New Music Friday - 25.06
The latest in our "New Music Friday" series is live. Our writers have scoured all the best new tunes coming out of Korea's indie scene and picked their faves.
Kontrajelly - Hemlock
Chosen by Connor Cass (@aminorcharacter)
Kontrajelly’s music has always been defined by a wistful romanticism of past eras of music. Whether it’s synth pop or dream pop vibes, they’ve always been skilled at welcoming those ideas into their world. Hemlock feels like their most 80s synth poppy leaning track ever, it's simultaneously nostalgic and hella fun. At times a collision of a variety of bouncy, joyful and warm sound, at other times it slows down with longing vocals and wavy synths. Kontrajelly always finds euphoria in looking backwards, and Hemlock is no different.
DORA - The softest hour (feat. Ilight)
Chosen by Jess Howell
There seems to be a recent trend in which music with a slow beat and relaxed rhythm can only catch air at 3:00am and must elicit an emotional cocktail of ambiguity and nostalgia. The softest hour checks some of these boxes, but also threatens to buck the trend by evoking a rare brand of musical determinism. The bassline that leads the charge is crispy, assertive, and to the point. The synth is an equally efficient first mate. It's clean, it knows its role, and it stays in its lane. Finally, Dora doesn't sing like someone pondering. Instead, she sings is self-assured, and almost audacious. Some might be at odds with this juxtaposition of song and songwriter, but I welcome the change of pace.
Pop Ents - Yes Man
Chosen by Charity Lynn (@_charitylynn_)
Hate your boss? Tired of being a corperate slave to the Man? Well, the boys are back with a track that makes you wanna quit your shitty desk job with a big “fuck you!” The aggressive guitar and vocals express those pent up frustrated feelings of the repetitive cycle of going to work at a job that takes its employees for granted. Yes Man keeps up that same expressive energy that’s signature to Pop Ents’ sound, it’s really great to see that they’re coming back with some new tunes.
Zanryupa - Dreamscape Crystal
Chosen by Mica (@mishcka)
Zanryupa has crafted something that exists in the liminal space between waking and sleep. The track unfolds like morning light filtering through gauze, all shimmer and suggestion rather than bold declaration.
Where traditional shoegaze builds its cathedral from distorted guitar worship, Zanryupa constructs their sanctuary from gossamer synthesisers and vapour-trail pads. Clean guitar lines drift through the mix like half-remembered melodies, each note swimming in cathedral reverb that stretches toward infinity. You don't so much listen to this track as let it carry you, suspended in its crystalline atmosphere. In a genre often defined by its heaviness, Dreamscape Crystal proves that sometimes the most profound journeys happen when you barely feel yourself moving at all.
Lunar Isles - Echo Peak
Chosen by Jamie Finn (@jamiefinn2209)
Lunar Isles is a bit of a unique case. The Seoul-based Scottish native is relatively unknown in the local scene. Yet, in the world of dreamy bedroom-pop, there is a figure who draws love and acclaim. It’s not hard to see why, too. His introspective style of hazy indie is as sweet as it is chill. There are elements of surf and just the slightest nods of Cure-esque new wave in his music. Echo Peak is taken from Lunar Isles' new album, Reminiscent, which he describes as his most personal to date. This is exactly the saint of my devotion and definitely worth a listen.
Gloomy - Chain
Chosen by Jamie Finn (@jamiefinn2209)
“Gloomy” isn’t quite the right word to describe the excellent debut from the producer of that name. For me, “gloomy” suggests something greyer than the intense melancholia of the expansive Guilt Protocol. Over the course of 12 songs, Gloomy explores a range of emotions (though none of them are happy) through an impressively diverse set of musical styles, such as emo, ambient, techno, and more. I’m going with the jazzy trip-hop inspired Chain. Densely layered, atmospheric, and an attractive vocal performance that at times touches on Jeff Buckley.
Keaukaha - Id
Chosen by Jamie Finn (@jamiefinn2209)
Id is a gorgeously ethereal folktronica track from the debut EP of producer Keaukaha, which was inspired by the writings of Lee Sangwoo. This dreamlike song represents the artist’s interest in fragmentation and chaos. The joyously high-pitched vocal samples drip throughout this like a voice calling you from a consciousness outside your own. It’s a beautiful introduction to a unique new artist.
Phenomenonlog and nokeum - whitespace_
Chosen by Jamie Finn (@jamiefinn2209)
I was hooked by the new joint EP from Phenomenonlog and nokeum as soon as I saw the title - Does Egg Yolk Dream of Ewan Bae? This incredibly diverse tapestry of influences draws on folk, UK garage, and R&B with tonnes of weirdness through. There’s loads to love here, but the 57-second-long, slightly-shoegazey experimentalism of whitespace_ gets my nod.
LudiSTELO - night & light
Chosen by Jamie Finn (@jamiefinn2209)
LudiSTELO describe itself as “psychedelic space rock”. The moment you start listening to them, it becomes apparent how apt this title is. A pulsating and driven slice of psychedelia, night & light builds and moves, using every bit of its 9-minute length to expand into new territory. Pulled along by some excellent guitar work (from Ash, also of Animal Divers), night & light epicness means that it never gets boring, despite its length.
Sucozy - Meet Me Halfway
Chosen by Jamie Finn (@jamiefinn2209)
Every time I listen to Sucozy, I think to myself, “Why isn’t this artist better known?!” Not just because of how good he is, but because every ingredient is there for success in Korea’s music industry. For now, though, he remains one of music communities' best-kept secrets, destined to release shimmering pop-adjacent belters. On his new song, he’s moved away from the disco-pop of his other recent music and into a beach indie chill direction. It’s a sound that really suits him.
Baan - Oldman (ft. Asian Glow)
Chosen by Cam
Oldman, the 8-minute closer to Baan’s latest album Neumann, mirrors the suffocating weight of a Korean summer: sticky, relentless, and eerily beautiful. Asian Glow’s doubled, sometimes tripled, vocals are a highlight. A slow burn upward that dooms when it needs to, gazes as a release.
포져군단 (POSER) - 시대착오 (X)
Chosen by Lim Seungjae (@HavveGo1ucky)
POSER is fresh, energetic, and above all, young. Really young. With two oldest members being 20 and the youngest guitarist Choi being 17, they are a rare sight to behold in the Korean indie scene. X (시대착오), part of their double single alongside another succinctly named track !!! (홧김에확), perfectly captures this youthful charm of theirs. POSER is definitely here to stay, and I personally find it fun to imagine how they would be like as an older, more established act decades from now - a status they will definitely achieve if they keep on with bangers like this.
Damons Year 데이먼스 이어 – The Clockwork Whirl 태엽감기
Chosen by Marie Joncquez (@mariejoncquez)
Here's a song that immediately raises questions: can cold waves feel warm? Can a Korean make Britpop? Is urgency an art of living? Can escape and running be an arrival, a goal? Can you finish a song in suspense to let the listener imagine the rest? Is the greatest love the one that burns intensely, or the one that lasts a lifetime? Can music run, jump, cross, bounce? Could music be what we yearn for?