K-pop 2013

And here's a throwback to pre-2008 Kpop: Way To Your Heart.

TOP's solo track is a banger.

https://soundcloud.com/bubblefeetgravitych3/doom-dada

Best part is where he rhymes Korean with Basquiat, obvs.

― Roz, Friday, November 15, 2013 4:12 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

crossposting myself from the BigBang thread

there's a Bigbang thread?!

lol yes! uh, started it in the midst of an overwhelming obsession with them last year:

BIGBANG: K-pop princes of gender-fuckery and family dysfunction

ahh awesome! ty

I've been meaning to put something in that thread about the GD ♥ Hyundeong Infinity Challenge collab, haha. There's a part in TOP's song that sounds like Don's "hong" rap (but maybe this came first).

(If you wanna know what I'm talking about, it starts here about 22 minutes in.)

(Because the "it" in this case is obviously not the song, but the entire reality show/sketch comedy/soap opera surrounding the song.)

TOP's song, on the other hand, is a self-contained unit of ART and greatness.

It's not Kpop, but here's a Korean indie song: http://youtu.be/2SBEWT_WEZI

Speaking of, is the Norazo song really that bad? It's just a wacky novelty song, isn't it? Unless 'wacky novelty song' is a bad thing in itself...

Also not Kpop(?), but here's your whistling-hook RnB song for the day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2ssi34lxko

I hadn't heard Walala Lalale, HW. Thank you. Speaking of great Brave Brothers productions, I guess it's pretty famous but do you know Son Dam-bi's "Tears"?

Hyolin's coming out with a solo album on the 26th. (including tracks by the man himself as well as nugus like Duble Sidekick and Kim "Time To Love" Do-Hoon)

2EN1 released "Missing You", which I reckon on first impression is one of their best. Not sure yet how much of that is due to being hyped about the video, though. Dara-noona so pretty!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG0jlKdB1s0

I didn't love the song on first listen—I'm not much for ballads—but it's definitely growing on me. You're right, though, the video is amazing. (I didn't realize CL had that much ink.)

the song is super weird! it starts off like some sort of smoky r&b thing then becomes a jazz piano ballad? it ends on its bridge?

Yeah they all look and sound amazing and the production is gorgeous, but the more I listen to it the more I think the song itself is a bit of a mess. It seems like they applied the whole three-songs-in-one arrangement on a ballad.

I knew Tears but I forgot how great it is, thank you c :) I'm excited for Hyorin's single too!

2NE1 song is seasonally appropriate but I agree with Brad and Roz, it's not cohesive at all, and the impact is lost when it switches modes. Right now I'm not impressed.

Speaking of ballad season, from 100%: http://youtu.be/dLqQtJQQlhI

^ Prefer this Missing You to 2NE1's

Wa$$up's mini is great, guys. (Here.)

Every song on here is a <s>summer</s> jam! Eagerly awaiting NaDa's full-length solo.

Bang Bang and Galaxy, especially, are the two I'm enjoying right now.

Thinking about it some more, they seem to have a lot of South American fans... maybe their label (SONY Music Korea) is timing this release for the start of summer in the Southern Hemisphere?

I'm surprised that's not more of a thing given the size of fandoms in South and Central America; it seems like it'd be useful to have at least one member of your group speak Spanish or Portuguese alongside the usual Japanese-English-Chinese-Korean (I am going to call this JECK if indeed I ever mention it again)

You'd think. There's a member of U-Kiss who speaks Spanish (badly) and it seems to earn them a lot of points.

I'm not sure about Brazilians, but most Portuguese speak at least a little English. I was told this is because Portugal isn't a big enough country for movie and TV dubbing so they watch everything in English (with subtitles).

omg subdee I just saw you posted the Wa$$up mini on Omona too. small English-speaking-kpop world

everything I post here comes directly from Omona, and if it's not already on Omona, I put it there, haha.

Dance track from the newest quote-unquote "hip hop collective":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO3gf--ipCc

Like I said on omona, I think the weakness of the vocals is actually a strength, cause they can just be processed into the (nicely minimal) beat.

<3 Hyolyn's album

It's like the two best tracks from Give It To Me, but a whole album of them

Hyolin's "Lonely" is great, but I'm disappointed "One Way Love" didn't keep the sensational rock arrangement from the teaser (which is looking to end up more popular than the song itself, at least as far as views on youtube go). The hard-rocking instrumentation had so much potential given her voice and style, and also because a perfect fit for her proclaimed aim of emerging as a "true diva". It's good as it is, only a bit like her usual rather than the declaration of hyperior grooviness suggested by the teaser.

T-ara have been teasing their comeback; here is the original 1977 "What Should I Do" by the Sand Pebbles, of which T-ara's song is going to be some kind of a reimagining:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK8EnxOSfx0

And live in 2006. The song's kind of brilliant.

You gotta listen to the whole album, ceturion! It's a mood album so a rock song would be out of place.

(The songs on this album do sound similar to other songs in the Sistar19/Electroboyz vein that Brave Brothers has established. But I'm okay with that, especially with Hyorin's lovely voice.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYY_rV78pLk#t=72

And the rest of the mini is also really good!

They should stick with this ultra-theatrical dance style forever.. I hope they continue to play up their lisps, too.

Oh, and also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvF3Mr3F_h0

Composed by AJ of U-Kiss! If their agency had more faith in them/any sense, they'd have promoted this in Korea and not the bargain-bin Brave Brothers track they ended up with (as much as I like Brave Brothers).

I need to check out Hyorin's album. History song is pretty decent - don't think I've listened to them before.

The teaser for Tasty's latest had been promising too but meh... I feel like new jack K-pop should be way better than this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plCqaQ4S9vA

You're right HW, having now given Hyolin's album a proper listen, taken as a whole it *is* quite amazing! I was really into that teaser though. :( Maybe she could have done it as a single while saving restraint and taste and emotion and whatever for the album version.

"Red Lipstick" is my favourite of the non-title tracks.

Odd Eye the string pop group returned with ballady "Never":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHOeP3upiiQ

The album is great right??? Right now I like "Tonight" and "Don't Love Me" the most.

I think Tasty's single would be good if they were better singers.

also I like the way Love & Hate seems to stay in character with the gestalt girl from the Sistar singles, only with the nuance of a full album. Maybe it's something about Hyolin's voice that occasions the ever-so-slight sense of being, I don't know, run down. I mean there's plenty of sorrow in the songwriting itself, but the dramatic persona has a special sense of desolation about her that seems to come from between the lines here as well as in the Sistar songs. I don't know how to express it. It's that Brave Brothers magic, probably.

and not just desolation, but the joyous bits as well. Like there's the sense of the dramatic person's weariness and hopes mingling with whatever the song happens to be about that time. This isn't exactly what I'm trying to say, but maybe you'll get it.

I think it comes from Hyolyn, and that's why Brave Brothers likes to write for her (and Sistar) so much.

Roz, History are a group put together by LOEN, the music distributor. They're all interesting people - really funny on shows - but their last single was kind of really bad, so I'd kind of written them off. One of them, Song Kyung-il, was in Nuthang Crew with GDragon and TOP, and ran around with them during their every-night-a-different-club days.

oh dear, TZECHAR has returned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNlTIHevF44

(you should watch it in full screen.)

Speaking of TZECHAR, did you see the article about them in Vice? I thought of a lot of different identities for TZECHAR, but I never guessed they'd be two people working together.

http://thump.vice.com/words/i-tracked-down-the-elusive-k-pop-remixer-tzechar

Fightin' in the female MC community.. after Tymee (evia)'s go in the 'Control' chaos Jolly V calls her out, mentions Kitti B as well https://soundcloud.com/officialslsd/jolly-v-bad-bitches

Tyme responds https://soundcloud.com/tymee/tymee-from-your-bitch-diss
Kitti B responds https://soundcloud.com/kittib/kittib-im-a-woman

More interesting is the all-female rnb/hip hop crew called out by Jolly V that Kitti B is a part of , which I meant to mention here ages ago: AMRT/Amourette - some good debut singles this year, smooth rnb, good vibes; The interesting twist is that all the (rnb) members produce their own singles:
Nieah - Belief http://youtu.be/li7kUuy_nhc
Hoody - My Ride: http://youtu.be/QJZFndxn9oc

https://www.facebook.com/Amourette2013?filter=1

Nice!

If the point to the beef was to get some publicity, mission accomplished, I guess.

Also Nieah and 2NE1's Minzy sound eerily alike.

Crayon Pop's Christmas single is cute. SNSD's Chinese OST song is good! Gummy and Weesung's new duet is also really good.

Jolly V wins. The translation doesn't say; does she invoke or diss Eminem and Outsider there?
Tymee and Kitty's English interjections are hysterical though.

It turns out my favourites The Seeya and SPEED aren't dead, and neither is the gwiyomi, apparently. Both groups have been rolled out of the CCM vault recently; here they perform "Painkiller" together at the Mongolia CCM show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saePlPp0wd0

I really like JeA-composed "Scandal" from Ailee's last album.

I mean the lyrics, not the translation.

Anyway, that is interesting about TZECHAR! I was wondering why some of it is called Lam Suet.
Some of their work, like the Seungri remix above, really is amazing.