The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
Every Tuesday, the Sounding Board is a space for a short-ish review of a recent-ish release and conversations about new-to-you music. We’ll get things started with a write-up about a newer, likely underheard album, and invite you to share your music musings in the comments.
Look, I won’t lie and say that I understood that I was listening to a concept album based on vibes alone, but I knew something was going on.
Despite a language barrier, I had an inkling that Gongbu, the second long-player from the South Korean collective Balming Tiger,1 might be more than an eclectic collection of exceptional tunes. During my initial blind listen of the album, I was struck by a sense of cohesion and momentum, even as genres, languages and personnel seemed to change every 120 seconds or so.2
Balming Tiger is legion. Various sources list 11 members of the collective, including musicians, rappers, singers, producers, visual artists, a DJ, and management,3 so variety seems inevitable. However, Gongbu leans all the way into the sonic superball bit, ricocheting off genres and tones as the album unfolds. It makes for a fun listen with serious momentum, even when the tempo slows down or Balming Tiger embrace a slightly experimental sound.
“차차차 (Cha Cha Cha)” serves up smoky rock with the cadence of a dripping faucet. ”공부 (Gongbu)” is a slinky rap track with handsaw warble, rumbling tom percussion and repeated references to Duolingo. “Oui” is infectious dance pop powered by funky bass, toe-tapping drums and copious cowbell. It’s like a Korean-language sequel to “Groove is in the Heart,” which is to say a pure delight capable of filling a dance floor or adding levity to a tough run. “Bird Song” is a lush, hazy dreamscape shaped by panting vocals and chiming clocks. “Espero” is cinematic and bluesy. “마뎅야에호 (Madengyaeho)” is twinkling, pretty and slight. “기억의 열차” is a mini suite spending its first minute as a discordant choral piece before pounding drums kick off a headbanging nu metal stretch that’s capped by a cappella vocals layered so mosquito buzz lurks on the edges of the artificial harmony.
Aside from consistently high quality, prominent bass lines and recurring vocalists, these songs share few obvious unifying characteristics, and it’s not simply a matter of the theme being lost in translation. The few instances when Balming Tiger’s members decide to rap or sing in English only add to the chaos, due to brevity and silly content. Somehow “Your love is like crypto/ Jump in, let’s mine it,” didn’t help me grasp an overarching plot.
Some supplementary research in between my first and second listens dispelled my ignorance. It turns out Gongbu focuses on a fictional virtual research center, Gongbu Korea, that uses experimental technologies to delve into its subjects’ dreams and subconscious. On repeat listens, that still doesn’t really come across. Honestly, that’s OK.
The Inception-y megacorp setting is a fun concept, but it seems at most tangentially related to the songs. It helps to explain the dreaminess of “Bird Song,” which could plausibly soundtrack a version of Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory set in the Amazon, and provides useful context for album-opener “Stretching,” which is a collection of hard-to-identify foley that creates the impression of a tape being rapidly rewound and set to play. However, it’s convoluted and opaque, even when reading through translated lyrics. This is probably for the best.
While turning the exploration of humanity’s unconscious thoughts and deepest desires into an experimental business is fertile ground for all sorts of interesting themes, extensive exposition about a subconscious-delving startup would almost certainly bog down a remarkably fleet-footed LP.4 A big more grit could have made the LP feel a smidge more substantial, but once the album decides not to go the hyper-literal rock opera route or get especially philosophical, it’s really for the best that Gongbu Korea is a background or jumping-off point for Balming Tiger’s songs.
Whether it’s entirely necessary to have a prompt to write songs about dreams, love and memory is debatable. Those subjects account for an awfully large percentage of all pop music. As tempting as it is to label the premise as entirely unnecessary, it’s hard to write off entirely. If the high-concept premise is part of the strange binding agent that keeps Gongbu together, it’s entirely essential.
Like a jigsaw puzzle depicting a totally alien landscape, Gongbu’s pieces follow an internal logic to fit together to create a bizarre, fascinating whole. The individual pieces are interestingly shaped and fun to examine in their own right, but taken together, these songs form something recognizable as a completed work, even if it flies in the face of shared reality.
It’s an unqualified joy to hear Balming Tiger put that weird puzzle together.
About the writer
Ben Hohenstatt
Ben Hohenstatt is an Alaska-based dog owner who moonlights as a music writer and photographer.
For more information, consult your local library or with parental permission visit his website.
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The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
Department of
Conversation
What did we watch?
Superstore, Season Two, Episode Six, “Dog Adoption Day”
“That’s right, the volunteer job was desirable, that was a lesson!”
“Six AM, Glenn.”
“I can’t eat the ones with the ridged because they hurt the top of my mouth!”
“That’s part of the experience, Cheyenne!”
Glenn suddenly gaining Mark McKinney’s impression skills after two obvious bad impressions is good.
“Not a rivalry, you’re just always mean to me. And not unspoken, you talk about it… all the time?”
Amazing that Amy and Jonah find totally different and yet complimentary ways of Not Having Fun.
“I’m dating the injection guy. Yeah. He’s divorced. Most of them are.”
“Sex with Italian guys?”
“More like Nordic.”
“You’re so old and wise.”
“Okay.”
“I had to retighten my ponytail. I can’t go out there looking like a slut.”
“It’s 2016! She’s a real estate man!”
Seeing Glenn and Bo away from the store is weird.
“Don’t worry, nothing happened back then. I read the laws very carefully.”
“And that is Ricky’s penis.”
“Nah, that’s Jared’s. Ricky wishes!”
“He really called me a poseur?”
“Sounds like you’re making excuses.”
“Weeell, you weren’t there.”
“I want to talk last.”
“I totally understand, but I am sure, and I’m the adult here. And why don’t we go and talk about it in my car.”
“The comments are so mean! Do I look like a gigantic red baby?”
“You’re gonna pay for this tomorrow.”
“Not on tomorrow.”
“The next day then.”
“Not on until Sunday.”
“Sunday then! Sunday you’ll pay for – oh wait, I’m not in Sunday.”
“This is so worth the two hours.”
“You know what? I’m an adult. I’m gonna call him on the ph – I’m gonna text him.”
“I was thinking of seeing a movie tonight.”
“I’m seeing two movies.”
Resident Evil – the new one. Really nails the fucked up visuals of the games (based on my limited experience – I’ve only really played RE4, but I’ve played it a LOT) but I found the tone a little odd. I saw the quotes from Cregger about stripping out the comedy because audiences were finding it “too funny” but for me this still felt a little too goofy for the really messed-up stuff to land like it should. Still a fun experience and definitely a very different approach from the PWSA / Jovovich movies but I remain a little mixed on Cregger generally.
Threw on some 30 Rock S5 including “Gentleman’s Intermission.” More people should absorb Jack’s advice that people behaving irrationally don’t respond to rational thinking. (And this includes me!) Buck Henry is having fun with “old man trying absurdly hard to act cool.” “Come on, Gary, let’s go to that cool bar with the rainbow flags!” “No, good people of Swingles, hear me!” “I’m looking for DHIC, Avery. And I’ll take it where I can find it.” “Nothing happens when I’m asleep.” “Dr. Drew said I was ‘unfixable!'” The cheerful way Jenna says this is amazing.
What did we listen to?
Ride Lonesome, Beck
His latest. He seems to have entered an intense sentimentality phase of his career; the music sounds ephemeral and agonizingly pained. Not my thing at all, unfortunately, though I admire the technical proficiency.
1001 Albums, etc.
Tori Amos – Little Earthquakes: a little more conventional than I expected. Solidly enjoyable piano pop but I didn’t find it too memorable, I wonder if I’d get more out of her later work when her sound had developed a little.
Ice Cube – The Predator: the previous Ice Cube album was hard to listen to due to the intense, relentless misogyny in the lyrics, he’s picking some more deserving targets for his anger here and I felt less conflicted about enjoying it.
Pantera – Vulgar Display of Power: absolutely not into this at all, among my least favourite of the metal albums on the list so far.
Alice in Chains – Dirt: I’ve really strongly disliked Alice in Chains when I’ve heard them in the past but this wasn’t actually all that bad – when it comes to grunge I’d rather have a little of their G’n’R-esque drug-metal swagger edge rather than the pure mopiness of, say, Pearl Jam.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Henry’s Dream: pretty impressive set of dramatically angry songs, there’s a power to Cave’s musical rantings that I cannot deny, although I find the music a bit uninteresting when he sticks to the kinda bluesy formula.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party – Devotional Songs: enjoyably uplifting set of songs full of handclaps and rich instrumentation, I like it when they throw in some non-English-language stuff to change things up occasionally and this was a fun one.
PJ Harvey – Dry: a striking debut, I’ve never fully clicked with PJ Harvey but I do generally enjoy her stuff, like Tori Amos above I think I’m probably more disposed to her later work, which (unlike Amos) I will get a chance to verify on this list.
Suede – Suede: Britpop arrives! Of the iconic British bands of the 90s I think Suede are the ones I’ve spent the least time with – they have some good songs but I’m not a massive fan of Brett Anderson’s vocals which has kept me at a distance. This was pretty solid though, and I do really like “Metal Mickey”.
Paul Weller – Wild Wood: is Paul Weller the least interesting solo artist of all time? The Jam had some great tunes, the Style Council was at least a very odd tangent, but I’m not sure I’ve heard a single solo track by him that hasn’t bored me to tears.
Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream: the drummer in my old band was a Pumpkins obsessive and this was the only one of their albums I ever really got into, I still think it’s pretty great. Really punchy fuzz guitars and some unusual songwriting.
The Auteurs – New Wave: these kinda feel like they should be my thing but I don’t really connect with them, Luke Haines voice is a little too unassuming maybe. I do love his later work with Black Box Recorder but I’ve heard this album a few times now and it just doesn’t stick.
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Blank Check, Raging Bull and King of Comedy – one film I don’t like, one I very much do, but I enjoyed hearing two very different guests talking about movies (and a director) that they deeply love. I don’t think either of these guests are in my top tier for Blank Check but I love people talking passionately about movies and this miniseries is definitely delivering on that front.
Screen Drafts, Richard Brooks – had no idea what to expect here really, I have not seen any films by this director, but they made for some really interesting discussion and I’m gonna have to check a couple of them out soon. Deadline USA sounds like it’d be up my street.
Fucking love Suede! I am probably the rare American you will hear say that though the Philly show was actually fairly packed. Henry’s Dream isn’t my favorite Cave album but “John Finn’s Wife” may be my favorite song of his.
Are they still called The London Suede over there or did they manage to sort out that situation?
I’ve never really dug into Cave, but he has a few more albums on the list so I’m curious to see if any of them fully win me over.
I think they sorted it out but haven’t checked recently. Helps that the original Suede lounge singer appears to be inactive. I did a Cave discography run through up to The Boatsman’s Call and would probably recommend the latter if you’re not a big fan.
The first half of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd which is very good. I don’t know if I’ll ever LOVE opera as a form but it is noticeable that (1) I prefer English-language opera so far and (2) Britten’s operas I connect to more because they’re specifically not about the wealthy elite. Both this and Peter Grimes are about wannabe bootstrappers who fail to get what they want because of their inherent outsider qualities (in part that they are queer). They can’t fit into the British class system and fall apart in the process.
Ironically, this ancient Japanese court music, Gagaku, I am responding to on a very different level. This is alien, ritualistic sound, the shrill wind instruments making me feel calm and strange at the same time. Found a compilation from the 1970s and am going to try writing alongside it.
I also listened to a bunch of different Sweeney Todd recordings to gear up for guesting on a podcast discussing it. By far the greatest American musical and it’s easier to hear Britten’s dissonant influence on the material. I suspect musical nerds tend to dismiss the 2006 recording/revival because it leans into the horror, something many theater people do not love, and it’s deliberately experimental and Brechtian in the approach, closer to German jazz than opera. The arrangements imo are terrific, especially the contrapuntals that, building up to “SWEEEEENEEEYYYYYY”, sound genuinely demonic.