Introducing 7 of my favourite Korean indie bands/artists

Following from my Chinese indie bands post, today I will be doing the Korean one :)

I'll be focusing on indie/electronic, leaving jazz/trip/hip hop to another separate post, because otherwise there will be too much eargasms to handle~

1. Firstly, I must tell you guys about my ultimate girl crush, Han Hee Jung. She's one of the 2 members of the indie group Blue Dawn, and also a solo artist. The first song that got me hooked was 'My Kind Path':

her solo albums are also wonderful, I'm currently in love with 'Drama':


2. Next up is Adultchild. Even though I was instantly sold by one song, I'm  not gonna lie it took me a long time to love her. Her genre is mostly dream indie/acoustic. The song that captured me instantly was 'Annabel Lee', due to my love for Edgar Allan Poe and also relevance to my life at the time. The lyrics are taken straight from Poe's poem, and I think it works with the melody amazingly well.


Recently I was blog-hopping and heard 'It's Rain' from her first album BTL BTL, which I did not even know existed even though I had her 2nd album Dandelion for so long. I hadn't listened to Adultchild for almost a year but when I heard her voice in the song something just clicked and I immediately knew it was her. I wonder what it feels like to have such a distinctive voice (like Shiina Ringo too).


If you like the acoustic/easy-listen indie scene, also check out Yozoh, Dalmoon, Park Hye Kyung, Fanny Fink, Clover, Taru, Oh Ji Eun, Misty Blue and  Donawhale. Definitely check out Misty Blue though.

3. Time for a less dreamy sound as we move onto 3-man group, Glen Check. This group, wow. The epitome of brilliance. There are actually hundreds of bands in the west that sound like them but there is something so funky and real about their music, they get the electronic sounds just right so it's not too loud but just brings them out of the box of normal synth rock. It's definitely a great deal of edgy chillwave in it and a hint of psych. So so so good and their French is also so so so good. Can't choose a must-listen to just listen to all their songs!

Here is 'French Virgin Party' and 'Bataille' merged into one video. Work of art.


4. Next is eAeon from another big name, 2-man band MoT. His voice is so sexy it breaks my eardrums lol~ My current eargasm is 'Bulletproof' and wow what can I say.. which genre does it even belong too? it's like some merged Stateless with Alva Noto and added some Jamie Xx. There's definitely lots of electronica, microsound and glitch but that rich, gooey sound that defines MoT is certainly not lost.

If you like that sort of eargasm check out Idiotape too. They really take it to the extreme.

5. No Respect For Beauty is my current band crush and newest find. Their music makes me think alot about myself and the world around me. I think it's because they are more like instrumentals/soundscapes/medleys than structured songs with verses. It's like war music, makes you think about why we live by and turn a blind eye to so much hate, violence and injustice in the world, why do we live like we do now, what can we do to change ourselves.. yeah stuff like that. Check out 'Summit Collision':

6. Now for the easy-listen, band next door, sunshine indie. The best of that genre comes from Vodka Rain. Just listen to this song and take it from there :)

If you like this sort of thing I beg you to check out 10cm and Jaeju Sonyun. They are the 2 bigger names of this genre~

7. And lastly, to round off today's long ass post, I give you Mad Soul Child. You may or may not have heard of them from Won Bin's film 'Ahjussi'. I have never heard someone with a voice like Jinsil. Check out 'Dear' below if you haven't because the entire song, composition and arrangement, is a true gem in the Korean music scene.


That's all for now! Hope you enjoy my recommendations!