I had the good fortune to spend a week in Seoul, South Korea, this past February. The weather was hazy and cold almost every day and the pollution hung in the air like a bad Beijing day, but I still thought the city was pretty cool. It was much bigger than I imagined and it takes you hours to get anywhere.. my meetings seemed to always be at opposite ends of the city.

I could go on and on about how great Korean food is, but I’ll let Louise handle that. Let’s focus on some music.

I have to admit that I’ve had a hard time penetrating the K-Pop scene to find some truly good contemporary Korean music. There were whispers and clips of good Seoul-based hip-hop and reggae but language barriers and time didn’t allow me to follow-up.

Luckily, it turns out that South Korea had a very active – and good – psychedelic folk and rock scene in the late 1960s through to the mid-80s. Why? Three words: United States Army.

It’s interesting how much the military has contributed to music all over Africa and Asia in the 20th century. Colonial-era soldiers and sailors from Europe stationed at ports throughout West and Central Africa swapped music, instruments and ideas with African musicians which eventually led to an explosion of soul, rock and folk as well as home-grown hybrid styles. Similarly, Korean musicians quickly stepped in to fill an entertainment void for American GIs stationed in post-war Korea during the 50s and 60s.

By the middle of the 1960s people like Shin Jung-Hyun, Korea’s “Godfather of Rock”, moved from Army concert halls to recording studios so that their music could reach a growing local audience. Jung-Hyun (also written Jeong-Hyun, also written Jung-Hyeon) produced or was at least partly responsible for much of the music you’ll hear on today’s post, so it’s appropriate that we start with a track from his first band to press an LP, Add4, released in 1964.

Next we’ll listen to his 1969 release featuring Lee Jung Hwa on the mic. This is where we start to get into the Korean psych-rock vibe; the track is an epic 16+ minute psychedelic ballad complete with multiple instrument solos. Unfortunately the recording isn’t great but I love the song.

Moving on, we’ll hear a couple tracks off Kim Jung-Mi’s 1973 album, Now, and one from her 1973 release, Wind. She’s probably my favourite of the bunch, but I don’t know much about her except that she was also under Shin Jung-Hyun’s sphere of influence.

Next up the popular Korean rock group, San Ul Rim (The Mountain Echo). We’ll listen to a track from each of their first three albums. First, the title track from their first album, released in 1977. Next an acoustic joint from their second album, the aptly named “Laying Carpet On My Mind” from 1978. Last a track from their second ‘78 release, My Heart.

We’ll now move back to the 60s and early 70s for some Beatlemania à-la-Korea in the form of The Keyboys and two later spin-offs, He5 and He6. Fun and poppy in that 1969 way.. lots of male vocal harmonies and organ use. One day I’m going to make a cop film set in Seoul 1971 and I’ll have the perfect soundtrack. Or maybe the film could take place in both Seoul and Rome…

Following that awesome version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida it’s only appropriate that we finish off with another cover by The Pearl Sisters.

You can learn everything you ever wanted to know about the history of 20th century Korean rock and folk, as I did, at this amazing site: http://koreanpsych.homestead.com/.

That was fun… next stop, Hong Kong.

Shin Jung-Hyun & Add4 – 소야 어서 가자 (Cattle, let’s go soon)
Shin Jung Hyun & The Donkeys feat. Lee Jung Hwa – Mah-Eum
Kim Jung-Mi – Toward The Sunlight
Kim Jung-Mi – Wind In The Trees
Kim Jung-Mi – 불어라 봄바람
San Ul Lim – Oh, Already
San Ul Lim – Like A Child Sleeping On A Shoulder
San Ul Lim – Become A Bird
The Keyboys – Unknown
He5 – Lonely Sun
He6 – In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
The Pearl Sisters – I Love You

I spent a week in Senegal in April for the first time since October, 2006.

The city has changed a lot superficially: many highways and flyovers have been built, posh Iranian-made taxis fill the streets, and glittering new nightclubs with a 15 Euro entry and leather shoe requirement have sprung-up all over the Almadies neighbourhood. Many of my old haunts have closed and new ones have taken their place.

But I stress that things have only changed superficially. The overall feel of Dakar is unchanged. Despite all the admittedly great new roads – we were half-joking that Dakar’s infrastructure now easily tops western Ireland’s – car rapides still sputter for space with faded-glory Dakar Dem Dikk Tata buses and the occasional horse-drawn cart; my favourite places are mostly still open, serving dibi and zouk late into the night; Tidjian and Amadou still sit smiling by the door of my old building beside the CCF and greet me like I had just been out of town for a few days; I recognize the faces of many of the car wash kids from my neighbourhood, now grown up, looking bored, rags in hand; and Sandaga remains largely the same with its touts near the music stands pretending to recognize me…and maybe they do.

I paid a visit to probably my favourite bar in Dakar, Chez Diamy in Point E, and it was still packed with a sweaty mass of Ivoirians half-listening and half-dancing to coupé-décalé and zoblazo. No evening would be complete there without a drunken incident involving a stolen wallet and, sure enough, that hadn’t changed either. (It wasn’t mine.) I think they might have even played Miss Lolo at one stage. (Remember, Ed?)

So what does Dakar sound like these days? It’s hard to get a feel in just a few days but I grabbed a dozen or so albums and compilations anyway and paid attention to the playlists in taxis and bars whenever I could.

Without a doubt the biggest thing going in Dakar these days is Titi. Ask any mbalax fan in Dakar between the age of 16-30 and you’ll usually get a “Titi, j’aime titi,” which admittedly makes me laugh every time for every immature reason.

Titi is a hot little mbalax number – a classically tall, thin and beautiful Dakaroise woman – who gets about as much radio play these days as Youssou’s latest Live at Bercy. I think her voice sounds a lot like Michael Jackson in his child-star, Jackson 5 days. Check her out here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4yfyc_titi_music. The video for the song I’ll post is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_tFYKZx5TA. Great dancing.

It was also good to hear that some of the old stand-bys are still getting lots of play; Abdou Guitte Seck and Omar Pene were all over the radio.

There were many, many mbalax acts that I didn’t recognize. We’ll hear from Abdou Rass and Ngone Ndiaye today – two great tracks, and to fully understand the spirit (and dancing) of the music you should definitely check-out the videos at the great new-ish Senegalese video site, SenClip: http://www.senclip.net/video/Ngone-Ndiaye-leumbeul and http://www.senclip.net/video/ABDOU-RASS-KOLEURE.

We’ll also hear a good mbalax track by Sidy Samb. You can see his video at yet another Senegalese clip site, Seneweb Videos: http://videos.seneweb.com/viewVideo.php?title=Sidy_Samb_women&video_id=219

Ok, enough mbalax. Hip-hop is still alive and well in Dakar.. but is it just me or has the golden age of Dakar hip-hop finished for now? The hip-hop I’m hearing still sounds like the stuff that hit the airwaves 10-12 years ago. Not that that’s a bad thing, but I poured over quite a few compilations and found only a few solid tracks. But hey, I don’t live there any more. If you’re reading this and disagree please correct me.

It’s good to hear that Daara J minus DJ Makhtar is still producing good music… at least some of them. Daara J Family is the latest iteration, and Tomorrow is a genuinely good tune in the spirit of the original group, which in turn is in the spirit of Positive Black Soul. Check-out their MySpace page. Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb_XWknv2ak

For something new-ish in the Dakar hip-hop scene we’ll hear from Res KP, a young Dakar rapper with a good sound. In much of his other music he, like many of his hiphop-galsène pals, tends to get a little too hardcore for my tastes. Positive Black Soul and their descendants were so wonderfully… native tongue. That gradual switch to a gangster sound is inevitable, I guess, and unfortunate. Res KP’s track, Calcul Mental, is good anyway. He has a MySpace page, too, and videos all over the web if you’re curious.

It’s impossible to talk about current Dakar music without playing some of that RnB cum reggae sound. Slower-jams are still infinitely popular in Senegal, but not all of it is crazy cheesy. (Notice we’ll skip the zouk.) See what you think of these two tracks by Carlo D and Maklan J.

Big love to Alex & Marianne, Pape, the Pitmans and the rest of you in Dakar who helped me remember what a great place it is.

Titi – Music
Abdou Guitte Seck – Domou Ndar
Omar Pene – Moom Tamit
Abdou Rass – Koleuré
Ngone Ndiaye – Leumbeul Lene
Sidy Samb – Women
Daara J Family – Tomorrow
Res KP – Calcul Mental
Makkan J – Reupeuteul
Carlo D – Yaye Fall

I hate farewell posts on blogs, and this isn’t one.

It’s been a busy year. As many of you know I got married just a few weeks ago, and if you ever read the posts on this site you’ll know that over the last 16 months I’ve started travelling more frequently than ever before.

I’m still collecting music and stories to go with it but I just haven’t had the time or energy to post anything.

So hang on to that RSS feed. No promises, but I’ll hopefully be back eventually.. with sounds from this year’s trips to Senegal, S. Korea, Hong Kong, Ireland, France, England and Canada, plus all the places I’ll be visiting in the coming months.