K-INDIE CHART – JANUARY

We’re back with a new K-Indie chart and this time we’re taking a look at the overview of January. Let’s check it out!

Some of the newcomers are Lee Seung Yoon’s latest album ‘Shelter of Dreams’ and Lee Minhwi with her 2016 album ‘Borrowed Tongue’. Oohyo is also popping back up with her 2023 album ‘OOHYO Returns’.

Lee Minhwi – Borrowed Tongue

Lee released a new album in December which we wrote about here. It must have inspired a lot of listeners to purchase her first album ‘Borrowed Tongue’. The album was released in 2016 and consists of 8 tracks.

The opening track is ‘Stone Throwing’ which starts with a beautiful acoustic guitar and quickly develops into a cool ambient, atmospheric piece.

Borrowed Tongue’ is the title track and gives us flute solo. I really enjoyed the storytelling of it all.

Mirror’ is a lovely track with a great ebb and flow to it. The instrumentals create a very colorful picture of a quaint pub somewhere.

The next track ‘Swollen Foot’ gives us a fantastic trumpet section while ‘Dream’, very aptly, takes us on a dreamlike, ethereal journey where the answers are just out of reach.

Broken Mirror’ leans more towards the psychedelic rock sphere than the previous tracks but it leads to a refreshing take in the album. ‘Dictee’ brings us back to the folk influence with lovely violins and violas.

The closing track is ‘The Light of Silence’ which came with this music video of a beautiful sunrise. The instrumental single is a beautiful and mesmerizing listen.

You can find the album on Spotify here.

Oohyo – OOHYO RETURNS

This album comes 9 years after her debut and is the first release as an independent artist. This comeback mostly contains remade versions of previously released tracks apart from the new track ‘I Give You Love’.

We start off with the beautiful intro ‘World’s quietest dj’. I love this ambient moment! We’re also getting a band version of ‘Teddy Bear’, ‘Perhaps Maybe Returns’ and ‘Reggae Returns’.

The closing track ‘I Give You Love’ is a whopping six minutes and forty-three seconds long, which nowadays is a rarity, but we love to see it. I love how languid the entire track feels and the retro synths are fantastic!

You can find the album on Spotify here.

A writer with a slight coffee addiction and a tendency to find K-Indie gems in the YouTube rabbit hole.