This year it seems my autumn disappeared before it even begun. And now Christmas is here and as good as over, too. Being a Swede, celebrations in my family took place on Christmas Eve with a focus primarily on eating. I’ve also been playing a good deal of Cross Boss and The Settlers of Catan with family. Very good, relaxing times.
Recent Listening
There hasn’t been a lot of Christmas music for me this year. Typically I don’t get in the mood for Christmas until December 23rd, but I’ve anyway had time for some limited listening in honor of the holiday. Thanks to Angle Magazine I came across Heosuabi Record’s 허수아비들의 성탄절 (Christmas of Scarecrows) compilation with contributions from Kim Il Du, Kim Tae Chun, Seedless Watermelon Kim and Say Sue Me among others. It may have been the only Christmas album I’ve listened to this year, but I can’t imagine that it would’ve had any competition for best Christmas album released in 2015 regardless. My favorite track is Uncle Bob‘s “지붕위의 교차로”.
The days leading up to Christmas, Electric Muse has reminded of the label’s own Christmas Sessions from 2013. Plenty of nice winter and Christmas themed tunes there as well, both covers and original songs. One example is Dringe Augh and Nam Yehyun‘s “December”.
And for something older and more traditional–yet not at all–here’s a tip from Mark Russell: He 5‘s take on Christmas classic “Jingle Bells” merged with Iron Butterfly‘s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” and a touch of Rolling Stones‘ “Paint It Black” from the band’s 1969 release Merry Christmas Psychedelic Sound.
Random News
One of the most exciting things to show on my Facebook feed this Christmas Day was the reminder of the release of Cat Flash In The Dark‘s first album Ah, I. Cat Flash In The Dark is the joint project of Noisecat and 0Sinho‘s Kimin, promising a sound in the realms of psychedelic pop, drone, noise and ambient. It’ll be released on digital music site Bainil on December 26th. No news about availability elsewhere announced yet.
Already before the summer I was all excited about the news of the re-issue of Bulssazo’s second full-length album 너희가 재앙을 만날 때에 내가 웃을 것이며 너희에게 두려움이 임할 때에 내가 비웃으리라. It was originally planned for a release in August this year, but the status of the vinyl industry being what it is meant it would have to be delayed. The cassette edition, limited to 222 copies, was released on November 17th while the release date for the 444 vinyl copies was set to December 22nd. Now it seems the vinyl edition has been delayed further, currently scheduled for a release on January 18th.
Blog Stuff
After barely being able to blog at all the past few months, I’ve been attempting to catch up during the past week and a half. I’ll continue do so also during the next few weeks when time allows, meaning another post tracking how well Korean indie music is doing on the Gaon charts to come as well as completing the Top Band 3 commentary series. I’ve also got a couple of half-written festival reviews that really should be finished. And a ton of ideas for new things to write besides what I’ve already committed to. Now let’s just see whether circumstances will allow for all of that to actually happen…