o. Self-Titled by Romantic Soul Orchestra

Doesn’t the name sound so fantastic? RSO is a pretty ambitious project by C. Lim et al., trying to go back to the tradition of live music performance and recording by an “orchestra” (10 ~ 20 players) with all the recording done in a single takes with analog recording and mixing (done at Belfonics).

As the name implies, their musical goal is to mix “romantic” and “soul” music. That, in itself, might be an interesting goal.

The result is not bad, but I felt there was quite a bit of room for improvements on the instruments (well, horns, there you go). In other words, I felt there were quite a bit of difference in skills among the musicians involved. And initially some of the mixing work threw me off because there were quite a bit of different sound qualities among the vocal and the rest of the tracks. It gets better after a while, though.

They are C. Lim (keyboards, guitar, sitar, percussions, background vocals), Juhoon (keyboards, guitar, sitar, percussions, background vocals), Pil Jin (drums), Vata (bass), Jun O (guitars), Joo Young (gayageum), Hyo Young (geomungo), Sodam (background vocals), Jung Min Jung (harp), Horny Play [Joong Woo (alto sax), Hwan Chang (tenor sax), Sung Min (trumpet), Dae Kwang (trumpet), Yong Soo (trombone)] and a group of strings players.

o. “Born to Do It” by Maya

This is a bit old, about a year old. But I saw a good review, so I picked it up. If I just looked at the cover, I probably wouldn’t have been interested since the picture and the graphics have the “80′s pop” look.

But she (her real name is Kim YeongSuk, btw) is actually close to a rocker and most of the songs works well with her voice. Somehow, she reminded me of Jeong KyeongHwa. That is, she has the voice and the talent, but her style is more of late 80′s and it’s very unlikely that her audience will grow, let alone explode.

o. “Time Table” by 3 HoSeon BeoTeoPeulLaI (3rd Line Butterfly)

This is their third album. I think it has become a bit lighter (if one can ever call their style “light”) than the previous album. I’d say it was more “digestible” for me. As usual, most of the recording and mixing was done by themselves from their home “studios”.

I don’t know what it is exactly, but SangA‘s voice has a certain recognizable quality, character, I guess, that I really like. Too bad, Huckleberry Finn lost her voice and her style.

I really liked the fact that everyone’s contributing in writing and performing. Although they may never become “overground” (I don’t even know whether that’s what they want), this probably is one of the finest rock-band-composition band in Korea.

Their member has been pretty stable. They are Seong GiWan (guitar, vocal), Nam SangA (guitar, vocal), Kim GyuHyeong (bass), Kim SangWu (drums), HwiRu (haegeum, vocal), and Kim NamYun (keyboards, vocal).

o. “Over the Rainbow” by BooHwal

This is their 9th album. Their musical style hardly changes, actually. Their members are also fairly stable with only a couple of them changing. They are Kim TaeWon (guitars, vocal), Eom SuHwan (piano, keyboards), Chae JeMin (drums, percussions), Seo JaeHyeok (basses), and Jeong Dan (lead vocal).

Their sound is also very stable and I like it, up to a certain degree, but I just can’t help think about the movie “Rock Star” (with Mark Walhberg) and its fictional hard-rock band, Steel Dragon. With long hairs and 80′s-ish hard-rock, they both carry the similar look and feel, and the fact that they keep changing the lead vocals, but all the music has that “BooHwal”-feel.

I am not saying their music is bad. I just find it interesting that maybe, this is how some of the hard-rock bands last for so long.

o. “rendezvous” by ftone sound

This is their second album by the duo Park HyunJun (formerly of Pipiband) and Yeo UnJin with many guests (Patsy Klein, Lee YunJung, Yun HeeJung, Darren Woodhead, Nam SangA and more). I think Mr. Yeo is the driving force on this groovy techno album.

I liked the groovy flow of the music, but I felt that some sounds are a bit “old”, reminding me a lot of mid-90s. However, I think this second effort is also more “digestible” than their first. And I was glad to see that Lee YunJung was still involved in the industry.

o. “HoeSaek” by Hahn Choong Wan

This is his fourth album, but I haven’t heard his previous three. This is solo piano work by Mr. Hahn, who also teaches jazz/pop piano in college as well as being in session for other artists.

I guess this work is somewhat similar to Kim GwangMin as they both have a very sentimental style. Quite moody, nothing really fast paced.

I got this album because I was curious about his own works since I’ve seen his names numerous times on other albums. This is something that I might try playing on a piano myself (as I try with George Winston), but it is probably not something I would listen a lot (like Ben Folds, which I have a hard time playing).

o. “Down by Love” by Nah Youn Sun

This is the second album for the Jazz (European, I’d say) vocalist who, I believe, studied mostly in France. This European Jazz (especially French) is somewhat obvious with the musical styles and some of the language choices (Portuguese, actually, but French has tendency to love Brazilian stuff). Actually, my mom told me about her because she was a daughter of one of her friends.

Anyway, she is accompanied by Olivier Aude (guitars, double bass, percussions, backing vocal), Guillaume Naud (electric piano), David Georgelet (percussions), Vincent Peirani (accordion), and Axel Chanfrault (cello).

For this album, she actually plays some of well-known songs (by Sting, Paul Simon, Jimi Hendrix, and Bacharach and Costello). I liked the group’s rendition of “Manic Depression”.

Her voice is good and the accompanied music very good. But I can’t help but think that it’s a bit too “clean” for me. Or maybe, it’s just my subjective notion of what “Jazz” should sound like.

o. “OSeonJiWiEui HaengBok” by CheolGaBang Project

This is the second album by the group. They are saying they are pursuing the folk/popular music that grew in Korea. The group is lead by Lee NamI (vocal, Buk) who had been in the industry for a long time. The rest of the team is Lee DanBi (vocal), Kim SeongHo (vocal, harmonica, acoustic guitar), Jeon ChanSeong (drums, vocal), Jeong ByeongCheol (bass, vocal) and Eom TaeHwan (electric/acoustic guitars, KkwangGaRi, vocal). They also have Lee OeSu (a somewhat eccentric Korean poet) as a guest lyricist.

So basically, they are in the same tradition as Kim MinGi and DongMulWon, but they have added more of Korean traditional folk music elements. They are not bad, but, as is often the case, not my taste. I was more curious about what Lee NamI was doing with younger crowds.

o. Self-titled by Lazy Monday

This is probably the best find in all of this month’s CDs! This is the first full album by a three-piece band who does legitimate funk/fusion jazz/blues. I wasn’t expect this when I got this album, they are really good.

They are Kim Yoo Shik (guitar), Kim Jae Hwan (bass), and James Jinshil Suh (drums).

Their style might be that new, but as far as the instrumental music (in Korea) goes, they are really fantastic. Especially the drummer, Mr. Suh, is amazing. And the bass is also not bad. I thought the guitar solos were a bit weak compared to others, but still…

All tracks sound solid, and I am still quite amazed. They should something like this with horns… And I think everyone should listen to this CD.

o. “Tuna World” by EoEoBu Project

This is a 3-track single album, but I had (?) to buy it. EoEoBu is Baek HyeonJun‘s nom de plume. And he has been doing some very experimental projects. I think this is just another small release from his recent works.

o. “Woman” by Rainy Sun

This is their second album, but you might as call it a new one because, to me, their musical direction has changed quite a bit. The ghostly vocal is still there (which brings the continuity between the albums), but I’d say the went somewhere quite different.

For this album, they are Jeong ChaSik (vocal), Jeong YunTaek (bass), Kim TaeJin (guitar), and Chris Varga (drums).

If I remember correctly, their music used to be a bit goth/industrial. Now it became very dreamy, slow-paced, whispering stuff (trip-hop?). I actually like it better than the first (the first was more of a novelty), but I am still not sure if the vocal fits any more. Maybe it does and it is what gives them a unique color, but still it gets annoying sometimes.