Sasquatch – Utopia

That I’m a huge supporter of Korean indie music shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anybody familiar with this site. All awesome bands aside, however, few things get me as excited as 90’s k-pop. Enter Sasquatch.

sasquatch_utopia

When I first got around to listening to Utopia I could hardly stop. For little over a month, the only thing I wanted to listen to was Sasquatch. At the same time I kept blogging down because the only thing I wanted to write about was Sasquatch. Seriously. Sasquatch and Utopia are that good. I would even go so far as to claim that Utopia was the best album of 2012.

It all boils down to the brilliance of Sasquatch leader Jin, who, from what I’ve heard, wrote all the songs and recorded the entire album on his own. His songwriting and synth heavy arrangements strike precise nostalgic chords with me–reminiscing SechsKies at times, Seo Taiji & Boys at others without falling into the trap of copying either.

My favorite on the album, also the song that opened my eyes towards Sasquatch during the SSF Auditions, is lead track “마네킹 (Mannequin)”. The way it has been laid out, every second is perfection with the upbeat refrain drowning any dreadful chore in a fluffy, sweet & pink cloud of delight whenever it comes on. I have no problem whatsoever imagining a Korean boyband of the 90’s dancing around whimsically to this tune wearing oversized clothes and weird hairdos all the while smiling from genuine happiness.

On the other end of the spectrum we find “가시달빛“ which is a straight out rock song with a good drive, the retro feeling enhanced by the multi-layered vocals and the sound of various alarms as it bestows any decent rock number of the time. And of course there are also a few ballad tracks of various styles–“나비의 숲” even complete with whistling and bird song. As cheesy as it may sound, I can truthfully say I love it all without even the slightest hint of sarcasm.

Sasquatch on Facebook.
Sasquatch on Twitter.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.