Resonant Visions 1

공중도둑 (Mid-Air Thief): 무너지기 (Crumbling) (2018)

Album Cover by 신혜정

Reviewed format: Self-released Digital Album by 공중도둑 (Mid-Air Thief)

Welcome to the first in a new series of reviews on this blog focused on connecting graphic design, illustration, photography of music releases with the music contained within as well as reviewing both the artwork and music I select based on my personal taste. With this series I aim to showcase both quality release artwork as well as its effect on the perception of the music. Today I have for you this album by South Korean artist 공중도둑 (Mid-Air Thief) titled 무너지기 (Crumbling), this album was Self-released by 공중도둑 (Mid-Air Thief) in 2018. The download of this album features the Album Cover in good resolution as well as the 8 album tracks in 16-bit/44.1kHz CD quality audio, with total timing of 45 minutes. The Album Cover you can see above is by 신혜정 , I couldn't find any info on the artist online unfotunately with the name being very common in South Korea. The artwork has a very vintage kind of look to it, a grainy analogue photograph of a man fishing near the sea on a dark brown beach and with subdued blue sky conjurs up ideas of a retro sounding album of simple down to earth music. However the artist name and album title in multi-coloured silhouette like Korean characters in which the artist name is bended adds the element of Psychedelia to the vibe of the artwork, hinting at something subtly trippy inside. A really nicely minimal artwork design that puts the focus on the photograph but adds that spacey twist to the design with the character design. And indeed the album sounds quite like I imagined from looking closely to this cover, the music is K-folk with plenty of psychedelic elements in it, subdued vocals and a down to earth yet playful ambience to all the songs. Yet it's more experimental than I thought it'd be, so the character design's multi-colours do give away that there's in fact a lot of electronics and creative (lo-fi) effect experiments in the production of the songs and it's much trippier than I expected. So the album cover gives a good idea of the music but be ready to expect something quite different too.

Now onto the review of the actual songs on 무너지기 (Crumbling). The album's 8 tracks are mostly longer than an average folk song featuring expansive compositions in terms of vocal melodies and instrumental arrangements of the songs that often feature these curious and interesting psychedelic twists in their chord progressions as well as the aforementioned usage of synths, synth bass and sometimes electronic beats. This music has a very cinematic feel to it as well, with the story-telling through melodies and vocals (although I don't understand Korean unfortunately) combined with the many experimental details in the production as well as usage of a lot of shifting in the depth of the space the music is performed in, adding interesting acoustic effects to the music that put you as the listener inside the house (?) or room the music is performed in. First song 왜? (Why?) starts with some cool electronic filtered experimentation and then moves to the main part of the song. The male singer and female singer both sing in this warm tone over bright acoustic guitar. Apart from the musical content I especially like the lo-fi recording hiss and slightly fuzzy saturated sound the music on this album has, it gives it a great warm vintage sound (like the analogue photo on the cover) that still feels contemporary and authentic too however. On 왜? (Why?) the music moves from acoustic subtle parts to more intense synth layered fiery parts in which the vocals get accompanied by arpeggiated sharp high pitched synths and punchy compressed drums dancing around the room. A filter is also used to add interesting buildups in this piece created an ambience that subtly moves from bright to more subdued back again and the tuning of the synths is also different in the second half from the first which creates exciting new harmonies. The song feels pretty abstract in its melodies and rhythms too actually, this is catchy music but it's also more complex than your average folk song but if you keep vibing with this it definitely works. Then on 쇠사슬 (Ahhhh, These Chains!) we have a more acoustic oriented song which also features glockenspiel. The song moves in a waltz like tempo and features plenty of tinkling guitars through the stereo field, intense compressed drums punching through the mix pretty nicely as well as various synth elements creating a dense trippy atmosphere that is maybe a bit too maximalist to some people but I like this kind of excess, this is great. There's several great soloing on the acoustic guitar as well and a great instrumental outro part, really wild and fun Psychedelic Folk music. 감은 듯 (Gameun Deut) is a more conventional sounding K-folk song but it's definitely really fun with the dense sounding production almost drowning out the subtle male and female vocals but it works and the song feels full of joyful vibrant positive energy, the psychedelic harmonic twists and easy going Asian pop vocal melody styles feeling very pleasant and tasteful. The song also features a subdued musical / soundtrack like bridge part which sounds pretty old-school like from an old Korean drama film, very good. 곡선과 투과광 (Curve and Light) has a very cool funky sound to it with grooving drums, grinding (strings) bass and vibrant warm synths that also still sounds very Korean but with that pleasant hazy lo-fi filter over it and a quirky playful middle part which features only vocals and weird quirky synths as well as these cool mechanic clangs adding an unexpected Industrial element to the mix. This subtly moves to an intense second half with a half-step groove, flashing funky synths and jumpy electronic drums also featuring that nice Industrial clanging percussion. What is great about the vocals combined with the sometimes more fiery parts is that the male and female singer never really exaggerate their vocals but stay pretty calm singing them which adds a nice warm element of peace to the music, very nice. 함께 무너지기 (Crumbling Together) is the album's longest song at almost 10 minutes and it's exactly the right length. The songs moves into various directions melodically and arangement (and production) wise, the crumbling theme is put into music here through tinkling instruments, and the "broken" sound of the recording of the male vocals about two minutes into the song. This quite like a progressive Folk kind of song, subtly shifting progressing from ambience to more fully-fledged "crumbling" parts of tinkling and "falling" instrument clouds. Highlights in this song include the Middle Eastern strings at the start of the second half of the song as well as the sea field recordings added to the acoustic guitar and bell like instrument at the end, this sound directly feels like what the album cover looks like. 함께 무너지기 (Crumbling Together) feels like a great sweet subtle kind of story told through music moving into mysterious but also vibrant and rich directions but it all comes down to magical experiences in a calm place near the sea, peaceful living, that's what it feels like. 수호자 (Protector) is brighter and more explosive again, in a waltz like tempo the song features positive and "calmly excited" melodies and soothing vocals that then burst into explosive climaxes full of glistening synths, intense drums and bass as well as pleasant acoustic guitar as well. There are those sweet Middle Eastern strings here as well, this song feels quite a bit more Rock too, sweet piece. 흙 (Dirt) features some great trippy psychedelic melodies and synth twists and effects, male and female vocals and his this great kind of fairground twisted circus kind of vibe to it that the best of classic 60s psychedelic music has, very nice. It's very trippy and fun at times but also just as dynamic and varied in its progression and vocals as the other songs. Quite an experience. 무소식 (No Answer) continues the psychedelic theme from the previous song somewhat though with a less explosive sound, the song seems to continously build with a warm sweet atmosphere and some great synth and sound effects in the second half adding to the male and female vocals. The song does remind me a bit of MGMT in its sound actually, nice psychedelic folk kind of piece and a great closing song of this album, though at the end I wish there was more as it ends when you'd hoped it would continue, still a good song though.

무너지기 (Crumbling) by 공중도둑 (Mid-Air Thief) is an excellent South Korean Psychedelic Folk / Folktronica album with a sweet mellow but also often vibrant cinematic kind of peaceful introverted ambience. The songs are really well written and vocal and instrumental performances are great as well as the excellent top-notch productions. This is a great warm cozy but also adventurous listen of an album also for listeners who don't understand the lyrics and 신혜정's Album Cover matches the music rather well and is good invitation to listen. Recommended music for people looking for Korean folk music in a more independent, psychedelic minded direction with less of a mainstream / pop sound to it but sounding more local / experimental. Also definitely recommended for anyone looking for great independent music from Asia, this is one of my favourite reviewed releases of 2019 too. Recommended album.

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