2013 had a lot of amazing albums. I actually can’t believe how many great albums released. Some took a lot longer to record and a lot of them were surprises. 2013 was definitely the year where I used bandcamp as the place to find new music, other than buying a lot of CDs when I visited Seoul in April 2013.

As 2013 closes, it actually took a long time to go through all the reviews of the year and find my favorites of the year. 2013 was definitely a great year in Korean music. I was also able to meet more bands, discover new music, and generally appreciate more genres.

There’s no particular order when it comes to my favorites, they albums that I enjoyed a lot this past year.

I would have definitely included Hee Young‘s Sleepless Night as I’ve heard it through bandcamp, but until I can listen to an official release I’m not including it on the list.

I listened to Hee Young’s Sleepless Night. It’s now part of my favorites of 2013.

And I am aware that Yukari’s EP came out at the end of 2012, but I didn’t find it until 2013 so I’m bending my own rules.

Favorites of 2013

Yellow Monsters : Red Flag

24Hours : Party People

Monkeyz : 너라는 사람의 노래

feverdogs : Sweet Nightmare

Oh Hee Jung : Everybody Here Wants You Back

Mohho Project : My Eyebrows Don’t Want to be Warm

Modsdive : The Stasis of Humanity

Square the Circle : 1003

Startline : Light My Fire

Yukari : Echo

Heavy Rotation

The term heavy rotation simply means they’re albums that sat in my queue for extended periods of time. Each one is great, and they fall right under my top ten.

Juck Juck Grunzie : Psycho

Vidulgi OoyoO : Officially Pronounced ALIVE

Smacksoft : Follow Your Heart

Romantiqua : When and Where

Asian Chairshot : Mask

yaya : Cruel Picture

we hate jh : Demotivation

Taru : Puzzle

Yozoh : 나의 쓸모

New playlist

The new playlist is a playlist I made of electronic and synth musicians. I was introduced to a lot of the genre this past year and it became it’s own playlist.

LudiSTELO : Play the Earth

Love X Stereo : Glow

Smells : Up and Down

Demicat : Out Loud

Graye : Mon

From the Airport : Everyone’s All Right

Newton : Collaboration Remixes

sima kim & american green : Music for Dorothy

K.AFKA : The Human Psyche

Tengger : Electric Earth Creation

I’m going to guess that 2014 will be another great year in music. SXSW 2014 is going to be pretty impressive and in theory from what I’ve heard Seoulsonic 2014 will have some great bands as well. I do plan on visiting Seoul again in 2014 though I’m not sure when. I definitely need to try to visit Busan and see the different clubs there.

Thanks for reading this past year. The site continues to get more readers and that’s an amazing thing. Korean musicians can always use your support in spreading the word of their music. As more people notice, this will give bands more chances to tour internationally.