o. “Frankly” by Voy [보이]

This is their first album. Voy are Lee ByeongHun [이병훈], a.k.a., Vanilla Voy (vocal, piano, acoustic guitar), Lee CheolHui [이철희] (drums) and Lee DongJun [이동준] (bass). Almost all the songs were written by Lee ByeongHun.

Pretty plain old-style acoustic (?) pop. The CD case design is very well-done, though.

o. “Phantom Pain” by Sugardonut [슈가도넛]

This is their first. Sugardonut are Changs [창스] (vocal, guitar), CheolU [철우] (guitar), Kim Tak [김탁] (bass) and DiAl [디알] (DR?) (drums).

I don’t know what they did with the recording or the mixing (using recording devices that record in MP3, maybe?), but all the tracks contain plenty of MP3 aliasing artifacts. It is an CD album, but it’s like listening to very low-bitrate MP3s. This is NOT the noise they sometimes put in artificially for an “artistic” purpose. This IS “MP3″ aliasing noise when the quantizer does not have enough bits (I’ve developed audio codecs before, believe me). Very very V-E-R-Y annoying.

It’s very regrettable because their music itself isn’t too bad (although they do remind me of many other musicians, later Seotaiji for one).

o. “Purple Drop” by Humming Urban Stereo [허밍 어반 스테레오]

This is their second album. Humming Urban Stereo is a one-man project work by Lee Jeereen [이지린], a.k.a. Brown Bunny with many other guest musicians.

Jeereen is definitely talented, but I am not sure if this kind of music is to my taste. I liked “Scully Doesn’t Know” from the previous album but I don’t know about “Mulder Does Know”.

o. “JuSaekManChan [주색만찬]“ by GoGuRyeo Band [고구려밴드]

This is their first album. JuSaekManChan are Lee GilYeong [이길영] (vocal), Yang AnBok [양안복] (guitar), Seo MinSeok [서민석] (bass) and Jeon SeongJin [전성진] (drums). Lee GilYeong wrote all the music and the words.

Although the basic musical style is rock, for sure, but as the name of the band suggests, they are somewhat influenced by Korean tradition music/singing. Especially noticeable is the singer’s vocalization along with the lyrics.

Yeah, this has been attempted before, and I don’t think this band will sudden change the past trend as time soon. But they are interesting still. They tend to sound a bit “old”, though. Maybe some day, it will become “new” again.

o. “Pinch Your Soul” by Clazziquai Project [클래지콰이 프로젝트]

This is their remix album (damn, I did not read the description carefully). Clazziquai Project is a one-man band by Kim Sunghoon [김성훈], a.k.a. Clazziquai.

Damn, I should be more careful when picking up a CD. I really didn’t know it was a remix album. Most of the new orchestration seems to be trying to move away away from R&B to pop.

o. “I Worry, Too” by Yoonkee [윤키]

This is his first album, I guess. I understand the effort, but I am kind of curious how one “releases” demo-tape-quality album this widely with such an effort for album designs and stuff.

o. “triangle” by Rollercoaster [롤러코스터]

This is their fifth album. They are Cho WonSeon [조원선] (vocal, keyboards), Jinu [지누] (bass, programming) and Lee SangSun [이상순] (guitars).

They seem to have mellowed down a bit. I still like CHO WonSeon‘s voice or music writings in general, but their work is not that upbeat anymore. Both lyrically and musically, they (she?) sound “tired”, not having the usual “carefree” feel. Too bad.

o. “Moida Band” by Moida Band [모이다밴드]

First album. They are Lee In Kwan [이인관] (sax), Choi Hoon [최훈] (bass), Park Kyung Ho [박경호] (guitars), Kim Jong Ik [김종익] (keyboards) and An Byung Bum [안병범] (drums).

I can’t really define their style since I don’t think they are playing just one style. But I thought they have a potentially interesting mix of instruments. I have to say that their music is based on “smooth jazz” with a lot of other influence (pop, rap, etc.), basically whatever fits their musical composition, instrument-wise.

I think their live performance would sound much better.

o. “The Vane” by Mellowyear [멜로이어]

This is the first solo project album by Shin SeCheol [신세철] of Sweater [스웨터]. In some way, this is a similar effort by Lucid Fall [루시드폴], but I think Mr. Shin’s solo project has a much “brighter” atmosphere. I like it.

o. “bombom” by Deli Spice [델리스파이스]

Their 6th album. They are Sweetpea [스위트피] a.k.a. Kim MinGyu [김민규] (guitars, piano, vocal), Yun Junho [윤준호] (bass, keyboards, vocal) and Choi Jaehyuk [최재혁] (drums, percussions, chorus).

Nothing special, I felt.

o. “Colorful Express” by Peppertones [페퍼톤즈]

Their first album. I think the main conspirators are Noshel [노쉘] (bass, sound effects) and Sayo [사요] (guitar, sequencing). They have a guest vocal, Deb [뎁] / Kim MinGyeong [김민경] and several other guest musicians.

Their music can be characterized as Japanese anime-pop, very upbeat, dancy pop. Frankly, I thought in some parts, the vocal wasn’t really that strong. But overall, not bad.

o. “Merry Maker” by Earls [얼스]

Their first album. They are Al jamix / Shin SeungHun [신승훈] (vocal), Xavier / Im SeungBeom [임승범] (keyboards), JjabJabz / Wu GyeongJe [우경제] (guitar), Hyungbass / Kim HyeongBae [김형배] (bass) and Y.P.Groove / Choi GyeongMin [최경민] (drums).

I was kind of expecting a punk band from the cover design, but they are actually playing funk/groove. They have a pretty good guest brass part (Im GwangTaek [임광택] (trumpet), Lee HanJin [이한진] (trombone) and Cho JaeJin [조재진] (saxophone)).

Very well executed overall albeit sounding too 70s…

o. “Boys, Be Ambitious” by No Brain [노브레인]

Their 4th album. They are Lee SeongWu [이성우] / BulDaeGal [불대갈] (vocal), Jeong MinJun [정민준] / VOVO (guitar), Jeong JaeHwan [정재환] / Jany (bass) and Hwang HyeonSeong [황현성] / HyungGa [흉가] (drums).

Although they’ve been around for a while, I really think there are no other punk rock band in Korea that can come close (yet?). The very fact that they play very straight forward, upbeat, fast rock is what’s attractive about them (at least to me). No gimmick, no pretense of sophistication. Just plain, simple, fast rock. They know how to carry their energy over to my ears.

o. “Calligram” by Calligram [캘리그램]

Their first album. They are Lee Geun Jik [이근직] (guitar), Yoon Gae Hwan [윤계환] (bass), Kang Mi Young [강미영] (piano), Lim Eun Kyung [임은경] (accordion) and Shin Dong Jin [신동진] (drums).

Five piece Jazz ensemble. Because of the addition of the accordion, I guess, the overall sounds has that old (or classical if you will) “French”/”European” color. Pretty standard Jazz stuff, otherwise.