K-pop (2015)

okay, "neon" by jonghyun is really nice. great '90s RnB throughout, and then the bridge goes J Dilla mental. wish all the songs had curveballs this wild.

best of the lot, though, is "Fortune Cookie," a bonus track limited to the physical edition - and i have no fucking clue why. it's basically Voodoo status. super sophisticated...modulates awesomely too, some of the weirdest RnB i've ever heard out of korea. here's a slightly botched bootleg for the time being:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52rX07pSMzw

Neon is def my favorite on the mini, really incredible production on that. Definitely feel the D'Angelo vibes on Fortune Cookie. Also digging Beautiful Tonight.

apparently BoA is barely a factor even in the japanese market nowadays. but maybe the 15th anniversary marketing push will do some good in drumming up nostalgia sales.

― soyrev

She goes top 10 with her singles and albums on the Oricon and held a tour there last fall, she has a steady core fanbase that's obviously smaller than her peak powers when she was pushing a million copies per album. You don't stay on top for 15 years. But even Ayumi struggles topping charts these days - compared to most newer solo female stars in Japan BoA's still in an enviable position (RIP Jasmine's career).

In Korea last real promotional activity was with Only One which was one of the 30 best-selling songs of that year. (full disclosure: I went to her first solo concert on Korean soil ever in 2013).

SXSW lineup:

http://sxsw.com/music/news/2015/k-pop-night-out-showcase-returns-third-year-sxsw

Hitchhiker, Crayon Pop and Epik High are the headliners.

Tahiti coming on strong in another Brave Brothers track: http://youtu.be/M9medBE7GD4

There's no WAY they can use that choreography on broadcast

Thanks for digging up those Jonghyun tracks <3

I feel like ever since Lee Hi's "It's Over", there's been this trend of Kpop companies picking the safest boringest track on the album for the single (which they didn't used to do).

well i appreciate that Brave realizes he/they can't keep cranking out the same template anymore. good to finally hear a little variety from him again

"Brave Brothers recycles the same songs over and over" is a misconception - the producer Kang Dong-chul (AKA Brave Brothers - a single person) has always tried out new styles. It's just a question of whether you'll be one of the lucky groups getting a meticulously constructed exploration of whatever new style or trend dude is currently pursuing, or whether you'll get a cast-off recycled throwaway song dude spent two days on.

Speaking as this board's resident Brave Brothers fan :p

when Brave is on he/they are on, but no denying that 4minute "only gained weight" is a rewrite of 4minute "like water?," AOA "short hair" a rewrite of AOA "miniskirt," etc

(which, i might add, are my four favorite brave songs in a long time)

LE's been my fave girl group member since her debut basically and now she seems to be everywhere. This is pretty good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tj5EDxXmZQ

not sure i like it yet but JJCC (jackie chan's group) just came back with a song that's 2012-grade k-pop ADD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRHcId9ENk0

I wanna like that but the stadium-chant parts are pretty low-level... A+ thievery though, there's snatches of a bunch of different recent songs in there

Mr. Kim is nice!

And "Fortune Cookie" got a quickie MV: http://youtu.be/G7PeqM_HnAQ

If we keep talking about it maybe we'll get one for "Neon" next.

I'm kind of looking forward to UKISS, actually. Maybe I'm just used to their voices but there's something about "Smart Love" (the pre-release track) that elevates it above garden-variety schmaltz (maybe it's the brisk tempo): http://youtu.be/M9If2kigxr0

New group gunning for current-SNSD's spot with vintage-SNSD's sound:

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

I thought Lovelyz were wimpy but I like this!

verse vocals feel so stilted and tuned...chorus is aight. choreo is cool! might click for me in time, lovelyz took a while

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yotstIG8_3k

From last year, but I played Jun Hyoseong's "Goodnight Kiss" a lot

You liked that one, ∞? I thought it was a case where the "experimental structure" (all chorus all the time) didn't really work.

Sailor Moon!

forapper, yeah, I thought it was decent track? What have you been listening to lately?

Wiggle Wiggle... and Kpop from 2012, English pop songs, and Angel.

I actually like that Wiggle Wiggle track

"wiggle wiggle" is a solid comfort zone k-pop track with an awful awful pre-chorus. brave was right that the song needs a dramatic break to keep it from getting too circular, but it sounds like he had one idea, tried it, realized it's pointlessly atonal, then said fuck it when hellovenus' people seemed to like it anyway.

went to an old bookstore in shinchon and made off with my first handful of 2000-won used CDs. some absolute lost gold here that's just not on the internet. going to consider ways i can get these online in nicely blended, moody soundclouded mixes that have the right kind of visual aesthetic to appeal to and beyond the extant koreaphile contingent...

no one posted the video to fortune cookie yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9CjXKisv-s

What albums did you get soyrev? It shouldn't be too hard I think but it you ever find some Kim Wan Sun albums (that aren't 삐에로는 우릴 보고 웃지 or 평화의 날개) or stuff from Kim Choo Ja please give me a holler. There's actually a ton of things I'd be scoping out if I was in Korea but those two are relevant to the thread at least :3

Also, I was never bothered by the prechorus to Wiggle Wiggle for some reason. If there's something that bothers me it's the dialing that opens up 4Minute's Is It Poppin? or the singing in the bridge of Sistar's Touch My Body.

i love the weird atonal dialing in is it poppin!

also, fuck that "fortune cookie" video for cutting out at the best part of the song. shameful.

Yea I guess it's not the lead single so they're taking free reign on cutting it down a la the video to Taemin's Ace

so stupid. i can't write about it now =\

same with "symptoms" off everybody in 2013. for such cheapo videos, just film enough roll for the extra minute, guys

You know, if HIGH4 cut the first 1:30 off "Day by Day" and didn't spend so much time intoning over a super basic plucked guitar riff, they could have a slightly-above-average boyband song carried by ~emotional boyband falsetto~ like Dalmation's ER or BAP's Rain Sound.

Just sayin'

fuuuuck GFriend's new mini intro is awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbl5AUx1BWc

what are these vibes, before the beat drop? i get something very distinct and sountracky, like John Carpenter maybe, or some kind of particularly poppy Vangelis soundtrack...can't quite place it though, might have something else in mind entirely, but it's pretty OTM of whatever it's referencing. '80s, though, pretty sure of that (on account of them analog-aping synths)...

also, i think you're right hurricane, but i like that minute and a half. slow builds are always a nice change of pace in k-pop. that was the first song i liked this year – i feel like HIGH4 are a little bit underrated.

It's at least different, I guess. But I like the in res starts.

GFRIEND's White is good too!! It's a solid Jpop mini:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKtfosL8Xh4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt3D4H93hNs

^^JYP's 15-year trainnee

That's his Eyes Nose Lips single... JYP talking about putting G.Soul on a sub-label "not concerned with mainstream sounds" but it's not like the mainstream hates this sound, ya know?

Track #2 on the mini, Superstar, is excellent though: http://youtu.be/AA-bvV184sw

do not need this song personally, but i hope he kills it. would make a potentially sad story a happy one.

waiting for k2n to upload his whole mini, i imagine there's something there i'll dig...

ahhhh you weren't kidding about "superstar," especially those fkn verses. choruses somewhat a letdown but if guy can actually sing this way live he should have a nice career ahead of him in korea.

"excuses" is best imo, took a dang while for a legit weeknd impression to wind up on a proper k-pop release, but it works much better than it should. great details in the bg vocals, guitar, bass fills – sophisticated and natural. could sit very easily on either the first or third weeknd mixtapes (i.e. the only worthwhile weeknd, really).

I guessed you'd like excuses... it's the fortune cookie of this mini lol

Very confused about the GFriend love but I need to spend more time with it. I definitely had a stronger affinity for Lovelyz' album and music video.

The G.Love mini is pretty great overall. A bit innocuous but he has a great voice and the mixing's actually /really/ on point on here. Dig the single a lot, actually. And First Love is really cozy. I'm naturally gonna dig Excuses too and was definitely thinking The Weeknd as well (i mean, that electric guitar). Was never into The Weeknd's stuff after HoB, and even then the best four tracks on it were released prior to the mixtape dropping.

hahahah "the G.Love mini!!"

GFriend is nothing crazy, but it's nice. Lovelyz definitely better.

Infinite H sound like they might live up to their material this time around: http://youtu.be/SWM7S_pjI8s

Their first album was too good for them - features stole the show - hopefully they grew into this one??? I think it's sounding promising so far...

Albums:
1. Wonder Girls - Reboot
2. f(x)- Four Walls
3. Red Velvet - the Red
4. iKon - Welcome Back, but only if they repackage it with the three new singles
5. Girls Generation - Lion Heart

Mini-albums:
1. Miss A - Colors
2. Hotshot - I'm a Hotshot
3. Seventeen - Boys Be
4. Oh My Girl - Oh My Girl (First mini album)

Oh yeah I forgot Awoo

voted awoo on my ilx singles ballot

mostly due to this thread!

This one snuck up on me after they added a video, great RnB jam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWTsl8sAJFY

not sure whether to file until 2015 or 2016...

GAON's end of year chart is out, by the way:

http://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/17330907.html

Didn't realize miss A and Baek A Yeon had done so well, good on them though.

There's something a little off about this

http://0.soompi.io/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/29230246/lovelyz1-800x450.jpg
http://0.soompi.io/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/29230407/lovelyz-21.jpg

Not that there's any immediate danger of students getting hold of guns in Korea.

Mostly just funny.