Tuesday, July 31, 2018

[MV] SF9 - Now or Never



Official channel link

[MV] LEO (VIXX) - Touch & Sketch

[MV] SOYA - Y-shirt

[MV] Microdot (feat. Chancellor, Jiselle) - Thinking About You

[MV] SIXBOMB - Hiccup Hiccup



Cringing.
This is the group that did a 'plastic surgery' concept with their last release, where all of them getting surgery was used as a marketing gimmick. This time the gimmick is that the MV imitates JAV (Japanese Adult Videos). It's not even necessarily the video that bothers me. It's just the company's transparent ploy to manufacture controversy while not actually improving the music quality that irks me.

[MV] ZICO (feat. IU) - SoulMate

[MV] Aseul - Fill Me Up

[LIVE] Park Ki Young - Mercy



I believe she has been performing this since last year, but I wanted to post this new live MV so that we can all appreciate her insane vocals.

[MV] ESBEE - FLY AWAY

[MV] BLUEPAPRIKA - Allnight



Fun track! Kind of a disco-funk thing going on.

[MV] MIRYO - Yellow



Official channel link

[MV] 2BIC - Closer

[MV] DISH CRIMSON (feat. Yongrim) - SUNSET

Friday, July 27, 2018

[MV] Seungri (feat. MINO) - WHERE R U FROM



Seungri giving PSY a run for his money.

[MV] FTISLAND - Summer Night's Dream



Official channel link

[MV] JAMES - The Light



James had a great AMA session on reddit before this release.
Link to /r/kpop post
Great to see the fruition of his kickstarter campaign. The MV is wild!

[MV] LABOUM - Between Us

[MV] John Park - Understand

[MV] IN2IT - Sorry For My English

100% - Grand Bleu

[MV] LEESUN - PATTAYA

[MV] Bassagong - RODEO

[MV] Ben X Kim Won Joo - The First Night

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

[MV] KARD - Ride on the Wind



Official channel link

[MV] ASTRO - Always You



I like those big synths in the chorus.

[MV] offonoff (feat. Rad Museum) - homeless door



That creeeaaak.

[MV] NewKidd - Shooting Star

[MV] WE ARE THE NIGHT - Dreamcatcher

[LIVE] Simon D - Me No Jay Park & demolition man

Simon Dominic just stepped down as co-CEO of AOMG. He has stated he felt he wasn't living up to the job title, stressed by the responsibility, and wanted to get back to basics as an artist. Just stating these as a preface because the lyrics (subtitles with CC on) get pretty heavy. He goes into detail about serious mental health issues in 'demolition man', so consider this a gentle warning.



[MV] Kevin Oh - Lover

[MV] MaseWonder (feat. CHOILB) - Love me

[MV] Carla - hate u

[DEBUT] AiRiSU - OPPA

[MV] VINCENT&ROSEs - Lemonade

[DEBUT] Juro the Whitecanvas - Clumsy (+more)



Fuxk It and Dance (1993) in the full post.

Monday, July 23, 2018

[MV] MINSEO - ZERO



Official channel link

What an epic track. I feel like I should be training for the Olympics.
Cool video too. It's like 'Kimi no Na wa' meets parkour.
I think it's also a CF for a game.

[MV] Jeong Sewoon - 20 Something

[MV] Giriboy (feat. Kim Seungmin) - Old Clothes Collection Box

[MV] WOODZ - DIFFERENT



Love this. Very chill.

[MV] Standing EGG - Oh, Wait

[MV] HASH - Shadow

[MV] SWYZII (feat. Kang Saneh) - Wrecked Again



This is so weird I had to post it.

[MV] Yammo (feat. The Quiett) - Wait For Us

[MV] JOO JIN-WOO - EVER

Friday, July 20, 2018

[MV] Woogotsa - Lend me a car tomorrow

[MV] Seungri - 1, 2, 3!

[MV] Hyolyn - SEE SEA

[MV] GFRIEND - Sunny Summer



Official channel link

[MV] Sobae (feat. San E) - Holiday

[PROMO] MAMAMOO - Sky Sky



Commercial promo for ICARUS M, which is a mobile game.

[MV] Sik-K - Skip And Kiss

[MV] Choiza, Microdot - Hit!!!

[MV] NO:EL (feat. Giriboy, Han Yo Han) - Parrot

Monday, July 16, 2018

[MV] MAMAMOO - Egotistic



Official channel link

Mamamoo fully committed to the Latin trend.
Production sounds really good.

[MV] SEVENTEEN - Oh My!



Super feel-good song. I don't think the hook is especially strong, but I also don't think it needs to be. Overall really satisfying feeling from the track. Never stops bouncing.

Splendid choreography, as usual.

[MV] Sophiya (feat. DAWN) - Let's Get Lost



Sophiya and Dawn are a great combo.
Lovely track.

[MV] NaShow - Heavy rain

[MV] ELRIS - Focus (performance video)

[MV] Wooks (feat. Artinb) - Shy

[MV] Wonderful Machine - Don't Waste The Time

[MV] HEYGIRLS - NOG-YEOJWO

Friday, July 13, 2018

[MV] Crush (feat. ZICO) - Cereal

[MV] Louie (Geeks) - Penalty

[MV] SOLE - Slow

[MV] THE BOYZ - KeePer



Official channel link

[MV] John OFA Rhee (feat. Kim Minseok) - Brightest Star

[MV] SEENROOT - PARADISE

[MV] JUNIK - RAIN

[MV] Ha Ri Su - Make your life

[MV] LambC - BEAUTY

[MV] Lee Seung Hwan (feat. Stella Jang) - For Your Ears Only

[MV] WABLE - Ending Song



Cute little waltz-time song.

[MV] B.O. - Stay

Sunday, July 8, 2018

[MV] Jessi - Down

[OST] Park Hyo Shin - The Day



From the soundtrack of 'Mr. Sunshine'.
This is a high-budget drama available on Netflix Instant. Haven't watched it yet, but I plan to. Apparently it's pretty spectacular visually-speaking.
HyoShin is a bonus. Beautiful song.

[MV] Jvcki Wai - Enchanted Propaganda



Their stuff is always wild, but this one goes the extra mile.

Friday, July 6, 2018

[MV] Holland - I'm Not Afraid



After getting a 19+ rating on Neverland for a gay kiss, Holland was like, JUST YOU WAIT FAM. Lol. On reddit I mentioned the video seems like it's referencing Troye Sivan's 'Youth' and the song is referencing 'My My My', which is cool! 🌈

[MONTHLY] Favorites for JUNE 2018

My top picks for the month were Taeyeon's 'Something New' and MRSHLL's 'COME OVER'. I'll be posting my full first-half-of-the-year playlist soon!





In the full post: Wanna One, Yubin, KATIE, ONF, A.C.E, SHINee, DPR LIVE, BLACKPINK, MINSEO, Jaurim, DAY6, and Lee Jin Ah.

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

[MV] Golden Child - LET ME



Official channel link

[MV] TEEN TOP - LOVER

[MV] OOHYO - Papercut

[MV] Favorite - Heart Signal

[MV] ATEEZ (KQ Fellaz) - From



These guys were on MIXNINE. For their pre-debut, training, activities, etc, they've used the name KQ Fellaz. Their actual name at debut will be ATEEZ.

[MV] Flashe - BabyLotion

[MV] Tenny - 159cm



The MV shows a narrative of women growing up in love with each other, dealing with a conservative household, hypocrisy when it comes to the behavior of religious adherents scorning LGBT folks, and homophobic abuse. The ending is really great and positive.

Quite a special piece. Would recommend.

[MV] MelodyDay - Restless

[MV] Park Boram - How about U

[MV] JO GON - Old Notes

[MV] MeloMance - Tale

Sunday, July 1, 2018

[DEBUT] MUSKY - Secret of my heart

[PLAYLIST] KPOPPY's first half of 2018



Halfway! We've arrived.
2018 isn't playing around. I've really enjoyed the year's music so far. Around this time last year I was collapsing under the weight of Kpop going super far into weird experimental Frankenstein territory. Thankfully, that chilled out by the end of the year. These six months since have felt pretty great. A nice balance between weird and good. Everything still feels very listenable. There's a strong showing for mainstream stuff this year. I usually feel like my odd indie picks dominate. Not this time!

Tropical House gave way to Future Bass, but both are still present. As I figured it would, the Despacito trend hit Kpop with the influence of Latin rhythms. Maybe not as intensely as I would have predicted. I've been adding to a playlist for the trend. There is some overlap with Trop House and Moombahton in there, but I think the shift is fairly distinct from the last couple years. My Latin rhythm playlist is available now and I'll continue adding to it into the future. Feel free to comment or @ me if you have recommendations to add (@AlleyBetwixt).

Fashion trends? Not much out of the ordinary. I noticed a lot of strappy buckles and bondage harnesses, but that was for weekly music show performances: Dreamcatcher, Wanna One, BTS, etc. It showed up less often in MVs. Interesting one.

BTS finding so much success and momentum in the West is definitely bringing way more attention to Kpop from major players. Billboard and Grammy have had quite regular features for a while now. It's amazing to see how far and fast this has come. Also slightly terrifying.
Let's get to the music!

[Link to the full playlist on Youtube]

My 30 favorites in chronological order:
Further thoughts on selected tracks and a few honorable mentions in the full post.