Quick Reviews: Navi, Glen Check, and Ga-in

Navi – Real Love

Release: September 26, 2012
Distributor: Loen Entertainment
Genre: Pop, ballad
Rating:

Navi’s had some consistent showings for the past couple years, but she hasn’t yet been able to produce a true signature work. Looks like we’ll be waiting a little longer for that: new EP Real Love is polished, but it’s hardly impactful. The good part is that Navi’s vocals are extremely reliable throughout; whether it’s the jazzy color of 소설같은 사랑 (Love Like A Novel), the modern-rock ambience of 이 거리에 (On This Street), or the throaty belting of 가지마 (Don’t Go), the singer handles it all with ease and synergizes well with the (equally reliable) pop-ballad soundset.

The downside of this is that, given the rather indistinctive compositions, each track on Real Love sounds way more similar to each other than they should. It’s a credit to Navi and the arrangements that Real Love is even this decent, but it may be time to consider whether the artist isn’t holding herself back.

Tracklist (recommended tracks listed in bold)

1. 이 거리에 (On This Street)
2. 가지마 (Don’t Go)
3. 싸우지 말자 (Let’s Not Fight)
4. 다 알려져도 (Even If Everyone Finds Out)
5. 소설같은 사랑 (Love Like A Novel)
6. 가지마 (Don’t Go) – Instrumental

Glen Check – Cliché

Release: September 28, 2012
Distributor: Soundholic
Genre: Synthpop, electronic rock
Rating:

The most remarkable thing about Cliché is the effortless way in which it jumps a couple of decades back from Glen Check‘s last album, Haute Couture. You hear traces of the 80s, but Cliché still has a modern coat of paint; this approach is most audible in funk-infused Blood, Sweat & the Beat and disco-referencing ’84, as both tracks reinterpret the melodies of years past with today’s beats and sound. Glen Check’s dense, extremely bass-and-drum-heavy style makes a triumphant return; the guitar and synth textures are a little heavier this time round and the tension is not quite as airtight, but that’s the draw of Cliché. It’s good to see a band loosen up.

Tracklist (recommended tracks listed in bold)

1. Blood, Sweat & the Beat
2. ’84
3. Leather
4. Want You Back
5. ’84 the Original

Ga-in – Talk About S.

Release: October 5, 2012
Distributor: Loen Entertainment
Genre: Pop, dance
Rating:

Step 2/4 (2010) was one of those unexpected masterpieces that come around only once every often. Long story cut short, I don’t think Talk About S. comes close to matching the brilliance of Ga-in‘s debut EP, but there’s still plenty to like here. The tango and Latin undertones of the 2010 album are replaced with a more varied palette, but one thing is intact: the pervasive seductiveness. If anything, it’s stronger in this EP (starting with the title and cover, really). Ga-in sells the seductive theme admirably well, whispering and caressing her way across the frenetic rhythm of 팅커벨 (Tinkerbell) and the lethargic, tender bedroom moment of 시선 (Gaze). (Yoon Jong-shin should also be praised for his subdued but absolutely critical performance in the latter.) And with the irresistibly charming her-first-time story of lead single 피어나 (Bloom), this intrepid album ventures fully into a territory still considered taboo for idol artists. It’s not all eroticism, either; Bloom is genuinely engaging with its attitudinal arrangement and Ga-in’s efforts, and even Catch Me If You Can – probably the EP’s weakest song – features a hook attractive in a guilty-pleasure kind of way. The youngest Brown Eyed Girl continues to overachieve.

Tracklist (recommended tracks listed in bold)

1. 팅커벨 (Tinkerbell)
2. 그녀를 만나 (See Her Instead)
3. 피어나 (Bloom)
4. 시선 (Gaze) – Featuring Yoon Jong-shin
5. Catch Me If You Can

Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely of the individual and not of hellokpop as a whole.

Source: Photos – Bugs Music (1) (2) (3)

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Album Review: Glen Check – Haute Couture

Release: March 6, 2012
Distributor: Soundholic
Rating:

As of 2012, electronic rock is a major stream in Korean indie. I can’t really explain the sudden proliferation of electro-garage and synthrock bands coming out of the woodwork, but I’m not complaining – the majority of these (often very young) bands have accumulated electronica know-how and are well versed in their craft. Two of the best albums of 2011, for example, belonged to this hybrid genre: Idiotape‘s 11111101 and The Koxx‘s Access OK. Consider what bands like Achime, Telepathy, and Mongoose did last year as well, and the picture starts looking really good.

Let’s add Glen Check to the list. This trio made their debut just over a year ago to initial obscurity, but the name took off a couple months after the release of debut EP, Disco Elevator. After impressive outings at such occasions as the 2011 Jisan Valley Rock Festival, and a concert (slated for April 13 and 14) sold out in short order, Glen Check can probably be regarded as one of the more spotlighted rookie bands today.

Until now, Glen Check was straddling the line between electro-rock and just straight-up electronica: Metro being closer to the former and Disco Elevator to the latter, and so on. Haute Couture, the band’s first full-length release, moves it firmly into the former category. The album opens with the tense, ponderous buildup of The Naked Sun, before the track turns out to be a speedy, densely packed exercise in frenetic bass and taut synthesizer. It’s the start of a wild ride.

One of the problems that electronic rock runs into is the conveyance of energy and vitality, especially in comparison to its heavier and faster brethren. You’re essentially trying to create intensity without the sounds that make it easier to do so. Idiotape and The Koxx solved this problem with rhythm and tempo, while using relatively heavy synth textures throughout. What’s impressive about Haute Couture is that it does a similar thing, but with an extremely light soundset. Its highlights, including Vogue Boys And Girls and Au Revoir, fill the void left by instrumentation with ferocious rhythm and liberal application of bass. Neither are explosive in the way Idiotape’s work is, but both are nevertheless unconstrained, electric tracks.

In fact, drums and bass might be the most important elements of Haute Couture. While Glen Check even put in an all-bass-and-drum intermission track Bataille! (the first 1:10 of the video above) in the album, the best example of this approach is seen in co-lead single, French Virgin Party. The song kicks off with an exquisite synthesizer riff (starting at 1:10 of the video above) that serves as the main theme; but even here, it’s really the dull stuff underneath that makes the riff so memorable. The subtle, oscillating bass grounds down what would otherwise be an awfully light melody, and the drum line provides additional velocity with the relentless backbeat hi-hat. These elements take front stage during the breakdown portions. There are two short-and-sweet ones, one as an intermission and another as outro, and a pretty lengthy one in the latter third of the track; all show the sustaining power of the beat elements. They make French Virgin Party a serious candidate for song of the year.

Meanwhile, the vocals, performed by guitarist Kim Jun-won and sung in mostly English and some French (the members have French and Belgian backgrounds), generally take a back seat – as happens often in this genre. The vocal track is deliberately washed out for most of the album, effectively acting as just another instrument to bolster the melodic side of its tracks. The Flashback and Concorde have somewhat prominent vocal elements, but even these are swamped by the mass of sounds that make up the rest of the track. At any rate, the lyrics are abstract and minimalist; they serve not to tell stories or give fleshed-out messages, but to impress upon the listener a particular theme or idea with repetition.

Haute Couture‘s sound philosophy is not groundbreaking, but it’s still a refreshing take that pays real dividends. One of those dividends come in the form of distinction from other electro-rock bands: if Glen Check can continue this style, they’d be occupying a still-sparsely populated position in a rapidly expanding scene. Whether this band can become a leader and trendsetter remains to be seen, but they’re certainly helping themselves.

Tracklist (recommended tracks listed in bold)

1. The Naked Sun
2. Vogue Boys And Girls
3. French Virgin Party
4. The Flashback
5. Rebellion
6. Bataille!
7. Au Revoir
8. Concorde
9. 60′s Cardin
10. Racket
11. Vivid

Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely of the individual and not of hellokpop.

Photo credit: maniadb
Video credit: SoundholicENT on YouTube