Jon Dunbar is a copy editor at The Korea Times, as well as editor of the Foreign Community page and curator of the Korea Times Archive. If you have suggestions for possible articles, or wish to contribute articles yourself, contact jdunbar@koreatimes.co.kr.
Indie duo Wedance releases 'Dance Pop' album
Wevo and Wegui of the indie electronic duo Wedance / Courtesy of Kai Oh)
By Jon Dunbar
By Jon Dunbar
One day, Wevo saw Wegui in the street, recognizing a kindred spirit in him based on the way he was dressed. She approached him, urging him to start a band with her. They became
, on a mission to “help people dance through their boundaries (whatever they maybe) and to experience life fully on the other side.”
Their latest album “
” is dance music for people who hate dance music. Wedance's sound is dissonant, atonal, spasmodic pop bliss, tangled with dashes of fuzz.
“We really wanted to avoid distortion as much as possible and aimed to make a more aggressive and destructive sound,” they said in a release about the album. “As part of this, we developed a playing style that intentionally uses two notes which have conflicting frequency interference. It is old school, and as far as I know, a new sound that no one else has played.”
The second track on the album is titled “
,” a riff on the “city pop” genre that has been enjoying a retro revival in recent years. “City Punk is about that feeling when you are out in the streets; everybody is being cautious and intimidated, making it hard to speak and act freely. There are so many things you want to do, like not ignoring those desires to play in the water fountain, and to just give it a shot,” they said. “Ironically, this Dance Pop album will likely be enjoyed more by people who prefer city punk rather than city pop.”
Wevo and Wegui of the indie electronic duo Wedance / Courtesy of Kai Oh)
They're known for their energetic, off-the-wall performances, where they live up to the name Wedance. They once played an eight-hour concert at a fundraiser for Cafe Ruloorala, a now-closed hangout of the indie music scene near Hongik University. They've also taken their show to festivals in Japan, Spain, France, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.
“We treasure being called old-school,” they said. “However, rather than deliberately aiming for a retro sound, we decided that at the same time as using modern updated gear, we would also not ignore some of the valuable aspects of doing things the traditional way.”
After they opened for the U.S. experimental pop band Deerhoof in Seoul, the band's drummer Greg Saunier offered to mix one of their albums.
Wedance has been releasing music prolifically since 2011, coming up with at least 16 self-recorded mini-albums released on burned CDs, available only directly from them at their shows, only a few at a time.
“This idea of a musical scavenger hunt, trying to piece together the entirety of an artist's body of work in the age of digital and easily transmittable everything, greatly appeals to their fans. Some greater value is placed on the struggle and search as opposed to the ease and convenience of a simple download,” said Patrick Connor, who covers their international booking at local agent
.
Wevo and Wegui of the indie electronic duo Wedance / Courtesy of Kai Oh
The music Wedance has been always pursuing is explosive and in-your-face pop, not the gentle, played-in-the-background type. We love music that makes our listeners move, the band said. “Our new album Dance Pop is full of songs we love. It doesn't matter whether or not these songs are the Dance Pop that people usually think of. We just wanted to get the listeners' hearts pumping and blow their minds. You might feel betrayed if you are imagining some popular, traditional dance pop songs, but from the beginning, this is what we think of as dance-pop,” it said.
This time, the album, released on
, is already available on many online channels. The release party will be held this Saturday starting at 6 p.m. at
in Seongsu-dong, eastern Seoul. Wedance will start the show with a full band set, and then Gong Joong Geu Neul and Bulssazo play, followed by a duo performance by Wedance.
cost 33,000 won.
Wevo and Wegui of the indie electronic duo Wedance / Courtesy of Kai Oh
Visit fb.com/bandwedance for more information about the show and wedance.bandcamp.com to hear the album.