I managed to keep work at a more sustainable level also the week that just passed and as a result been able to spend more time on IROK than has typically been the case over the last couple of months. Although most of my efforts may not be immediately noticeable, there should be a lot less broken links in the old posts than was the case just a week ago. I really hope I can keep this up for the coming weekend, even though I have a bit of socializing scheduled as well, and perhaps finally start crossing items off that list of posts I want to write.

Speaking of schedule, there’s a free Wagwak show at Fotografiska, The Swedish Museum of Photography, in Stockholm on Saturday, July 26th. Since they relocated from Seoul to Stockholm I’ve been seeing all of their lives in the city, and this will be their first since the release of Lost The Will so I would love to be there again. Unfortunately I will have to miss out on this time, however, as I already a month ago promised to babysit next weekend. If you happen to be in Stockholm, please go in my place. And if you’re not, anyway have a listen to Lost The Will–it’s great!

Last week I mentioned that I was looking forward to the EP debut of We Are Here. I have yet to hear the whole thing myself, but the samples sound great and I’m loving the music video. Usually I will just put on a video and leave it in the background while listening to the song, but the music video for “Hopeless (희망은 없다)” in all its simplicity manages to keep my interest for the full 3 minutes that it lasts. And I always appreciate it when a k-indie video comes with a dance for the song.

 
Another interesting release of the week that just passed is Asian Chairshot‘s first full-length Horizon. It’s been produced by Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder and Ryan Grostefon, who did work for Smashing Pumpkins’ Oceania album, has done the engineering. I have yet to hear this album too, but it comes with “화석“, that was released as a digital single some months ago, and the other songs have sounded pretty awesome too: “해야“; “뱃노래“; “밤비“; “어떡할까“; “자장가“; “날 좀 보소“; “해를 거르고”:

 
What I actually have been listening to this past week is Kim Choo Ja‘s It’s Not Too Late. It came out early June, but it was only recently that I found it on Spotify and consequently got a chance to listen. Primarily containing remakes of songs she’s recorded since she launched her career in 1969, I found it to balance the combination of retro and modern well with an appropriate psychedelic sound throughout. In such cases I usually end up favoring the older material, but to my surprise some of these songs–“그대는 나를” in particular–are even more compelling to me in their 2014 versions.

And that has to be all for now. More next week, but hopefully a “real” post or 2 before then.