2011년 10월 29일 토요일

Songolmae / Songolmae II (1982)


Songolmae 송골매
Songolmae II

1982. 01. 15



Side A 
1. 어쩌다 마주친 그대 / Happened to Meet You
2. 우리들 / Us
3. 그대는 나는 / You, I4. 다시한번 / Once Again
5. 세상만사 / All the Things Around the World


Side B
1. 하다 못해 이 가슴을 / At Last to This Heart
2. 모두 다 사랑하리 / Love All Together
3. 빨리 빨리 / Quickly Quickly
4. 내 마음의 꽃 / 길지 않는 시간이었네 / The Flower in My Hear / It was not long time
5. 바람 / Wind



We have talked about one of the most famous hard rock bands in Korea, Sinawe here. From that review, one might ask a question : then is Sinawe the first band that introduced hard rock music in Korea? The answer is of course, it's not. In fact, there was a huge boom in the early 80s music industry in Korea. There might be various factors, such as better standards of living, but probably the most prime reason is that the new president of Korea, Chun Doo-hwan tried to justify dictatorship by cultural policy as he rose in power from the coup detat in 1980.


Songolmae, the band we are going to talk about in this post, was also one of the bands that lead the music boom in early 1980s. Especially, the reason why Songolmae lead the rock music industry at that time was probably their members had a lot of talents. Chul-Soo Bae, who is the leader of Songolmae, made a debut from the TBC beach music contest and the MBC university music contest in 1978 with his band Hwaljuro (Airstrip in English), and formed Songolmae after a few members of Hwaljuro quit. After the publication of the first album, Songolmae introduced a few members from Black Tetra, another famous rock band at that time which also performed and was awarded at the MBC university music contest. As a result, Songolmae was able to have the rock stars in the band altogether.


As their history shows, this album presents highly-polished hard rock music. One of the most interesting features in this album is that the two styles of Hwaljuro and Songolmae create distinctive harmony throughout the album. Especially, 어쩌다 마주친 그대(Happened to Meet You) and 모두 다 사랑하리 (Love All Together) are still regarded as best 80s rock songs in Korea.


Still, the legacy that Songolmae left is present in the modern Korean rock music. Chul-Soo Bae, who is the leader of Songolmae, has been continuing his music career as a musician and pop columnist, who has been a DJ of one of the most famous music radio program, Chul-Soo Bae's Music Camp for over twenty years.




  
(Songolmae - 어쩌다 마주친 그대 / Happened to Meet You)

Album Cover
Maniadb (http://www.maniadb.com/)

References
Maniadb (http://www.maniadb.com/album.asp?a=121522)
Songolmae Official Website (http://www.songolmae.co.kr/)

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2011년 9월 26일 월요일

Sinawe / Heavy Metal Sinawe (1986)


Sinawe 시나위
Heavy Metal Sinawe
1986. 03. 01


Side A
1. 크게 라디오를 켜고 / Turn on the Radio Aloud
2. 그대 앞에 난 촛불이여라 / I Would Be a Candle in Front of You
3. 남사당패 / Namsadang
4. 젊음의 록큰롤 / Rock'n Roll of outh
5. 아! 대한민국 / Ah! The Republic of Korea


Side B
1. 잃어버린 환상 / Lost Dream
2. 아틸란티스의 꿈 / Dream of Atlantis
3. 1월 (January) / January
4. 하루해 마냥 떠가고 / Sun Goes Down All the Way 




Some might have heard of Sinawe before, as it is a form of traditional Korean music based on improvisation. Indeed, the leader of Sinawe, Shin Dae-cheol said that he came up with the band name from his music textbook when he was in middle school. Regarding that there is a lot of similarities between metal music and the traditional Korean music, this name probably explains their music style very well.

Actually, we have talked about the albums related to Sinawe a few times before. The second album that we introduced was the first debut album of Add 4, which was lead by the "godfather" of the Korean rock music, Shin Jung-hyeon here. Also, we have mentioned his another legendary album, Shin Jung-hyeon & Yeopjeons 1st Album here. Probably, Shin Jung-hyeon is the most closest person to Sinawe, and that's because he is in fact, the father of Shin Dae-cheol, who is the leader of Sinawe. Not only that, in the review for Seo Taiji's first debut album here, we actually mentioned that Seo Taiji was the former bassist of Sinawe but soon quit and founded the group Seo Taiji and Boys.



In fact, hard rock genre was not the odd one in late 1980s, as various hard rock bands were active in 80s such as Song Gol Mae, which is another important figure in the Korean pop music history that we are going to talk about later. That's why this album wouldn't be called the first heavy metal album in Korea. However, nobody would argue about the fact that this album became the milestone of heavy metal genre in Korea, blooming metal boom in late 80s. As the phrase "heavy metal" is shown on their first album cover, Sinawe introduced themselves as "heavy metal" band showing that they are going to be renowned as "heavy metal band".

The songs featured in this album, despite that they were recorded in poor quality, show that they deserve their fame as a heavy metal band. Especially, the unique vocal sound of Yim Jae-beom and the alternative solo of Shin Dae-cheol make this album especially distinctive. That's why this album is regarded as one of the best heavy metal albums in Korea with the album Too Fast! Too Loud! Too Heavy! from Baekdusan, which is the band we are going to talk about later again.

  
(Sinawe - 크게 라디오를 켜고 / Turn on the Radio Aloud)

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2011년 8월 7일 일요일

Seo Taiji and Boys / Seo Taiji and Boys 1 (1992)

Seo Taiji and Boys 서태지와 아이들
Seo Taiji and Boys 1 서태지와 아이들 I
1992. 03. 23


Side A
1. Yo! Taiji!
2. 난 알아요 (Club Mix) / I Know
3. 환상속의 그대 / Thou in Fantasy
4. 너와 함께한 시간속에서 / In the Time When We Were Together
5. 이밤이 깊어가지만 / Though the Night Goes on

Side B
1. 내 모든 것 (Live Mix) / My Everything
2. 이제는 / Now
3. Blind Love (English Version)
4. Rock'N Roll Dance ('92 Heavy Mix)
5. Missing


Who is the most controversial artist in Korea? There would be various answers, but probably some might say it's Seo Taiji. 


Seo Taiji is an artist who started his music career as a bassist in the band called Sinawe from 1989. Sinawe is a traditional metal band formed by Shin Dae-cheol, who is the son of Shin Jung-hyeon whose album is introduced here. Due to the difference in their music styles, Seo Taiji soon quit and founded the group called Seo Taiji and Boys with his fellows such as Yang Hyun-Seok, who is now the owner of YG Entertainment.


This album, which is the debut album of Seo Taiji and Boys, introduced various genres of music in Korea. One of the most distinct features in this album is that he tried to combine rock music with hip hop which was a very odd genre in Korea at that time. Some people claim that Seo Taiji made it very banal, but anyway it is also true that this album was the first to make this experiment national-widely popular. Especially, the most famous track in this album, "I Know" made so-called "Seo Taiji syndrom" which prevailed in Korea until he abruptly announced the dissolution of Seo Taiji and Boys.  As a result, this album has been sold for 1.6 million copies. 


Regardless of the current criticisms on this album, it is evident that this album made enormous social influences. First, hip-hop, which was very unpopular genre in Korea at that time, became prevalent in the Korean music industry after the publication of this album; however, some people blame on him that he undermined the settlement of the traditional hip-hop genre in Korea. Also, dance became one of the most important features in Korean pop music as Seo Taiji and Boys led their popularity with their distinct dance and fashion styles. Soon, Seo Taiji and Boys became kind of cultural icon in early 90s which represented youth culture of Korea at that time. And that's why Kim Daejoong, who was the president of the Republic of Korea, called him "culture president"; besides a few others including No Brain (one of their albums was introduced here) also claim that he is a "culture tyranny".

  
(Seo Taiji and Boys - 난 알아요 / I Know)


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