Liner Guides

Seeing as Tearliner was the first artist to reach 1000 plays on my last.fm overall top artist chart I felt like I should do something to celebrate. And since his second album has been pushed forward at least a year and that EP that should've come in its place has not yet been released, I figured I should compile some of his liner guides to make my own EP with unreleased tracks.

Now these songs are all samples of the tranquil Tearliner as that's what I've been in the mood for recently. They are not necessarily the best liner guides, nor are they necessarily the best liner guides in this particular category. These songs are just here because I like them, and listening to them in this particular order pleases me. Perhaps I should've made some artwork, but graphic design isn't really my area - if nothing else at least Liner has an illustration for most of these songs at his blog ^^

(click song titles to go to the blog and have a listen)

1. 너는 내게 [Guide-1]
Going out strong with my very favorite liner guide. Absolutely lovely song.

2. 상처 [Guide-1]
An instrumental with 오수경 by the piano.

3. Love Traveler [Guide-1]
The most recent guide. Lie again to me~ keeps getting stuck in my head.

4. 너를 보며 Part.2 [Inst.]
Looking At You was my very favorite Tearliner song, pre-함께라면. Of course I love part 2.

5. Red Forest [Guide-C]
Featuring "The Girl", this song is great to listen to while traveling on a cloudy day.

6. She's Lovely [Guide-1]
Instrumental with a piano and a violin. How could I not like it?

Bonus Track: Forsythia Helicopter [진달래 헬리콥터]
Because every Korean release needs a bonus track. Just looking at the title it should be pretty obvious why I chose it (though 헬리콥텔 is more like how I pronounce my misspelled sn), but that's not all there is to it: This song was written by thy, when Tearliner had yet to become a one man band (Liner's contribution is the guitar play), and it has this quality that I love in a final track; this air that just makes me want to listen to everything straight from the beginning one more time. Forsythia fly, like a helicopter, in the sky.

Enjoy listening and have fun if you decide to find some liner guide favorites of your own ^_^

The Invisible Fish & Birdy Bitz Alien

Realizing that I hadn't made a proper post here since spring I felt really bad... There are several reasons for this hiatus, the main one being I'm only at home a few days/week drastically decreasing the time I have to discover and download new music T_T Still, there are a couple of artists I plan on making posts on in not too long. Till then, I'd like to tell you about two Korean artists that have made some wonderful music under new aliases. (And the reason why they don't get "proper" posts is that they only have streaming wma files available for sampling right now)

First up: The Invisible Fish. The solo project of sorrow/ssoro (now slowzz) of Bluedawn fame. Bluedawn fans are sure to enjoy The Invisible Fish as well - it's as lovely as 보옴이 오면, though with male vocals instead. Cosy guitar play, mellow electronics and beautiful, somewhat careful, melodies that is. Do visit his homepage to stream the wonderful 순간.

Second: Birdy Bitz Alien. The space travel project of Jelly Boy (of everybody's favorite Korean indie label Pastel Music). Under this alias he makes songs with dreamy electronics and a sweet space travel feeling. Should be suitable even for the music listener that prefers to understand whatever lyrics there are. Go visit Birdy Bitz Alien's label, Ruby Salon, to sample the title track of his recently released digital single Tomorrow where fellow Pastel colleague jinyong (of donawhale) assists with vocals.

Mono

I assume most people that find their way here already know Mono, but just in case: they're one of the best Japanese post rock bands there is. So far they've released four full albums, the lastest one, You Are There, in March/April this year. A vinyl 10" EP, Memorie dal Futuro, was released on Vinyl Films November 1st and they're currently touring Europe.

Here's the title track from the new EP. It's only a sample, but it's still 4:25 and nothing short of awesome so you can still get a good idea on what they sound like from it. Visit the "sound" section of their site for more ^^

Memorie dal Futuro (sample)

Kite Operations

I've been too lazy again.. Sorry. From now on I'll promise just one post/week. Though on occasion I'll probably post more. Yeah... Anyway, here's band I was introduced to through the Pastel Music 3th Anniversary Sampler of my favorite label.



While getting their album, Dandelion Day, distributed by Pastel Music in Korea, Kite Operations actually hail from New York and belong to the small K.O.A. Records label. They're playing some American style indie rock that sounds really good most of the time. The debut came out in 2005 so with three new songs not featured on it available on their MySpace perhaps a new album isn't too far away?

The song below is slow paced and beautiful with a shoegazer-guitar towards the end - I really like it. More downloadable mp3s available from their site and from their MySpace ^^

Effervescence

Itta

And that's how it goes when I think everything will work on out it's own... At least two times this week is better than no times at all, but I did say I would to 3-4/week. Anyway, here's more stuff from my favorite Korean site, millim.com



Korean Itta is another millim artist picked up by my favorite label, Pastel Music. Her first EP, 나는…있다, was released in 2002 and in mid-August this year her first full album, 11, was released. Itta's music is somewhat experimental and I've even seen some describe her as an avantgardist.

Unlike most millim artists that has released a "real" album, most of what Itta's had on millim is still on the site. The song below is the one I think is her most accessible, but don't be afraid to check out her other stuff - it just needs some getting used to. To hear what she sounds like nowadays - go check out the video for the title track off her new album at YouTube ^^

바람 (wind) [left click]

adultchild

While writing reviews for every CD I buy hasn't kept me from buying too many CDs, at least it's made me learn more about them. Here's what I found a couple of weeks ago when researching for a review I should have done in March..



The Korean trio adultchild has been around since 2004, but it wasn't till this year that they first appeared on album. Being signed by Pastel Music (my favorite Korean label right now ^^) they participated with their song Sad Thing on the Cracker soundtrack - one of my favorite releases so far this year. Their music is nice and mellow whith female vocals making it all sound beautiful.

Down below are two of my favorite songs of adultchild. I believe 상실 is a live recording with just kkasi, so make sure you also get Star to hear what they'll sound like when they release an album ^^ Go check them out on millim.com for more!

Star [left click]
상실 (loss) [left click]

Maximilian Hecker

As I mentioned him in the previous post, here's a guy I have not payed enough attention to till now.


Photo by Dirk Merten

Maximilian Hecker is from Germany and makes, what he calls, "melancholy pop hymns". I have been listening to some of his music through last.fm, but it wasn't till today that I realized I really like this guy's music! Most of it is quite mellow while some songs are more like electropop.

Check out his homepage for more music and lots of vids ^_^

Daylight

binudoduk

Binudoduk, which is Korean for "soap thief", has been around since 1997 with different members. The main person behind binododuk is Nam Sung Hee who sings, plays the guitar and writes the songs. It's mostly nice acoustic, sometimes folkish, pop with female vocals ^^

The song below is taken from the first EP, Acoustic Cat, which was released in November 2004. For more EP samples as well as the full 1999 demo and some vids I'd suggest a visit to the homepage.

많이 안아주고 싶어요