Mark James Russell

Books, blog and other blather

Page 30 of 90

Shin Joong-hyun Like You’ve Never Heard Him

September 3, 2011 / / 2 Comments

I’ve been listening to an early copy of Light in the Attic’s Shin Joong-hyun retrospective, BEAUTIFUL RIVERS AND MOUNTAINS: THE PSYCHEDELIC SOUND OF SOUTH KOREA’S SHIN JOONG-HYUN, 1958-1974, and so far I am really impressed by it. The sound quality is noticeably better than the CDs currently on the market, even with the compressed versions I have, with better range and dynamism (and now recorded at the correct speed).

ShinJoongHyun_325_thumb_325

Light in the Attic Records tell me that they made new transfers of Shin’s songs from the original vinyl (the original masters were apparently burned by the government back in the 1970s), then remastered everything in the United States. The result is Shin Joong-hyun much closer to how his music is supposed to sound, and if you have only heard his music on CD, the difference can be pronounced at times.

Other people have also been listening and apparently are impressed. Mojo magazine’s most recent issue (October) has named the retrospective their Reissue of the Month, giving the CD 4 stars and comparing Shin to Phil Spector. Sadly, Mojo is not available online (at least not for free), but you can read a couple of excerpts from their review here.

Attic will also be releasing a digital EP of Shin’s music, SHIN JOONG-HYUN, FROM WHERE TO WHERE: 1970-1979, and I quite like it, too. Both collections contain severals songs that I have not heard before, with an emphasis on Shin’s more rockin’ and psychedelic songs.

Shin_DigitalCover3

BEAUTIFUL RIVERS AND MOUNTAINS contains 14 songs, including many of Shin’s best, such as “The Man Who Must Leave” (떠나야할그사람), “The Sun” (햇님, a personal favorite), and of course “Beautiful Rivers and Mountains” (아름다운강산). There is just one song, “Moon Watching” (달마중), from his debut album, Hiky Shin, but it was interesting to hear something Shin recorded way back in 1958. And there is a good overview of the various singers who have recorded with Shin over the years — Kim Jung-mi, Kim Choo-ja, Lee Jung-hwa, Jang Hyun, Park In-soo, Bunny Girls, and Kim Sun. “J Blues ’72” is really good, imho.

WHERE TO WHERE has seven songs, but they are also all very solid, including “Grass” (잔디), “What Am I Going to Do” (나라고 어찌하오), and the Music Power version of “Beautiful Rivers and Mountains.”

These releases are not perfect — the anglicizing of the song names is a little rough, for example. And Shin’s history in the liner notes is a tad credulous, and could have used a bit more rigor. But these are mostly quibbles, and overall the releases are great, a huge recommend for anyone interested at all in the music of the period.

The vinyl version of BEAUTIFUL RIVERS AND MOUNTAINS comes out Sept. 6, and the CD version will be released Sept. 24. WHERE TO WHERE will be available on Sept. 25.

And I just learned that another American label, Lion Productions, also has a couple of Korean rock albums on the way, including Kim Jung-mi’s NOW. Apparently Lion is going to similar lengths as Attic to get their releases just right, so this could be a great few months for fans of this amazing era in music.

Struggling Writers

August 13, 2011 / / 0 Comments

A generation ago, struggling writers who needed a bit of cash might try porn — fast, trashy writing that was generally artless, but it paid the bills. Today, they have news aggregators — pretty much the same thing.

Out on a Limb: LEAFIE and Animation in Korea

August 12, 2011 / / 0 Comments

There’s a nice little story on the Wall Street Journal‘s Korea blog about the success of a new Korean animated film, LEAFIE, A HEN INTO THE WILD. While not a blockbuster, LEAFIE has managed to pull in nearly 900,000 admissions since it was released at the end of July, which I do believe makes it the most successful Korean animated film of the modern era.

OB-PD352_leafie_G_20110812041549

For a bunch of reasons, Korean animation just has not done that well over the years, with a long, long list of failures over the past 20 years (I mentioned a few in this blog post a few years ago). Considering one of my first Newsweek stories was about WONDERFUL DAYS, one of the highest-profile failures in Korean animation, it is kind of cool seeing someone actually doing okay.

One note about the WSJ story, though — it apparently needs an editor, because LEAFIE has not made 2 billion won, and 2 billion won does not equal $1 million. KOBIS says that the film has made nearly 6 billion won so far, which is around $5.4 million.

Billboard Today

August 5, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I forgot to mention in my last post that one thing that got me thinking about Billboard was Larry LeBlanc’s recent interview with Bill Werde, editorial director of Billboard. It’s kind of neat because Werde talks about how the music industry is getting better these days, and many of the steps he mentions are things that Korea did years ago.

I love to see aggressive smart thinking. One thing that has happened over the past year—now that this industry has a slightly lighter step in a good way—is that people are experimenting more. People are acting again. There was such a pervasive sense of fear (before). Fear that “I’m going to lose my job.” Fear that “I’m going to make a decision that is going to set the wrong precedent.” Fear that “someone is going to judge me in the press.” There was a sense of fear that was paralyzing in the industry.

Whether it’s because “we can’t live in fear forever” or because things are getting a bit better on the margins, I see decisions that are being made that are not as fear driven as I once did which is so good for the business. It is such a relief to see that.

It should have been clear to the whole music industry years ago that its onerous business model was not going to survive the Internet age. But, as the saying going, never underestimate someone’s ability not to understand something when their paycheck requires them not to understand.

Creators Project – Korea

August 4, 2011 / / 0 Comments

You know, if you want to get to know about some of Korea’s best up-and-coming/indie artists and designers, but you don’t speak Korean, one of the best sites I’ve seen is the Korean section of the Creators Project. With profiles and interviews with Chang Kiha, DJ Soulscape, EE and more, they really have done a good job at profiling some of the coolest names in Korea today.

The contrast to, say, Billboard magazine is quite striking. Emmanuel Legrand, former global editor of Billboard, wrote a not-so-fond farewell to Billboard last December, when the magazine was shutting its UK office and downsizing much of its international footprint. But the thing is, of all the trade publications I wrote for over the years, Billboard was probably the most frustrating, backwards, and parochial. Not terribly surprising, I guess, for a professional magazine to such a frustrating, backward, and parochial industry. Billboard never really got Korea, and they never really understood how technology was changing the Korean music industry (in much the same way it has since changed the West).

Which, if I may digress, is why it is so stunning to me, to see Lou Hau now one of the magazine’s top editors, with the Wondergirls getting serious attention on the Billboard website. Granted, I’m sure I was not Billboard’s favorite stringer either; but I bet I would have fit in with the current regime much better. Assuming they even pay stringers anymore.

Anyhow, point is, just as the music industry slowly seems to be coming to grips with how technology is changing the business, I think Billboard is coming to grips with its place in the future of music news.

But the folks at the Creators Project are even more on the ball. Great to see them showcasing so many interesting Korean artists.

Bye-Bye El Bulli Bulli

August 1, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Sadly, the great restaurant El Bulli has served its last meal. And, no-so-surprisingly, I never got around to rustling up the 350 euros or so for a meal there. While I have enjoyed a lot of wonderful, and wonderfully odd, food in Spain, nothing quite compares to the original.

On the other hand, there’s nothing quite like being surrounded by a bunch of pretentious foodies to make one never want to eat again.

Ah, well, there is always Tickets…

$100 Million Korean War Movie

July 29, 2011 / / 0 Comments

UPDATE: The LA Times movie blog has more about Cohen’s plans and the movie here.
* * *

ORIGINAL POST:
Wow, some ambitious plans coming from CJ E&M Pictures (until recently CJ Entertainment) — they have tapped Rob Cohen, director of FAST AND THE FURIOUS, to helm a 1950, a $100-million movie about the Korean War. That’s rather impressive.

Most importantly, the story looks pretty interesting, too, based on the life of the famous New York Herald Tribune journalist Marguerite Higgins. After reporting on WWII, Higgins was sent to Tokyo in the late 1940s. So when the Korean War started, she flew over right away to cover the fall of Seoul. Soon after that, the Tribune’s star war reporter (Homer Bigart) arrived to cover the war and tried to send Higgins back to Japan, but she refused to go, and the two competed for stories. Then McArthur tried to ban women from reporting on the front lines, but she changed his mind. She would write WAR IN KOREA in 1951 and won a Pulitzer Prize.

MargueriteHiggins

Higgins died in 1966 when she was just 45 years old, covering the war in Vietnam.

mhiggins1953

The Film Biz Asia story says they are looking for a big Hollywood name to play Higgins and the marine platoon leader, and a major Korean actor will play a KATUSA (Korean soldier assigned to the US Army).

The film will end with the famous Christmas Eve evacuation of 100,000 Korean civilians from the Port of Hungnam in northern Korea, as North Korean and Chinese troops were moving in. This is quite an interesting place to end, as for years Cineclick Asia was trying to make a $20-million movie about that battle, called CHRISTMAS CARGO. At one point they had Terence Chang on board to produce and Bruce Beresford to direct, but I guess that project fell apart (as so many do).

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 Mark James Russell

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑