First Single from Vanila City’s Coming Third Album

At the beginning of the month, Hex uploaded a teaser for a new single from his band Vanila City to YouTube, writing that it’ll be the first single from their third album. On February 17th the single in question was released alongside the music video for “니 눈빛이 들려”. Also on the single was a second song called “선물”.

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Brazilian TACO Release Singles Prior to New Album

It’s been three year since electronica/hiphop project duo brazilian TACO released their first album, Urban Night Rhapsody. Now Vistee‘s SQR and Hyunmu of Trespass have teamed up again for the ‘second story’ of brazilian TACO. Four digital singles will be released at a monthly interval, leading up to the release of brazilian TACO’s second album.

The first single came out on February 17th and is called Hello, brazilian TACO. A short teaser was posted on the official YouTube channel a week back:

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Osoyoung sings Bon Voyage for Seoul Seoul Seoul

As expected modern folk singer Osoyoung‘s contribution to the coming Seoul Seoul Seoul compilation was released as a digital single on February 17th. The song is called “매일 떠나는 여행” or “Bon Voyage”, a minute of which can be sampled via Round & Round’s SoundCloud:

Sources: Beatball Music’s blog; Bugs Music

Hyang Music’s Album Sales Chart, Fourth Week of January 2012

The Hyang Music Album Chart for the fourth week of January, published earlier this week, offered the return of two old releases.

1. Monkeyz – First Cry (new)
2. Lucid Fall – 아름다운 날들 (-1)
3. Idiotape – 11111101 (-)
4. Lamb of God – Resolution (new)
5. Apollo 18 – The Black Album (-3)
6. IU – Last Fantasy (-)
7. M83 – Hurry Up We’re Dreaming (-3)
8. Zitten – 백야 (-3)
9. Nightwish – Imaginaerum (-2)
10. Lee Young Hoon – 내가 부른 그림 (+2)

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Park Jiyoon with Asher and No Reply + Dear Cloud Members on New Album

Former K-pop star Park Jiyoon released her eighth full-length album, 나무가 되는 꿈, today. As was hinted from her collaboration with Dear Cloud‘s Yongrin on the track “Quiet Dream“, much like for her seventh full-length album she’s again worked together with names from the indie scene.

In addition to Yongrin, that has written the songs “고백” and “그 날들처럼” and arranged not only “Quiet Dream” but also both “너에게 가는 길” and “별”, Asher Park, that also helped out on Park Jiyoon’s seventh album, has composed and is featured on the song “소리”. New to assisting Park Jiyoon is No Reply‘s Kwon Soon Gwan that has composed and arranged the album’s title track.

If you’re curious about Park Jiyoon’s transition from mainstream till today Soompi has gathered interview excerpts from a TV show.

Source: maniadb

New J Rabbit Song on Operation Propose Soundtrack

A week ago Facebook fans of Korean Indie could learn that J Rabbit had contributed to the soundtrack for new drama Operation Propose (프로포즈 대작전). The first part of the soundtrack was released today, February 16th, and holds a regular and an instrumental version of new J Rabbit song “If You Love Me”.

Source: Bugs Music

Between Us Debuts with Modern Rock Oriented Single

Modern rock oriented singer/songwriter Between Us released his first digital single on February 15th. The title is Between Us, but the two songs it introduces are called “사랑, 사랑이여” and “Thank You”–both also available in instrumental versions.

For a taste of his sound, here’s a short video from the single recording:

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K-indie on Gaon’s Digital Chart, 2012.02.05~2012.02.11

The latest total Korean digital chart from Gaon shows a few new indie related entries added as well as another few doing a bit of climbing.

16. 10cm – “애상” (-5)
31. Two Months – “The Romantic” (new)
102. Park Jiyoon – “Quiet Dream” (-46)
115. Verbal Jint – “좋아보여” (feat. The Black Skirts) (+11)
128. Shinchireem – “퇴근길” (new)
154. Casker – “New World” (new)
157. Yoon Jong Shin – “그리움 축제” (feat. Horan) (-73)
160. Shinchireem – “모르는 번호” (+33)
183. Chang Kiha & The Faces – “풍문으로 들었소” (-1)
195. Acoustic Collabo – “그대와 나, 설레임” (+32)

Turns out we had missed Park Jiyoon entering the chart with the Yongrin arranged “Quiet Dream” last week, but we’ll be keeping track of it from now on. Since this list is all compiled manually there’s bound to be the occasional mistake. Feel free to point it out when you spot one and let us know if there is any artist you think is missing.

From now on we’ll also keep track of duo Two Months as they for the first time have entered the chart with a song outside of their competition in SuperStar K3. The song “The Romantic” was released on a digital single with the same name on February 10th. In addition to the regular version the single includes a piano version and an instrumental version of “The Romantic”. It was released as part 1 of the soundtrack for the tvN ‘real love variety’ show with the same name.

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Olleh Music Indie Awards Nominees for March 2012

There were no Indie Awards handed out from Olleh Music in February, but today the nominees for March were revealed over Twitter.

March Indie Award Album Nominees:
- Jeong Cha Sik (격동하는 현재사)
- eAeon (Guilt-Free)
- Yoon Young Bae (좀 웃긴)
- Flowing (Leisure Love)

March Indie Award Artist Nominees:
- Autumn Vacation
- The Moonshiners
- Huckleberry Finn
- The Breeze

March Indie Award Rookie Nominees:
- Black Bag
- Jambinai
- Googolplex
- Lee Young Hoon

Source: Olleh Music Indie Awards official Twitter

Lim Ju Yeon Does Carpenters for Second Remake Single

Leading up to a remake album, singer/songwriter Lim Ju Yeon is releasing a series of digital singles. The first one was a Han Dae Soo cover and came a couple of weeks ago. The second single, Re: Rainy Days and Mondays, was released on February 14th and introduces a jazz pop take to The Carpenters‘ “Rainy Days and Mondays”.

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TV Band OK Punk! Release Mini Album

Following the release of 2NE1 cover “Ugly” as a digital single four weeks ago, TV band OK Punk! release a self-titled mini-album on February 16th. “Ugly” is included and so are three songs written by the band members themselves. There’s “I’m OK” written by GoGo Star‘s Lee Tae Sun; “Not The End” with melody from Dr.Core911‘s Devin and lyrics from Kim Ok Vin; and “깡통” written by Dick Punks‘ Kim Hyun Woo, again with some lyrics from Kim Ok Vin.

A music video for “Not The End” is already available:

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Taru’s New Digital Single and Coming Mini Album

As expected Taru released a digital single under the title Summer Day today, February 15th. It is her first release under Old Records and shows her going back to a sound closer to the lovely indie pop offerings from her old band The Melody.

The single is just a sample of what Taru has been working on lately. On February 21st she’s set to release mini album Blah Blah, including “Summer Day” as well as four new titles more.

Sources: Bugs Music; Hyang Music

Blast From the Past: Sanullim Comes to iTunes

I’m sure I’ll write more about this soon, but I see that one of the best Korean rock bands of all times, Sanullim, is now available on iTunes. All 17 disks by the band and Kim Chang-won are there, including their children’s albums, along with the artwork and liner notes, and all the songs now have official English titles (approved by Kim Chang-won himself).

The first three Sanullim albums are three of my favorite records ever, especially their second. That lead-off track, “Spread Silk on My Heart” is just magic, with its long, trippy, instrumental introduction — I have long considered it the official song of being too drunk and up too late at a pojang macha.

And, of course, the Sanullim children’s album, Sanullim’s Children’s Songs Vol. 1, is there, too — that’s the original source of the classic and goofy song “Naughty Boy” (개구쟁이), one of the most ubiquitous pop songs ever in Korea:

First Single from newyorklovediary on Valentine’s Day

With Valentine’s Day Kim Noa launched his first digital single, 어떻게 하죠 under his ‘love song pop project’ alias newyorklovediary. With some light jazz flavor he aims to bring sophisticated melodies sweet like a box of chocolate.

Here’s a short live performance of the song “어떻게 하죠”:

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Noisecat Offers Soundtrack for Virtual World Travels

It’s been six years since Noisecat released his second full-length album, but on February 23rd time has finally come for the release of a new full-length Sunday Sunset Airlines. With a full 72 minutes long “soundtrack for the virtual trip”, the album has been created under the device “traveling world to make music to travel world to”. Leading up to the release was the Noisecat Airlines Singles Series, CD-Rs packaged in jiffy-bags as had they been sent from travels, although none of those song titles can be found on the album tracklist.

The album teaser contains a generous amount of brief samples from the album:

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Hyang Music’s Album Sales Chart, Third Week of January 2012

The Hyang Music Album Chart for the third week of January was published yesterday. While no newcomers made it to the very top there were four indie related releases entering the chart below the top 10. Speaking of which, the changes to the top 10 were fairly modest, with Kim Mokin dropping one position down to 11.

1. Lucid Fall – 아름다운 날들 (-)
2. Apollo 18 – The Black Album (+3)
3. Idiotape – 11111101 (-1)
4. M83 – Hurry Up We’re Dreaming (+3)
5. Zitten – 백야 (-1)
6. IU – Last Fantasy (-3)
7. Nightwish – Imaginaerum (+5)
8. Lim Ji Hoon – Organ Orgasm (-2)
9. Damien Rice – Live From The Union Chapel (+5)
10. Number Nine – TV를 끄면 좋겠어 (-1)

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Yukari Films Video in Korea, Brings Lim Ji Hoon to Japan

Onishi Yukari visited Korea in January and while there got enough video material for a music video to a song in Korean, “한류부인”. Usually singing 60′s inspired pop numbers the Osaka based songstress will perform on the second Korean Wave Festival on February 29th, backed by a set of Korean musicians including Lim Ji Hoon.

Sources: Hustle Records

Loveholics’ Lee Jae Hak Song on New Shut Up! Flower Boy Band Single

tvN drama Shut Up! Flower Boy Band, with Mate‘s Lee Hyun Jae acting the drummer, is on its third week of broadcasts. Today, February 13th, part 2 of the soundtrack was released as a digital single. The song on the single is called “무단횡단” and was written by the drama’s music director, Loveholics‘ Lee Jae Ha. The song is performed by actor Sung Joon, who holds the part of vocalist for the band in the drama.

Part 1 of the soundtrack was released a week ago, on February 6th. It has Lee Minki doing a cover of “Not In Love”–originally a Crystal Castles song featuring Robert Smith of The Cure.

A music video for “무단횡단” with clips from the drama was also released today:

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New Digital Single from My-Q

Stylish singer/songwriter My-Q released a one track digital single called 라헬 (You’re Here) on February 10th. The same day he performed the song with the same name on You Hee Yeol’s Sketchbook:

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New Loro’s Song Filmed for On Stage

Wondrous band Loro’s with their dreamy and beautiful, often post-rock-ish, compositions have been on a hiatus forced by military service. The members could finally get back to playing together last year and have been preparing some new songs. One of them–”춤을 추자”–they performed recently during a session for Naver’s On Stage series.

Also recorded for On Stage was “Dream(s) 1″, the opening track from the Dreams EP of 2009 which is the latest release from Loro’s:

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