First week of June – a lot of interesting developments took place this week, eg. news about Alex’s, Lee Jung’s and Sung Si Kyung’s album releases, not to mention some new finds on my part, and of course the Dream concert.
For the uninitiated, the Dream concert is an annual Korean event when the industry (or at least half of it – the famous ones) gather in honour of the cause against music piracy. This year’s event saw stars like Epik High, SS501, Super Junior, MC Mong, DBSK, Maya, Jewelry, Typhoon, AST’ 1, SHINee, Peter, SNSD, Buga Kingz , Wonder Girls, Mighty Mouth and Choo Seung Hoon. That makes it the largest annual live concert in Korea. I couldn’t catch it, as always, though I had a good time reading about it on Popseoul (the comments are the most interesting bit – where else do you get to see motley fans of motley idol groups trade words like fire tipped arrows in a Battle Royale). Anyway, click here to read Popseoul’s coverage (And while you’re there, do have a look at the ridiculous picture of Seo In-Young posted there, it’s hilarious! (Not meaning to offend any Jewelry fans))
Anyway, the above picture is of Epik High arriving at the Dream Concert, 2008.
I came across a LOT of new music – some great and for some, terrible would be an understatement. And to imagine the irony, when I was looking through the music I had accumulated through the week, I found some very well known artists having the worst songs, and some – virtually unknown, yet having the best music there was (I know that had a LOT of grammatical errors, but I hope you understood the point I’m inarticulately trying get get across…). TGUS, Trans Fixion, Soulzean, MK, Orifeel…ing, Nell (for releasing 1분만 닥쳐줄래요!) pleasantly surprised me. And the only one I knew well was Nell, I had a faint idea about Orifeel…ing and TGUS, but besides that, I hadn’t even heard of these wonderful artists. I also mildly enjoyed F.T Island’s Japanese debut album, and Big Bang’s With U Mini Album.
On the other hand, the downers for me this week were SuJu-H’s Cooking? Cooking! (Not that I was expecting much, but I just wanted to be pleasantly surprised, despite the skepticism)… just too happy (with an exclamation mark for added emphasis) for me, it was too upbeat/candy-coated/sugary/saccharine, unfortunately. The Wonder Girls’ So hot single was not great either, though I must admit the title song is catchy (if a little narcissistic). So except the title song, I wouldn’t really recommend any other song on the single. However, at this point I must mention that the rap version (MV version) of Tell Me sounds like a big improvement over the original, in fact my favourite part of Tell Me is YooBin’s rap. Don’t really like the abundance of leopard print though…
My picks this week (NOT in any particular order):
1. Epik High – One (Band Ver.)
2. Nell – 멀어지다
3. T (Yoon MiRae) – Baby Bye Bye (From Rhapsody Part Two Digital Single with Drunken Tiger)
4. Trans Fixion – Radio (Feat. Xeno) (still don’t know where to get the rest of this, but I’m looking)
5. Soulzean -이번 한번만 (feat. Riaa)
6. MK – 사랑이라서 (feat.Roserael)
7. TGUS – I Believe In
8. F.T Island – Soyogi
9. Orifeel…ing – 슬픈 영혼 (By Kai, 장치열, 나리)
10. Orifeel…ing – 너무 늦어서 (By MK, 김미란)
I’m so gonna buy Orifeel…ing’s album, but I’d be damned if I find it on Yesasia… Actually I can’t find it anywhere…
Anyway, have a great week ahead, everyone!
Music is my Life... 