Reasco plans for shows in Daegu, Busan

Reasco performs at Busan's Basement in June 2023. Courtesy of Reasco

Reasco, a Korea-based heavy progressive stoner doom band, is planning to stretch their legs with a couple of shows in Korea's southeast.

"We have played in Busan a number of times and are always made to feel welcome. It's a great city with great people and venues. We love playing in Busan," Steven Morton, the band's frontman, told The Korea Times. "We haven't played in Daegu, but we're looking forward to it. Our friend Sabbaha actually invited us to play in Daegu. I think it's going to be a great night."

He also teased the possibility of a Nov. 16 show with Absolute Monsters at Incheon's live music venue 1958.

"Mati (drummer) and I just love playing our music live," Morton added. "There's something special about live music."

Morton was one of the founding members of the band.

"Reasco is actually an acronym," he teased. "It's a band secret, but I can tell you that R stands for 'Remember' and O stands for 'Optimism.' Feel free to guess the rest."

It formed about a decade ago, shortly after he moved to Korea.

"I've lived in Korea for over 10 years now," he said. "The time has flown by. I lived in Iksan and Bucheon before moving to Seoul. Korea is a great country. So many places to visit."

Originally, it was a four-piece, but due to lineup changes mainly caused by members moving away, Reasco tightened into a duo in March 2018, with Morton singing and playing guitar and the band's original drummer, Eddy.

"Unfortunately, Eddy had to leave due to family reasons. He was a great drummer and friend," Morton said. "I considered winding the band up until a friend introduced me to our new drummer, Mati. He is fantastic on drums and has become a good friend."

The band remains a duo, which Morton says offers advantages over larger, more complicated groups. "Playing as a duo allows us to play more shows. The more members in a band, the more schedules you need to check, but with two of us we are able to play more shows," he said.

"It's tough these days to be in a guitar band in the Korean music scene. If you have foreigners in your band, there is always the threat of a member returning to their home country. I've seen some great bands develop to the point where they have something special, only for a key member to leave."

He added that all-Korean bands don't have it much better either.

"The Korean work life is so overwhelming that most people give up being in a band due to time restraints," he said. "They don't have the spare time to be in a band. I would love to see a better work-life balance in Korea."

Reasco performs at Beatles in central Seoul's Itaewon in September. Courtesy of Reasco

Reasco has so far released two mini-albums. The most recent, "In 2 the Black," was released last October.

The songs contain elements of doom music, stoner rock and progressive. "The music covers a lot of ground and it's difficult to find labels that fit," Morton said. "Some parts are fuzzed-out halftime doom, some parts are heavy distorted riffs, some parts are pretty guitar arpeggios. And sometimes that's all in one song."

For this album, Morton recorded a lot of it at home to keep costs down. It doesn't sound like a home-recorded album, although there are a lot of samples, which give the impression that maybe someone left a TV on.

"You learn so much recording with different people," he said. "There was a lot to learn, and I'm still learning. The great bands tend to develop their sound with each album/EP. I hope that we can do the same."

He didn't want to reveal too much about the content of the songs. "The themes of the songs are all over the place. I don't want to explain the songs too much, because I like people to be able to interpret songs in their own way," he said. "But I will tell you that I've just written two songs about a murder case based in Korea: one song from the point of view of the murderer and one song from the point of view of the victim."

He says they have some of the material for a third EP, but they're not quite ready to record.

"We want to road test the new songs before we record them," he said. "I think playing songs live helps them develop and evolve."

Reasco will be at Daegu's Superstage on Oct. 12, where they will play with Sabbaha, Meditation and Sinope. On Oct. 19 they'll be at Busan's Ol' 55, for a show with Aramid and Zero Zero.

Visit reasco.bandcamp.com to hear their music and follow @reascoband on Instagram for more information.