Super Color Super digs up retro sounds

If you ever wondered what Korean music was like before K-pop, a new website might give you a clue.

G’OLD Korea Vinyl ― the G’OLD stands for “good old” ― is a celebration of Korean music from the 1950s through to the end of the 1980s, providing video and audio clips that are hard to come by elsewhere.

It was born out of a relationship that developed between Sean Maylone, the man behind independent booking agency Super Color Super, and Gopchang Jeongol, a retro music bar.

Maylone says he came to love the bar after he began to take acts to it.

“The only place I’m really excited to take bands is Gopchang. All the other places are a little bit behind the times, DJing with indie or electro and stuff that people would hear anyway and have kind of been tired of,” he explains.

“In Gopchang I hear all this funky stuff that’s new to me. It kind of reminds me of an old dive bar you’d get back home where you’d hear Zeppelin and that old classic rock and stuff like that.”

He says that he has been told about other similar bars that play classic songs, but they often play Western rock and pop, as well as more modern songs.

“Gopchang may never play Western music ― not that I’ve ever heard ― and they keep it all before like ‘92 or something like that. It’s kind of like a cut-off with a pretty strict set of rules.”

Inspired by the extensive collection of new music, Maylone came up with the idea of making a blog to share some of the music. He approached the bar owner and they struck an arrangement.

The owner of Gopchang Jeongol would open up his collection and help pick out songs he might like, and Maylone would upload them.

“We’re trying to get a little bit out, a song here and there, and then after a few weeks you can download a mix tape. It’s kind of like all the best of the classic stuff.”

To celebrate and enjoy the music, Super Color Super are hosting their first G’OLD party in Busan on Saturday. At the moment, the arrangements for future parties are tentative, but Maylone hopes to at least put one on in Seoul, where he plans to ask the people at Gopjang Jeongol to DJ.

But Maylone says the parties are secondary to the website. He says the sounds are often Korean interpretations of Western inventions, but the time in which they were made makes for an unusual sound.

“It’s often Western styles but a few years afterwards. So it can be a sixties type jam on a seventies instrument set, so it sounds a bit odd,” he says. “Some of it is covers of disco music but it sounds a bit different because the production set up.”

It’s a voyage of musical discovery as much as anything for Maylone. He says he doesn’t know a lot about the artists of the time, and the project is just about promoting songs out of a love for music.

And he’s very keen to make clear that he doesn’t consider himself an expert.

“A lot of people are trying to show me how much they know, but it’s funny because I can’t keep up at all.”

This isn’t something new to him.

“Even (with) Super Color Super stuff I’ve never been an authority. I’ve just been banging around at the dark trying to catch the bands that I like. We’re doing Mogwai but I couldn’t answer a lot of trivia about them.”

Relatively well-known acts like Mogwai have been a double-edged sword for Super Color Super. While their coming has been a definite boost, its has also overshadowed the agency’s domestic bookings, and they have been accused of neglecting Korean acts.

“We made our name doing international stuff, bringing people from other countries but this is a good chance. If anyone’s going to get it out we’re in a good position to show what’s cool about Korea,” he says.

“Of this classic stuff I think a lot of people could just get into it from Pitchfork and the Times. I think it has a better shot of just grabbing the eyes.”

Maylone says that he doesn’t know how far the project will go, but he hopes that it could help make some of the songs available again. He cites another site that dug up old vinyl and gave it a new lease of life.

“There’s a blog called Awesome Tapes From Africa, and he ended up getting some stuff rereleased and companies selling it. ... I don’t know how far it’s going to go and what’s going to happen, but maybe we could help bring an artist back out or something.”

G’OLD starts 10 p.m. at Fabric in Busan on Saturday. Tickets are 8,000 won in advance or at the door, but booking in advance gets you a free drink. For more information about the music and the event, visit goldkoreavinyl.com.

By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)