New Music Friday - our picks of the top Korean tracks this week (Fri 02.21)
In the latest part of a series called “New Music Friday”, our writers will pick their favourite of all the recent singles coming out of the Korean indie music scene.
크리스탈 티 (Crystal Tea) - 들키고 싶은 비밀 (Want U 2 Know)
Chosen By Mica (@mishckah)
Shimmering synths, gentle basslines, and subtle percussion with a lush backdrop for Crystal Tea's delicate vocals—I’m in love. There is something about a city pop ballad that stops me in my tracks, entrancing me with the slow-burn rhythmic melody. Immediately I'm sucked into an idealized, almost dreamlike urbanscape where lives are entangled in the timeless allure of the city’s romantic pulse. 들키고 싶은 비밀 is a loving homage to a genre that continues to captivate with its unique blend of melancholic beauty and urban sophistication. Crystal Tea has me hooked on a potent dose of nostalgia and I'm craving more. It’s time for me to put on my headphones, close my eyes, and be transported to a world of neon dreams and secret desires.
OurR × wadfah - YAYA
Chosen by Connor Cass (@aminorcharacter)
The more Korean music gets international attention, the more we get these Korean artist collaborations with non-Korean artists. They always beg a certain amount of curiosity, how will two artists of different cultures and music backgrounds come together? For Korean indie outfit OurR. it’s a union with Thai soloist wadfah that answers this question with YAYA. The track is both glistening and energetically propulsive, with a life-affirming chorus in classic OurR fashion.
Its origin story is simple, wadfah saw OurR performing the song in Bangkok and fell in love with it. It’s a song that compliments wadfah well. For her second verse contribution, her subtle yet wistful vocals give a dreamy quality to the nostalgic lyrics about a day at the beach. It’s the perfect match I never knew I needed.
Mingginyu - 돌멩이(Stone)
Chosen by Charity Lynn (@_charitylynn_)
Mingginyu is a singer-songwriter whose music has the ability to comfort lost souls. Stone, the closing track on her Naturous Album, is a gentle acoustic ballad accompanied by delicate singing and sombre lyrics. When I first heard this song, I felt a familiar pang in my chest. Mingginyu has a beautiful way of expressing the melancholic feelings we all experience: unrequited love, regret, longing. The songs on this album wrap all those emotions up with a big pretty bow. Stone, in particular, resonated the most with me.
Shirakami Woods 시라카미 우즈 - Ilmol일몰
Chosen by Marie Joncquez (@mariejoncquez)
The first track from Shirakami Woods' new album sets the tone: departure! Taking flight towards other skies, with an ethereal voice accompanied by the dense and steady drumming of Kim Geon-jae (also the drummer for Silica Gel). But perhaps it's a dreamy journey into the land of sleep, as the title means “sunset”. Are we already dreaming?
Bandits - After Dark
Chosen by Cam (@bigbabyclam)
Post-punk two-piece Bandits' new song and EP namesake After Dark can only be properly described as shockingly big - big guitars, big drums, bigger emotion. This is a five-minute track that rewards every second of active listening. Beginning with a lamentation of time and nostalgia's cyclical nature ("These memories just trigger others"), bits of crunch begin poking through the fog, a hopeful spark to remind us of the coming morning. The light comes after dark.
NokeNok (녹이녹) - Moment(찰나)
Chosen by Sam Dougherty (@samtdougherty)
Hard not to recommend a shoegaze track that you could surf to. NokeNok are a formidable live act and released a pair of debut singles this week, both of which are instrumental rockers. Moment is fast-paced and follows the whims of its lead guitar, which comes in slicing and aggressive and goes out loose and jammy. You get the impression these guys are having a lot of fun behind the scenes with these songs, and a singer doesn’t seem necessary when you have guitars to do the talking like this.
MXNX JisokuryClub - Horses
Chosen by Jamie Finn
What a ride it has been for JisokuryClub. Over the last 3 years, the band have gone from funky club show kids to main stage mainstays. Their crunchy brand of chill and just straight-up earworm songs have made them one of the most popular bands in Korea. Their new EP is business as usual for the band who are in a groovy mood. The opener, Horses, is a relatively energetic track for them with a little touch of Canned Heat-esque Americana and a hooky chorus. “It’s the same, it’s the same.” It kind of is but in the best possible way.
Hwang EunJin - Romance
Chosen by Jamie Finn (@jamiefinn2209)
I just never get bored of this sound. At this stage, there’s nothing novel about taking pansori vocals and applying contemporary sounds to them. There are plenty of artists doing that but with a good cause. It’s a combination that works better than it has any right to. Romance is a track taken from wang EunJin’s new EP, which beautifully captures one of Korea’s most famous traditional folktales - Chunhyang. The production invokes the same 90s dance sound as Peggy Gou.
Jang Sehyun - Camcorder
The excellent new EP from Jang Sehyun is an atmospheric and surprisingly varied take on ambient, post-rock, and shoegaze, with splashes of different approaches throughout. There’s a sluggishness to his sound that feels so deliberate and effective. It gives the songs real weight. My pick is Camcorder, with its obscured acoustic guitar nestled comfortably behind the building wall of fuzziness. Great stuff.
Soul Delivery - New Wave
Wee-oo, woo-oo, wee-oo BANGER ALERT BANGER ALERT. Soul Delivery returned this week with a new album. We haven’t really had the chance to fully absorb the much-anticipated follow-up to 2023’s Peninsula Park but first impressions are that it is sizzling. Lead single New Wave features the awesome Q the Trumpet and is so funky it would be banned in most civilised countries. Get in.