About Orienkorean

Well, it’s orienkorean here. I’ve been away for a long time, leaving helikoppter to do all the work (sorry Anna..). Been sick and unable to work, but now i’m back on my feet and catching up with life. Anyway, to get right into the point of this post (i’ll get back to talking about me in a bit), i found something k-indie news-worthy, as i was browsing around and trying to catch up on what’s going on the Korean music scene.

About two weeks ago, Telicob released another video on his youtube page. I was looking forward to seeing another video put up, after having seen the “protostars vs Im Kwon-Taek(ft Zeal)” clip. I was expecting another ‘capture the moment’ type of video clip, but found a straight up music video instead which was a pleasant surprise. Louviet & Telicob – European Pad (feat. NISCO) is the name of the video. Apparently, NISCO is responsible for the video art that accompany’s the music. And the music, with the dreamy electro melodies, kind of reminds of Chicane. I decided to feature the video on my youtube page.

Jenny sent me a message on youtube, asking me about myself. I may as well share this info with the rest of you. My name is John, i’m 26 years old, and i live in Toronto, Canada. I was born in Vancouver, but grew up in Toronto since i was four. And, yes, my ethnicity is Korean. I’m what you call a “Korean-Canadian”. I’m not really all that fluent in Korean/Hangul, even though i’ve taken a couple of classes for it. I’ve got a better grasp on the language than most of my Korean friends, but that doesn’t really say much. I’ve been to Korea about 6 times. The last time i went was 1999. I might go again next year.

I worked as a production assistant for tv shows, documentaries, commercials, music videos, etc. on my summer breaks during my university years (and those were pretty long years). After finishing school (with a useless B.A in philosophy) i find myself still working as a P.A and sometimes as a unit production manager. Maybe one day i’ll write that LSAT and go to law school, but becoming a lawyer doesn’t really interest me. i recently came down with some health issues and have been doing all i can to get healthy again. A few months ago, I managed to quit smoking. I was a smoker for 12 years.

I was exposed to both American and Canadian music ever since i was four, when my family got cable. MuchMusic was my favourite channel (when there were no cartoons on). I pretty much listened to whatever was on, whether it was rock, folk, pop, rap, dance, etc.

The first time i heard Korean pop music was back in the summer of ’92 when i went to Korea with my family for vacation. That was when Seo Taiji and Boys came out. I pretty much knew the lyrics to the song ‘Nan Arayo’ by the time i had to leave for Toronto. Every kid, teen, and young adult in Korea knew the lyrics. Seo Taiji and Boys were huge. I pretty much forgot about Korean music after coming back to Toronto. But, when i went back to Korea in ’96, that was when Young Turks Club debuted and Turbo was hugely popular. I also remember seeing PiPi Band on tv. When i went again in ’99, that was when Drunken Tiger was becoming popular. After that last trip to Korea, not having seen/heard any kind of alternative music, i thought that was all there was to Korean music – pop, ballads, r&b, and some hip hop.

In 2003, I came across Crying Nut on the net. Helikoppter introduced me to them (we used to frequent the same Asian/Korean media forums). Then it was 3rd Line Butterfly, Huckleberry Finn, Cocore, Bluedawn and many other bands. I was hooked. I started to search for more underground bands and artists and i found myself finding/collecting a lot of Korean indie media. I ended up collecting way too much, especially videos. In 2006, i decided to begin sharing my collection through youtube. Meanwhile, Helikoppter was sharing her discoveries on her stuck with free music blog. Well, after some time later Indieful ROK came to be.

3 Comments About Orienkorean

  1. wowJhil

    It is interesting to know who is helping us all out, thanks for sharing it!

    I’ve enjoyed your YT channel before a lot, and bought some music. But now I am about to do a great deed I think :) I’m buying Christmas presents, and it will be a lot of Korean music!

    Hopefully, I can get my sister into Korean music. And she, in turn, are one of the responsible ones for which artists will come to our, Sweden’s, biggest music festival. Hultsfredfestivalen. But I guess I should just dream on about that.

    Sorry for my ramblings. Just want to say you guys are doing a great thing here.

    Good to know you are better, and take case!

    Reply

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