Words and Illustration by MC Galang
The next stop of our THIS SIDE: ASIA playlist series is South Korea, where we explore the sounds of its streets and underground music scenes—mostly and densely operating in its capital Seoul: particularly its indie-centric spots, Hongdae and Itaewon.
Home to music showcases such as MU:CON and the country’s premier international music showcase and conference festival Zandari Festa (including some of our favorites, DABDA, Animal Divers, and Wedance), we selected tracks from second-generation K-pop titans TVXQ! and Hyuna‘s short-lived hip-hop group Triple H to the most recognized faces in K-indie such as SE SO NEON and SURL.
Get into our deep-cut selection from experimental artists such as CIFIKA and SUMIN, Korean beatsmith Pento, hip-hop artists Skinny Chase and B-Free, the supremely cool Balming Tiger, Yaeji, and Park Hye Jin, among many others—most of whom we’ve featured previously on our regular New Music We Love rotation and/or our monthly TUMULTUM mixes for Manila Community Radio.
Enjoy 98 minutes of wide-ranging, genre-spanning music from South Korea. As always, the playlist is sequenced carefully to fit mood and frankly, temperature. Enable your crossfade option on Spotify to at least three seconds. Listen continuously. Share with friends.
Press play.
Stream THIS SIDE: SOUTH KOREA VOL. 1
