of artists, most of whom are not in the mainstream (the hip-hop side of this musical exploration is partially thanks to the recommendations of my friend Won here).

This picture is on my MacBook’s desktop. Now, where did they come from? Well, lately, I’ve begun my latest foray into interesting musical realms—this time, Korean indie rock. How did I embark upon that remarkable journey? I don’t really remember exactly why I was doing this, but for some reason I came across this guy’s blog post about a Korean indie mini-album released by a certain Earip (이아립), the lead singer of a Korean indie rock band called Sweater. I proceeded to listen to one of her songs titled “we are the universe.” It was good. Simple, quiet, and tranquil, it inspired me to find similar music.

Unfortunately, after extensive digging, very few people had the album, and it seemed difficult and expensive to order the album online (although I did run across many pages in Korean with brief reviews of Earip’s album). A place called Post Poetics has seems to have it available for ordering, but they don’t really seem to communicate in English, and an online store called Mr. Kwang also sells it—but for $32.99. [feb28 2008 edit: Post Poetics has actually contacted me (in English) for ordering the CD, so don’t be afraid to try contacting them either. My apologies!] YesAsia, probably the easiest method for buying Asian media online in the US, unfortunately, does not have either of her two solo albums.

Sweater and Misty Blue

Now we return to the subject in the picture above—Sweater, the group Earip’s the lead singer for. (I would provide a URL, but the group didn’t renew their domain registration because they were apparently too “lazy”—at least, as Earip said.) I found a review of Sweater’s first album, Staccato Green, rating it an A+… in Korean. There I listened to the second track, 별똥별, many times, and I was definitely hooked. I looked around more to find out about them.

Actually for Sweater I did find some blogs that had written about them in English… well, more like two or three. But in any case, see The Turning Gate’s “The Korean soundWave, Part II” for a particularly decent entry which includes them and other groups, like Misty Blue. So then I also tried some Misty Blue, and the words in that article describe pretty well my own sentiments, “I love Misty Blue. They remind me every so slightly of the Sundays, and they’re delightful to listen to – calming, but upbeat; upbeat, but low-key; beautiful, wonderful and catchy too!”

As of this writing, I’ve bought Sweater’s first album, Staccato Green, off Amazon in mp3 (LAME V0 VBR, I think, with no DRM!) as well as their second album, Humming Street, off YesAsia.com. I probably would’ve bought the first album in CD as well, but I wanted to buy something from Amazon (Amazon gift cards are awesome!), and unfortunately they don’t sell the actual CD… Either way, I’m very happy to have supported this Korean indie artist. I haven’t bought any Misty Blue music yet, but they too deserve me at least buying one of their CDs. I still might even buy an Earip CD. All of this music is just so refreshing.

Why Korean Indie Rock

You might ask why I don’t just settle for American music, maybe American indie music. It turns out that I did used to listen to a lot of popular American music. I still listen to and enjoy some songs here and there of that genre. I’ve somewhat tested out some indie music in English, but I didn’t find it very exciting. I have nothing against Western music, seriously; to this day, trance music is still something I love, and some of its songs are among my favorites. One way or another, for some reason, Korean indie rock has this appeal to it that I simply highly enjoy. I accidentally run into some of it and am instantly hooked. It can be really calming or just really delightful in all sorts of ways—not that other music can’t do this because other music definitely can—but why not learn about some music you find enjoyable?

Aside from reasons like that, Korean indie music is interesting in its own right. I once read that it’s somewhat of a Korean musical subculture countering highly commercialized Korean pop music culture. When you think about it, Korean music most people generally encounter is really commercialized—think BoA or Lee Soo Young, both of whom I think are enjoyable, competent singers, yet are still nonetheless parts of a commercialized culture. My friend Won even noted that all of Lee Soo Young’s songs sound the same, and I do find some truth in this. So, in principle, I also find Korean indie music intriguing. Besides, exploring various music means exploring various cultures and acquiring new understanding, and I certainly have felt wiser every time I’ve listened to some new brand of music—whether it’s been MC Solaar and French hip-hop, The Quiett and Korean hip-hop, or even the awesome Jeremy Soule and video game soundtrack music.

To the Future

Unfortunately the indie albums I’ve been listening to are relatively old (Staccato Green and Humming Street were released in 2002 and 2003, respectively), but if it’s fresh and exciting for me, then it could very well be the same for you, too. I’ll be on the lookout for newer interesting Korean indie rock albums, but information for this kind of thing is hard to come by in English. If at any point someone wants to help me out with these endeavors, feel free to let me know! Until then, I hope you, “dear reader,” enjoy some of these artists I’ve talked about.