nanoomi

Here are some interesting releases I didn’t get around writing about sooner (although the post should’ve gone live during the weekend…):

On February 17 Ninano Nanda released a debut album titled,  Future Pansori 우주전. After providing the “Corean voice” to I&I Djangdan’s dub & reggae blend Jang-Goon is now getting deeper into electronica. The official site offers a biography in English for those that wish to learn more about  traditional Pansori and that Ninano Nanda aspires to make. Check out the album promo vid here.

From the producers behind The Moonshiners, the new rock’n'roll trio The Essence released an EP called the Door to Anywhere online on February 23 and on CD March 8. Their 60s-70s inspired sound blends garage, punk, blues and psych rock.

The alternative rock trio The Jaywalker originally formed in the 90s and re-united again a few years ago. Their first full length album after the reunion, Illusion, came out in 2010 and on March 10th their follow up album titled, 2nd was released. Here is the music video for album main track 말해.

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The indie chart from Bugs covering last week contains a surprisingly high number of re-entries from older songs. I think it’s a lovely thing to see, and some of them even made the top 10.

Bugs Indie TOP10 – March 12, 2011
1. 10cm – 그게 아니고 [M Soundplus]
2. 10cm – 사랑은 은하수 다방에서 [Music Travel Lalala]
3. 10cm – 우정, 그 씁쓸함에 대하여 [@ Anthracite]
4. 10cm – 아메리카노 [recandplay.net]
5. Mot – 매일 그대와
6. 소리배낭여행 2기 – 10대, 소리에 눈뜨다 (1회차) [MV]
7. Broccoli, you too? – 봄이 오면
8. 10cm – 오늘밤은 어둠이 무서워요 [recandplay.net]
9. Autumn Vacation – 나비가 앉은 자리
10. Lucite Tokki – 봄봄봄 [MV]

The new additions to the TOP100 list are the following:
28. No.1 Korean – ㄱㄴㄷ (feat. Lee Suk-yuel of Kingston Rudieska) [MV]
40. Lee Tae Hoon – 니눈이 빛나던 날 (Song By 강기헌)
43. Zingo – 그 사람
55. The Freaks – 꿈이냐 [@ Sangsang Madang]
87. Na Yoon Seong – 내 그리움이 널 지워가기 전에
See the full top 100 list here.

The third full length album from ska act No.1 Korean,previously mentioned here, was finally released on March 8. The tracklist contains 11 titles in total including Rosa, which was first released on Sunny Road, the 2009 single directly preceding this album.

Indie rock guy Lee Tae Hoon debuted with an album called 감성 in 2010. On March 10 he released his second album, or album 0.2, called 기대. I haven’t managed to figure out what his music sounds like, but Lee Tae Hoon seems like a humble guy thanking the people that find his music in the album info.

Singer/songwriter Na Yoon Seong released his second EP, 2nd EP, on March 5. It follows last year’s EP debutRomantea and which has a pop/rock sound.

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Original Ninano Nanda; The Essence; The Jaywalker post can be viewed [Here]

Original Week 10 Music Chart post [Here]

Yesterday, February 23, the winners of the 8th Korean Music Awards were announced. Thanks to the many Korean indie musicians on Twitter it was possible to follow the awards in real time even for those that couldn’t watch the video streaming from the official site. The Seoulsonic even offered a few photos on tumblr, starting here.

Here are the results via Sports Chosun

Album of the Year: Garion 《Garion 2》
Song of the Year: Hot Potato 〈고백〉《Seesaw》
Musician of the Year: Galaxy Express 《Wild Days》
Rookie of the Year: Gate Flowers 《Gate Flowers》
Rock album: Crash 《The Paragon of Animals》
Rock song: Gate Flowers 〈예비역〉《Gate Flowers》
Modern rock album: 9 and the Numbers 《9와 숫자들》
Modern rock song: Broccoli, you too? 〈졸업〉《졸업》
Pop album: Cho Kyu Chan 《Cho Kyu Chan 9》
Pop song: 10cm 〈오늘 밤은 어둠이 무서워요〉《Life (VA)》
Dance & Electronic album: 2NE1 《To Anyone》
Dance & Electronic song: miss A 〈Bad Girl Good Girl〉《Bad But Good》
Rap & Hip Hop album: Garion 《Garion 2》
Rap & Hip Hop song: Garion 〈영순위〉《Garion 2》
R&B Soul album: Jinbo 《Afterwork》
R&B Soul song: Deez 〈Sugar〉《Get Real》
Jazz album: Nah Youn Sun 《Same Girl》
Crossover album: La Ventana 《Nostalgia And The Delicate》
Jazz & Crossover performance: Lee Pan Geun Project 《A Rhapsody In Cold Age》
Film & TV Music: VA 《Bravo! Jazz Life (브라보! 재즈 라이프)》

Netizen’s Choice, male artist: Taeyang
Netizen’s Choice, female artist: Kim Yoon Ah
Netizen’s Choice, group: f(x)

Committee’s Choice: Super Session
Special merit price: Son Sukwo

A few observations:
- Gate Flowers replaced Guckkasten both as rookie (an award they shared with Apollo 18) and for best rock song.
- Broccoli, you too? won the modern rock song category in 2010 as well.
- Pop album winners are likely to be already well established artists.
- Idol usually trumphs indie when it comes to Electronica & Dance.

Hopefully I’ll be able to find some time to return with more on these results tomorrow.

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New unique aritst chart from Indieful ROK’s last.fm listener group! This week I was so happy going through thetrack chart scouting for good sample titles as it had me listening to some fantastic songs it’s been way too long since I last listened to. Why not try the playlist to hear them all for yourself?

Indieful ROK TOP10 – week 7, 2011

1. 10cm (-) [Hey Billy live]
2. Han Hee Jung (-) [입맞춤, 입술의 춤 live]
3. Fanny Fink (+7) [Love Is You YT audio]
4. 푸른새벽 (re) [친절한 나의 길 YT audio]
5. Clazziquai (+2) [사랑끝에 YT audio]
6. Humming Urban Stereo (-3) [난 그날 YT audio]
7. Nell (-3) [Fisheye Lens live]
8. Donawhale (re) [아카시아 YT audio]
9. Misty Blue (-4) [슈게이저 YT audio]
10. Adultchild (new) [Star YT audio]

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Bugs Indie Music Chart is not the only place where 10cm is having success right now. I just took a quick look atGaon’s digital chart and while it has yet to be updated for last week the week prior to that showed remarkable success for the acoustic duo. I’d be curious to know if there was ever any other act with as many tracks in the top 200 before.

k-indie @ Gaon Digital Chart – February 12, 2011
33. Humming Urban Stereo – 넌 그날 (feat. Yoo In Na) [MV]
64. 10cm – 그게 아니고
95. 10cm – 사랑은 은하수 다방에서
112. 10cm - Talk
119. Lucid Fall – 우리 아름다운 시간은 [MV]
120. 10cm – 우정, 그 씁쓸함에 대하여
124. Whale – 그대라서
135. 10cm - Beautiful
136. 10cm – 죽겠네 (Album Ver.)
142. 10cm - Kingstar
149. 10cm - Beautiful Moon
158. 10cm - Rebirth
159. 10cm – 곱슬머리
160. 10cm - Hey Billy
162. Zitten - Sunshine [MV]
165. 10cm – 살
170. 10cm – 아메리카노
176. 10cm – 오늘밤은 어둠이 무서워요
191. Standing Egg – 넌 이별 난 아직 (with 한소현 of 3rd coast)
192. AshGray – 못됐다

As previously mentioned, Lucid Fall has recorded a song for movie I Love You (그대를 사랑합니다). The soundtrack was released on February 9. In addition to the Lucid Fall track and a few other songs, the soundtrack also included a new song from Dalmoon called 들꽃처럼. Check out the music video here.

Whale recorded 그대라서 for SBS drama Sign (싸인). It was first released as part 4 of the digital single OST series on January 27, but will get a CD release along with the rest of the soundtrack on February 24.

Rock band AshGray released a digital single called 못됐다 on February 8. The single is number 6 from the band and holds 3 tracks. Personally I’ve become quite fond of this unplugged performance of the title track.

Let me know if you’d like me to make these charts a regular feature by the way! I’ve been checking them out every now and then without finding anything that caught my interest till just now, but perhaps that’s about to change.

You can view the original posts [Here] [Here] and [Here]

Han Hee Jung will release a new EP, 잔혹한 여행, on October 6. In addition to six new titles, it also includes a band version of Drama that she sang together with Mot’s eAeon on her first album. Pastel Music offers a brief sample of the title track.

A bunch of links found via my feed reader over the last few days:

The Korean has put one of the bands that turned me towards the more alternative sides of Korean music on his list of influential artists: 50 Most Influential K-Pop Artists: 46. Deli Spice

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So we already have Bugs Chart to keep track of which songs people are listening to, but what about which CDs they buy? Well that’s something we can find out from Hyang Chart!

As it happens what is likely the foremost store for Korean indie music sells enough Korean indie music CDs to keep the sales chart very interesting. I’ll be posting the top 10 here whenever I notice a chart update (they’re a bit irregular, from what I’ve observed during the summer), and also include any new additions of particular interest. With getting back to more regular postings here at Indieful ROK in September and all, I figured keeping track of this chart would be a nice addition + I like how it can help me keep up with any release I may have overlooked before.

During the weekend the chart for the first week of September was posted so here you go, complete with long overdue release updates:

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Realizing I will never have the time to do something useful with all those Korean indie music-related posts I’ve starred in Google Reader over the last few months, here’s a selection of links from the past couple of days:

Malaysia-based entertainment site Voize has provided its audience with an introduction to The Koxx: Meet the Koxx. In case you have yet to check out the electro/rock band yourself, it just so happens that they have 5 out of 6 songs from their first mini album available on MySpace.

Over at Violet Sweets, wassereis has started a new post series called “infocorner” where I’m sure there’ll be plenty of interesting things to learn on selected artists. First up is 10cm: [Infocorner] 10cm.

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