year in review – Freq (under ongoing maintenance)

2023 in K-pop

Freq — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 09:52:51 +0000

In which Iotar reflects in two parts on the year gone by on the South Korean music scene.

This year has been huge in K-pop. South Korean pop culture is at a pivotal point where the new fourth generation of groups is making a definitive impact on the landscape.

Part One: The Girls

The most notable act to break the mould last year was NewJeans, who with their first eponymous album shook up everything that was expected of girl groups. NewJeans became the act to watch, and it felt like the entire first half of 2023 was merely an anticipation of their follow up, Get Up, and of whether it would deliver on their promise.

And it did, in spades, but even before it came out it was crystal clear that they were already influencing the entire industry. While during the last few years, K-pop girl groups had a tendency towards a techno goth space-pirate vibe; that vibration ceased this year, and acts who didn’t shape up to the new model, such as Pixy and EVERGLOW, were looking visibly dated when they re-emerged. Aespa however notably chose to rebrand strongly, taking pointers from left-field acts such as Billlie and LOONA, to update their music and image for 2023.

Other acts who made successful transitions into the new year, such as IVE and G(I)-DLE also adopted what was at times a much less CGI-heavy video route, and a more natural, although probably carefully curated, dress code towards a spooky lo-fi witch-pop vibe. None of these acts have slavishly copied NewJeans’ baggy, informal illusion, and LE SSERAFIM, who also have been enjoying massive success, including a banger co-written with Nile Rodgers, managed to retain their spookily absolute hi-energy control while remaining right at the top of their game.

And speaking of LOONA, as we were, things had appeared to be on indefinite hold for them last year as all of the members took legal action against Blockberry Creative, their former label, who had been exploiting them since they started. However in 2023, all twelve members won freedom from their contracts, and ten of them are already active in various formations.

Five of them, in Loossemble on the CTDNM label managed by an ex-Blockberry executive, put out a successful album with an agenda aimed at reuniting the full twelve members of LOONA; another three, ODD EYE CIRCLE, which was one of the most beloved LOONA sub-units, have reuinited on MODHAUS, the label of Jaden Jeong — the original architect of the LOONA mythos. Heejin has also put out a solo album on MODHAUS and something similar is expected from Haseul soon.

However, of all of the former LOONA members, perhaps it is Chuu‘s solo album which is the most immediately engaging, and the most radical departure from her original role in LOONA. As a footnote, it’s worth mentioning that MODHAUS’s other major project, tripleS, has been putting out excellent fourth generation K-pop through several sub-units, including Acid Angels From Asia last year, and +(KR)ystal Eyes, EVOLution and LOVElution this year.

It’s also worth noting that MAMAMOO+, a sub-unit of MAMAMOO, one of the most highly-regarded third generation acts, gave us one of the most effortless reinventions of the year with their Two Rabbits album: Solar and Moonbyul gave us definitive evidence that there is still plenty of life in thirtysomething idols.

Before signing off on our overview of the year for girl groups in K-pop, maybe it’s worth noting that all of this may only have been possible because BLACKPINK have not had a comeback album this year. Having said that, Jisoo‘s solo album and single were insanely successful, which demonstrates that YG Entertainment can by no means be dismissed as has-beens.

Part two – The Boys

One thing has been bothering me about K-pop for the last few years: why are girl groups generally superior to boy groups? This was not always the case. During the golden age of the second generation, the imperial grandeur of BIGBANG and Super Junior, boy groups were at least as good as their female counterparts. Similarly, EXO and the NCT groups and sub-groups during the peak of the third generation had apparently limitless energy.

The answer is of course national service. Men in South Korea are required to participate in national service during their twenties, and this has ruptured the careers of many boy groups.

BIGBANG in particular have never really managed to pull themselves back together in spite of the enormous success they enjoyed in the period before serving their nations, and for this reason it’s notable that Taeyang‘s solo career since BIGBANG has been the exception rather than the rule. This year he slinked across the stage like everyone’s favourite K-pop big brother, dropping bangers that collaborate with the great and the good from fourth generation acts like BTS and BLACKPINK.

SHINee alumnus Taemin also gave us another excellent solo album this year, as did Kai from EXO, before both of them were dragged off for military service. There appears to be some sort of system in place at SM Entertainment for ensuring that idols set up their legacy before this hiatus in their career, and many of their NCT-related acts are sufficiently flexible in terms of their membership that an ongoing throughput of bangers is still feasible, and indeed the various NCTs have been doing solid business this year. The long-awaited return of EXO was very welcome, although it remains to be seen how long we’ll have to wait for this less flexible group to reform in the future.

Beyond the hit factories of SM Entertainment, we’ve been very much enjoying Zior Park‘s fantastic new material, which has been examining gender identity, as well as the legacies of masculinity. However, since he operates outside the large corporates, it will interesting to see how he copes with the upcoming call from his nation state.

But yes, in spite of all of the above, we still find it difficult to account for how girl groups have weathered the pandemic years better than boy groups. Maybe it’s just personal bias, and perhaps the expansible bubble expressed in the huge success of girl groups such as NewJeans and LE SSERAFIM cannot be maintained for much longer, or perhaps the next BIGBANG is just around the corner.

Watch this space!

-Iotar-

Fifteen Essential K-Pop Albums and EPs from 2023

MAMAMOO+ – Two Rabbits
NewJeans – Get Up
Kai – Rover
LE SSERAFIM – Unforgiven
G(I)-DLE – HEAT
Taemin – Guilty
ODD EYE CIRCLE – Version Up
CHUU – Howl
Taeyang – Down to Earth
IVE – IVE
Billlie – Side B – Memories of Echoes Unseen
NCT U – Golden Age
EXO – Exist
tripleS – Assemble
Zior Park – Where Does the Sasquatch Live? – Part Two

Iotar’s music year in review 2022

Freq — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 15:24:16 +0000

In which Iotar looks back at his year in music for 2022.

There’s been so much excellent new music this year that I’m going to break this roundup into regional and thematic sections for ease of reading.

K-pop

Well, 2022 has been a very strong year for South Korean music, although it seems that it’s been stronger for the girls than the boys: the banger “Girls” continued aespa’s ongoing saga, Pixy blew us away with “Villain”, Le Sserafim’s “Fearless” and “Antifragile” were particularly feisty. (G)I-DLE gave us the bangers “Tomboy” and “Nxde”, and their haunting “Changes” was on frequent rotation here; but Seulgi of Red Velvet emerged as K-pop queen of the year with her outstanding 28 Reasons album. Not a single dud on there. Slick as hell and catchy as… Well, let’s not go there.

While we’re talking about girl groups, it’s worth noting that while Loona’s Flip That album had some great material, especially “Pale Blue Dot”, they are currently in an ongoing struggle with their management company who have (allegedly) paid hardly any royalties to the members since 2016, leading to Chuu leaving the group. Fans are currently boycotting the upcoming album in protest against Blockberry Creative.

As far as the boys are concerned, although it has been a considerably less vibrant year, there was a lot of excitement at kings of K-pop Big Bang returning with the single “Still Life”, their first since their hiatus due to national service. Hitchhiker’s Alone was also a welcome return, as much for his mad CGI visuals as for his moody vocaloid rapper. Finally, an honorable mention must be given to “That That” by Psy and Suga of BTS.

The NCT crew were less strong this year, concentrating on their more lightweight bangers with NCT Dream, although in the last few hours the China-based sub-unit WayV made a welcome return with “Only Diamonds”. Ten, their Thai dancer and singer, also brought a smile to our faces with “Birthday” a few months ago.

America

It has to be said that American music hasn’t recently been particularly interesting to us at Polyversity Towers, although two acts that blew us away this year. The first was Imperial Triumphant with their avant jazz metal stylings, deep Gotham psychogeography and outfitting. Their Spirit Of Ecstasy album consolidated all of these strengths, and moreover featured a collaboration with Kenny G of all people.

Our other major US discovery is of quite a different sort. Ginger Root’s neo-city pop took us by storm, and the trilogy of videos, “Loneliness”, “Holy Hell” and “Over The Hill” from his Nisemono EP are charming, funny and teach us the importance of making space in our lives for playing mahjongg with our mates.

Also, while we’re here, although Khruangbin didn’t release a new album in 2022, their collaboration with Vieux Farka Touré that was recorded a few years back only finally emerged this year, and is highly recommended.

Russia and eastern Europe

With the ongoing situation in Ukraine, we were somewhat concerned that the politics of some of our favourite hardbass idiots would finally become problematic, and it is noteworthy that the prevalence of AK-47s and other military hardware in this scene have diminished. More importantly, Russian Village Boys came out early with a statement against Putin and promptly fucked off to their beloved Netherlands to spread peace, love and donks.

Village Gang in its various forms has been very lively: Russian Village Boys’ “Jumpstyle 2023” put a big idiot grin on our faces, as did “Molotov” with their Polish brother Mr Polska, and “Wooooop” with Cosmo and Skoro, but the crown this year goes to We Are We from Czech Republic, Russia and Kazakhstan whose “Tekno Cobra” just goes like shit off a shovel. Unbelievable.

Our more post-punk outliers from this region, Ploho (Siberia) and Molchat Doma (Belarus) have been perhaps more subdued, although both of these groups have distanced themselves strongly from Russian militarism.

Elsewhere, in Kazakhstan, the rise of Q-pop has finally reached our attention. In many ways this more closely resembles K-pop than Russian doomer or hardbass, and it may have lost some momentum over the last few years, but the boy groups Alpha and Ninety One in particular are still producing some great material with a very specific Kazakh accent that distinguishes it both from generic international pop and that of South Korea.

Europe

Europe mostly gave us metal this year. Which is pretty much what you’d expect from Europe, right? In many ways it was Electric Callboy’s year. They successfully managed a smooth transition into their new bandname, they continued the ongoing stream of videos that highlight most of the tracks of their Tekkno album, and they did something very weird with contemporary schlager and metal. Sure, fellow Germans Rammstein did something not entirely dissimilar this year with their “Dicke Titten”, but that was a bit ew in a very different way.

Next door in Belgium, Gnome won us over with such grooves as we hadn’t hoped to hear since the early ’70s. In some ways more akin to Focus than Sabbath, but that’s the Benelux thing, innit? The trilogy of videos, “Ambrosius”, “Kraken Wanker” and “Wenceslas”, from their King album, had better dance routines than… well, than anything in the history of metal really.

Obituaries

2022 was a very bad year in terms of losing favourite musicians: Vangelis, Klaus Schulze and Manuel Gottsching leave huge gaps in the landscape of electronic music, and we found ourselves oddly astonished at Olivia Newton-John’s passing, as we did with Mimi Parker and the spirit of Hawkwind, Nik Turner; but perhaps the saddest for us was Tony Hill from High Tide, because he never achieved the recognition in his lifetime that so many of the above earned.

Friends and family

Noteworthy whoops go out to Robert Sotelo, who we did another video for this year. He continues to knock it out of the ballpark with his quirky pop sounds. And while Center Of The Universe’s Interrabangers album was last year, he and his Metronomicon label continue to inspire with further green screen magic on videos, skits and a whole galaxy of lolz.

Also pleased to note that Bangalorean doomers Djinn and Miskatonic are working on their first new material since the start of the pandemic, and also kicked out the jams at one of those gig things that people used to play. Last but not least, a big up to Drift Of Signifieds and Freq zine, in particular for their ongoing series of Live And Indirect streams on Repeater Radio.

Entropy Circus

We achieved two albums proper this year, Guacamocchacino and Romplage! Bricolage! Sous les Paves, as well as one session for Live And Indirect, Thru 2022, that is available from our usual source. In addition, our own Sally Kitchener recorded a cover of Nik Turner’s “D-Rider”. This wasn’t actually a tribute, as it was recorded a few weeks before Turner died, but it may have become one in retrospect.

MOAR IN 2023! SEE YOU THERE!