January 2026 - New Music Friday
Leevisa and Ejae - Reconstruction 2026
Chosen by Jamie Finn (@jamiefinn2209)
This powerful collaboration between electronic artist Leevisa and indie rocker Ejae originally stemmed from a demo the duo recorded in a cheap hotel room during the pandemic. As the title suggests, the song is about rebuilding oneself after hardship, with lyrics like “the house I’m building now, will never fall apart. There’s a conflict at the heart of the song, though, as it’s delivered with a kind of trepidation that makes the message feel filtered through doubt. There’s a kind of conversation in the song that borders on a battle at times, between the softer elements and the hard techno beats that come through. It’s a really emotional song that will no doubt reflect how many will feel going into a new year.
Electron Sheep - Kids Return
Chosen by Christian 이수 Mata (@chris_isu_m)
An emotional anthem defying anxiety and a troubled world with music. It’s got a pop punk feel from the drums to the choral backing, but Electron Sheep manages to put in some of their odd charm throughout. There is a soundbite of a cartoon running with a headbonk spliced in throughout the track that stands out: paired with the brisk pace of the song and a line referencing “during the days of cicadas screaming, everyone racing to see who was more stupid,” it makes sense as a kind of motif of youth. The song keeps you on edge with a drum break that completely halts the song around halfway through, but then it returns with a repeated outro, a 2nd guitar solo, and yelling. The coda is a declaration of making noise, dancing, and playing music until the very end.
DANIEL – Love Song
Chosen by Marie Joncquez (@mariejoncquez)
The discreet singer DANIEL announces an album soon and offers this single as a preview gift. It seems quite ambitious to propose yet another song with such a straightforward title, Love Song. Simplicity is the secret of this song: the well-worn theme, the familiar instruments, the slow rhythm, the gentle voice, the tranquil lyrics, the light backing vocals… Everything harmonises in a gradual crescendo within a reassuring and immediately warm atmosphere in which one feels like spending the winter, comfortably wrapped in the most elemental and authentic feelings. A genuine love song.
Natsunomyslee - a permanent organ of dreams
Chosen by Ethan Kim
Natsunomyslee's album, a fusion of noise and desperation, deserves special attention. Formed by revy breaux and Nana, Natsunomyslee presents a captivating narrative on their debut EP, promising even greater depth in future works. The subtle interplay between undulating noise and faint vocals in the track "a permanent organ of dreams" evokes the feeling of trying to remember a hazy dream. The track is immersive and texturally rich, and is a striking example of why their new project is one to follow closely.
Park Hwi No - Phantom Pain
Chosen by Charity Lynn (@_charitylynn_)
phantom pain: pain that remains even after its source is gone.
I believe the feeling of loss is a universal experience. Not necessarily of someone who has passed away, but someone whose presence is no longer in our lives. Being unable to let go, time that won’t seem to move forward, reaching out for something that isn’t there anymore, these are the feelings I get from Park Hwi No’s Phantom Pain. The slow and emotional buildup of instrumentation and obscured vocals gives a sense of time stretching on endlessly. It leads into a sudden, tumultuous breakdown, as if signalling the hard acceptance of moving on.
Chungyoile - Vinyl
Chosen by Jamie Finn (@jamiefinn2209)
Shoegaze was pretty comfortably the dominant sound of Korea’s indie scene in 2025, with the sound of fuzzy guitars oozing onto everything like the black goo from The View From Halfway Down. That trend seems likely to continue, as we get possibly the last great shoegaze track of the year in Chungyoile’s Vinyl.
To be fair to this band, their excellent debut album, We Bear Our Blueness into the Deepest Darkness isn’t *really* shoegaze. It’s a pretty varied collection of indie pop stuff. But this energetic track is a standout. With glimmering synths, a driving, dancey beat, and swirling, fuzzy production, Vinyl is reminiscent of Pains of Being Pure At Heart or TRPP.
Puer Kim - Help
Chosen by Christian 이수 Mata (@chris_isu_m)
A response to Schumann's Scenes from Childhood, the entire album Scenes from Adulthood is a masterful series of personal vignettes set across a menagerie of interesting compositions. Each brief glimpse of Puer Kim's stream of consciousness is endearing, humorous and touching. To pluck just one of these snippets would be a disservice. The title track Kiss is certainly the sweet, honest love song that many will gravitate to, but Help does so much in its brief runtime. It’s a rapid confessional outpouring about an ex while waiting for the bathroom, but it’s done with pitchy melisma as she’s chased by intricate acoustic guitar (Debong Lee strikes again). It’s essentially a one-sided duet that reinterprets Schumann’s Blind Man’s Buff.
천용성 [Chun Yongsung] - 부고 [The Black Suit]
Chosen by Ethan Kim (@count.kim)
The news of someone's death can come suddenly, and while it may not feel real at first, everything inevitably changes before and after that moment. From then on, a longing for those who will never return and a quiet feeling of loneliness begin to fill the heart. In Chun Yongsung's single The Black Suit, the guitar, organ and synthesiser remain calm, yet gently reveal this emptiness. Both the lyrics and the composition are unadorned, but the melody leaves a deeply memorable impression.
Luli Lee - You’ll Be My Mad Dog
Chosen by Jamie Finn (@jamiefinn2209)
Bye Bye Badman bassist and pretty well-established solo artist, Luli Lee, is in a viscously playful mood on You’ll Be My Mad Dog, a track she claims she made “just for fun”.
It’s a hard-hitting, industrial-inspired track that has a thick af, distorted bassline. The densely layered and menacing song eventually gives out to a soaring, ‘90s alt-pop chorus. A very fun song that is only slightly terrifying.
OHELEN- Too young to die, too many to count, too beautiful to touch, too bright to stare, (Live)
Chosen by Christian 이수 Mata (@chris_isu_m)
Braiding poetry with aural landscapes, OHELEN's latest release winds through a labyrinth of sounds and words that are bold and captivating; the live album is auditory art framed at 25 minutes and spare. Too young to die, too many to count, too beautiful to touch, too bright to stare, opens with a warped voice reciting the opening lines before transforming into a strong declaration with her unaltered voice. It touches on experimentation with oscillating tones between the repeated refrain that riddles the limit of everything and the language we use to describe what lies outside of reach. The music slinks along from spoken word and free jazz to a groove with scat singing and shouting. The one line not included in the title is the one that bookends the song, and it even silences the other instruments at the end: “too heavy to fly.” Perhaps that is the line we are meant to take heart in the most?
교정 [Gyojung] - 익숙함에 익숙해진 [Too comfortable]
Chosen by Ethan Kim
Gyojung has finally released their first studio album. Too Comfortable, the first track on the album, makes a strong impression, befitting its position as the album's opening track. The lyrics repeat the line ‘우린 익숙함에 익숙해져버린 (We’ve gotten used to familiarity)’, and the melody and reverberation intertwine with the lingering meaning, leaving a subtle atmosphere that lasts long after the song ends. Although it has been more than a decade since their debut, Gyojung has turned a new page since December, and we can look forward to following their remarkable story.
Youra - 1993
Chosen by Jamie Finn (@jamiefinn2209)
Youra’s deftly atmospheric 1993 continues to mark her as one of Korea’s most interesting and versatile writers. It’s understated, trip-hop beat and jazzy double bass add to the song’s atmosphere. What makes this song extra special is its formlessness, resisting a verse-chorus format. It makes the song feel more powerful and authentic.
JuJu B. Goode - Santa Fe
Chosen by Christian 이수 Mata (@chris_isu_m)
LA-based troubadour Juju B. Good’s Santa Fe offers up a sweet farewell to a road-weary companion. It’s unexpected hearing a sincere ode to a Santa Fe Hyundai accompanied by the easy listening of a steel pedal in Korean and English, but it's welcome nonetheless. Hearing the sleepy country stylings as JuJu B. Goode shares gratitude for his trusty steed is relatable to anyone who has lived between states in the US. Talking to the car like a dog about to be put to pasture, it’s a genuine modern bit of folksy commiseration.
Sailor Honeymoon - Armchair
Chosen by Ethan Kim (@count.kim)
The South Korean post-punk scene is undoubtedly growing. Among the new names, Sailor Honeymoon's Armchair captures some of the vibe of Sorry and English Teacher, while showing its own catchy and concise development. While utilising the characteristics of the punk genre, which creates new charm in simplicity, it blended the trio's unrestrained energy. Their style has always been distinctive, and it will undoubtedly continue to evolve in bold and unpredictable ways.
Nomad Star - Astral Travel
Chosen by Jamie Finn (@jamiefinn2209)
This is kind of cheating, as the original Astral Travel came out in 2022 when the band were working under the name Take The Floor. Now with a rebrand, Nomad Star have remastered and rereleased a bunch of their old tunes.
At the time, I described Astral Travel as “unfairly overlooked”, and I stand by that. It’s a pretty cool mix of Destroyer and Future Islands with a ton of atmosphere.
Mandong feat. eAeon - When the Devil Walks Among Us
Chosen by Christian 이수 Mata (@chris_isu_m)
A sinister, deliberate march When the Devil Walks Among Us, sounds like a criminal confession. The sparseness and weight of the instrumentation pull in the listener. The gravitas and heft of the words and delivery seem to point to a fatal crime of passion that the perpetrator is now disclosing to someone close to him: “I did what I had to do/I swear, I swear/what I've done/was only to save you and me.” Beginning with a solemn guitar, soon synthetic echoes and a sparse jazz drum fill awaken an ensemble of strings, and the confessor now has a double voice track that sounds close to what a movie might use to show a character possessed. In this double-voice track, the speaker talks about despair and transformation. It’s a gripping story painted with sound as much as words. As the instruments crescendo and leave in turn, the drama comes to a close by answering its own question, “Oh what do we do when the Devil walks among us?/Oh what do we do when the Devil is in all of us?/Pretend we don't see it.”