London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Loveholic #3: Nice Dream

(Fluxus / Seoul Records, April 2006) Loveholic’s 3rd is another great CD, full of good tunes, well arranged, and well sung by the excellent Ji-sun. She has a pleasing, breathy top end to her voice, a nice casual mid-range, but she is also capable of some ballsy rock chick bottom notes. The band that Loveholic … [Read More]

Rollercoaster # 4: Sunsick

(March 2004) A glorious mix of acid jazz, funk, fusion and latin. The latin element is new to this album. The fact that Tyle Brule, the FT’s dude in the fast lane, has it on his iPod, adds to its street cred. Brule’s been living with the album since the end of 2004 and still … [Read More]

Sea-Jin Chang: Financial Crisis and Transformation of Korean Business Groups

The Rise and Fall of Chaebols (Cambridge, 2003) A welcome and very detailed examination of the history and structure of the Korean business conglomerates. The strengths of this book are manifold. First and foremost is the wealth of evidence sourced from the Korea Information Service which provides some raw data for some hard conclusions. And … [Read More]

Humming Urban Stereo: Purple Drop

Humming Urban Stereo combine acid jazz and lounge music, with some Latin / bossa nova rhythms. The sound is largely electronic – rhythms are programmed, and there are lots of fun synthesized effects. The music is written, arranged and programmed by the band’s leader, Lee Jeereen. It’s slick, polished and in the end a little … [Read More]

Shinhwa: My Choice

(January 2002) My choice is a compilation of the highlights from Shinhwa’s first four albums, and so is a good place to start for those unfamiliar with one of Korea’s popular and longest-lived boy bands. One of the more peculiar numbers is T.O.P. (Twinkling of Paradise), a reinterpretation of a famous Tchaikovsky melody, together with … [Read More]

Rain #1: Bad Guy

Rain’s first album displays his vocal qualities (it’s a good voice), and the range of stuff he’s prepared to sing. There’s a problem though. The music isn’t really distinctive. The ballads he sings are the sort of ballads which lots of K-pop stars are singing. The same key-shifts, the same use of that infuriating tingly … [Read More]

Think Korea: Romeo and Juliet

As part of Think Korea, a big Shakespeare adaptation at the Barbican by one of Korea’s leading playwrights. Coinciding with this production are several talks / educational events: 15 November: a lecture presented by John Russell Brown, on Oh Tae-seok, Shakespeare and popular theatre, at Asia House 30 November: a talk by Oh Tae-seok after … [Read More]

THe ThE Band: 4th album

Highly listenable-to guitar-based pop / rock. Both electric and acoustic guitars. THe The Band write all their own stuff, so it’s music that suits them. And they have also decided that the first of the H’s in their name should be capitlised. Not that I’m a great expert, but the sound of the band seems … [Read More]

Rollercoaster # 2: Il Sang Da Ban Sa

(July 2000) One of those annoying albums where it’s hard to say which track is your favourite. You listen to one and think it’s the best; and then the next track comes along and you change your mind. Probably my least favourite is the repetitive and slightly twee title track which closes the album. Mr … [Read More]

Korean alcohol consumption

It’s always nice to know that people are occasionally reading the stuff I write. Aidan Foster-Carter was prompted by my post on the Asian craze for fine wine to trawl his compendious archives, and he forwarded me this interesting piece on Korean alcohol consumption. Though out of date, it does confirm that when it comes … [Read More]

Loveholic #1: F.L.O.R.I.S.T

(Fluxus / YBM Seoul Records, April 2003) Loveholic’s debut album is a huge success. Intelligent, tuneful, and varied. Their style is shows a number of influences, including some from the 60s and 70s – I detect hints of Simon & Garfunkel’s 59th Street Bridge Song in the 8th track Come to Visit, some ELO in … [Read More]

Bada #2: Aurora

(Released: September 2004) A ridiculously good album. Pop perfection. This is the sort of unpretentious music which has me bopping around the kitchen as I cook. If I were to have a criticism, there’s rather too much synthesizer and computer-generated beats – particularly in the numbers produced by the Japanese team – and not enough … [Read More]

Susie Younger: Never ending flower

Susie Younger: Never ending flower Collins Harvill, 1967 To describe this book as a memoir of a Catholic missionary in South Korea in the early 1960s, while factually correct, undersells it. Yes, the author is a person of deep Christian faith, but her work in Korea is more that of a social worker than evangelist. … [Read More]