K-POP IN REVIEW 2025: PART SEVEN – The Alternative
There are many K-pop acts that are on smaller labels, although there is normally some degree of corporate structure to many of these companies, partly because the work that we see on the screen with a pop artifact is often the work of a huge number of professionals not seen on the screen. Indie labels and groups do exist, not entirely unlike those in the west and their output is often as mediocre, but not always.
SE SO NEON are an interesting crossover. Increasingly the group has become So!YoON! and whoever she wants to work with, but considering that she’s a singer, songwriter, conceptual artist and one hell of an axe shredder, it’s hard to feel sorry for the backup blokes who she’s cast off. Her music ranges from noisy guitar music in either a grunge or psych zone, through what we might regard as experimental K-pop, through to jazz in the mold of Sade. Eclectic? Yeah, a bit. Remember! showed her poppier tendencies, but we’re going with NOW as her banger of the year, because we’ve never heard anyone doing anything resembling The Breeders in Korean before.
Unlike SE SO NEON, Balming Tiger are a creative collective. The corporate structure has been replaced by a loose group of designers, video artists, musicians, performers and other weirdoes. Their creative director San Yawn worked on RM from BTS’s solo album last year and other group members have found writing credits on NMIXX albums. They occupy an unusual zone between the big league and indie, and fill it with strange and intriguing work and collaborations.
They did some interesting stuff this year, but it’s the collaborations that really shone: I mean, there was one with Haruomi Hosono of Yellow Magic Orchestra fame, and the absolute joy of Yo Ai Ni with Yaeji, but they really found their fellow travellers in Japan’s ATARASHII GAKKO! and it’s Narani Narani, that you need to hear and see:
Bonus ball: Their frequent member Mudd the student released a solo album this year, that is incredible and very noisy. Take a look at Undertaker from his LAGEON album:
Finally, and on a very different league of a few thousand downloads, we need to talk about Cultgazer. There’s a lot of good Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese shoegaze, but these kids are in a league of their own. They really should be getting a lot more attention. Their Prototye mini-album has been deservedly on frequent play here, and the lead track Ed should give you a sense of just how great they are.