Depending on how deep you are willing to go, South Korea has bands playing music in unexpected genres. Whoo the Spicy is one of those bands. They play funk and according to their Instagram also include afrobeat. I know a bit about the arrangement and composition of funk, but afrobeat isn’t a genre I know much about. But the band’s debut full length, The more i think about it, the more ridiculous it seems is a ride.
The album’s start, “Whoo the Spicy 3.0” is kind of in-your-face with its mix of vocals, percussion, rhythm, and basically what feels and sounds like a tsunami of sound before it gets to the main verse. There’s a marimba and what I think is a vibraphone making a huge part of the melody. Watching a live video, I didn’t know they made a digital version of a marimba.
What Whoo the Spicy definitely has is a lot of attitude in their arrangements and how they play. The songs all sound live, but I’m sure a live performance is even crazier. What I really enjoy about the album is the variety between each song. Funk isn’t a single performance style and Whoo the Spicy presents many different sides of themselves. Inside the tracks, I think the band also includes other smaller styles like jazz and big band – which may be companions to their main styles.
I think listening to The more i think about it, the more ridiculous it seems is best done fresh without any previews. If there is an artist that might have any similarities, it’s like hearing Chang Kiha for the first time. Otherwise, Whoo the Spicy is amazing. The album is deep and people who love percussion-heavy music will get a lot of enjoyment.
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Chris P
Korean Indie owner and Editor at Large. Constantly looking for new music and working on library parity on Spotify and YouTube Music.