Hearing Joo Yeon Sir’s barnstorming performance of Pancho Vladigerov’s Bulgarian Rhapsody “Vardar” at St James’s Piccadilly with Irina Andrievsky in August made me want to return to her recently-released second CD, Chaconnes, Divertimento & Rhapsodies, for which Vardar is the penultimate track. The album, from Rubicon Classics, follows on from her successful first album Suites and […]
Category: Recorded music reviews
Black String’s new album “Karma” bodes well for the K-music festival
I’m not quite sure why I didn’t rave about Black String’s debut album Mask Dance when it came out in 2017. Listening to Karma, their follow-up studio album on ACT records due to be released on 27 September 2019, I’m finding it compelling listening. And returning to Mask Dance now I’m seeing it in a […]
Jambinai, Park Jiha and SB Circle – a roundup of reviews of three K-music performers
The line-up of K-music 2019 has been announced, and it’s nice to see some familiar faces returning to London so that we can get to know their music better. Jambinai, who open the festival, have become fairly regular visitors to the UK. They had the UK launch of their new album, Onda, at the Garage, […]
Moon Haewon releases second album
Jazz singer Vocalist Moon released her second album Tenderly last week. Recorded in Japan with an all-Japanese jazz ensemble, it’s very much a sister piece to her superb first album, Kiss Me. This release, available on CD only in Japan and Hong Kong, is another collection of inspired jazz and pop covers. Moon’s seemingly effortless […]
Embodiment, Performativity and Subjectivity: The Best of BTS’s Music Award Show Stages
Winning end-of-year music award shows is important for Korean idols and groups as it helps to cement their importance and popularity not only in Korea but across East and South East Asia. This is demonstrated by the fact that MAMA 2018 – one of the biggest music shows – took place across multiple countries with […]
Colette Balmain’s top 10 Kpop music videos of 2018
My top 10 Kpop videos of 2018, chosen on the basis of their visuals, storytelling, songwriting and musicality: 10. #Cookie Jar (Red Velvet) Red Velvet are one of the few girl groups to successfully switch between the girl crush and cute concepts. #Cookie Jar, their single from their first Japanese EP, combines the sweet & […]
It will pass, someday: Gothic ethereality and introspection in RM’s Mono
RM’s second mixtape, Mono, dropped on 23 October 2018 almost two and a half years after the self-titled RM, which was released on 20 March 2015. Mono was accompanied by a music video for the final track “Forever Rain” with lyric videos released for “Seoul” and “Moonchild” on 23 and 24 October respectively. It followed J-Hope’s earlier […]
The Top 5 Gothic KPOP Music Videos
Dr Colette Balmain applies her specialism in Gothic Cinema to the world of KPOP – perfect for the Halloween season… ‘Gothic forces its readers, viewers, and listeners to identify the ghosts that haunt them…’ (Isabella van Elferan, 2012, Gothic Music, p. 15). 1. SHINee “Married to the Music” (2015) “Married to the Music” doesn’t sound […]
The end of the journey: desire, recognition and redemption in BTS’s “IDOL”
Dr Colette Balmain examines the culmination of the BTS Love Yourself series: “IDOL” is the lead single from BTS’s final album in the “Love Yourself” series. The series comprises one extended storyworld music video, Love Yourself 起 Wonder; one mini album, Love Yourself 承 Her; one full length album, Love Yourself 轉 Tear; and one […]
The Garden of the Forking Paths: Difference and Repetition in BTS “Epiphany”
Dr Colette Balmain examines the BTS comeback trailer for Love Yourself 結 Answer: “Epiphany” is the comeback trailer for BTS’ last entry in the LOVE YOURSELF Series: Love Yourself 結 Answer. LOVE YOURSELF is a transmedia and multimedia project involving the expansion of the BTS Universe through the construction of a metafictional storyworld established by Music […]
Artistry, Creativity & Emotionality: Choreographies of the self in “Fake Love”
Dr Colette Balmain examines the lead single from BTS’s Love Yourself 轉 Tear: “Fake Love” is the lead single from BTS’ third studio album Love Yourself 轉 Tear (they have also released three Japanese studio albums, two repackages, five EPs and two single albums to date) and follows, both temporally and thematically, the comeback trailer “Singularity” […]
Trajectories of Meaning in “Singularity” – the BTS Comeback Trailer: Love Yourself 轉 Tear
Dr Colette Balmain analyses the comeback trailer for BTS’s third studio album: From Serendipity to Singularity: A Universe of Meaning “Singularity” is the comeback trailer for BTS’ third studio or full length album, Love Yourself: Tear which will be released on 18th May 2018. This follows up the mini album or EP, Love Yourself: Her […]
Neverland: Holland’s ground-breaking K-pop debut in context
Dr Colette Balmain discusses the controversial debut MV from Korea’s “first openly gay” KPOP idol. “Never lose self-esteem and be confident” (Holland, 2018) On 22st January 2018, at exactly midnight KST, Holland released his debut single and MV “Neverland”. Since its release, “Neverland” has racked up over 6 million views on YouTube and Holland has […]
A Review of London Korean cultural year 2017
It feels like it’s been an incredibly busy year, and as I come to write this review I realise that, much more so than in previous years, many of the things that have been memorable I haven’t had time to write about – and maybe won’t. I’ve written separately about the films it was possible […]
Songlines reviews some Korean releases
As if to warm us up for this year’s K-music Festival, Songlines July issue reviews three recent Korean CDs: The one of most interest to past attendees of the festival will be a review of Jambinai’s latest release, A Hermitage. Songlines were strangely lukewarm about it. Not so Consequence of Sound: “Experimental outfit blends traditional Korean […]
BoA’s 8th – a nicely comforting comeback
I’m rather enjoying BoA’s 8th Korean album (Kiss My Lips, released a couple of days ago). There’s nothing particularly earth-shattering musically, but it’s all kind of comforting. And I hope she doesn’t get into trouble for the 4th track, Shattered, which at 2’52” is very close to the chorus of Daft Punk’s Get Lucky. On […]