Gyeongsu - The Other Man / Strain

Two pieces of excellent gritty indie pop for the damp season by Parisian protean act Gyeongsu. Self-released as a beautiful handmade yet obviously extremely limited 7". Lushly produced and wholehearted music for a genuine DIY affair. 1 per customer please!

Gyeongsu's recent EP with June, All To None, received high praises from us last year, as it recalled the golden age of pocket indie pop, as released on eye-catching 7" records by labels like Sarah Records, Shinkansen or Waaaaaaah, at the turn of the century. It's all very natural then that Gyeongsu's latest songs make it to the physical world via a very smart-looking, hand-assembled, 7" dubplate.

This two-tracker further explores the legacy of lush acoustic pop with "The Other Man", a 2:33 min song boldly driven by fierce guitar riffs, that unironically evokes the kind of alternative FM rock recorded in state-of-the-art studios that eventually ended in Tony Hawk Pro Skater soundtracks & Trasher videos. What makes the song stands out - and makes Gyeognsu stands out in general - is its unrestrained quality : no mumble, no out-of-tune instrument, no glitch or quirky effect, "The Other Man" is a pure unadulterated power ballad.

And yet - and that's Gyeongsu's tour de force - the music sounds undeniably contemporary. It  may summon Y2K fantasies of bustling downtowns, but it never pretends that they are more mere fantasies. Like its name suggests, Strain exudes a sense of painful hustle - we're not living in a crystal-clear world of free-flowing information and the once vibrant city centers have long kicked out their inhabitants via skyrocketing rents. There's a hard to pin down eeriness to the song, a slight spookiness, even.  And indeed, Strain is inhabited by ghostly figures, that briefly manifest themselves around the end of the song, when a very spectral synthetic string section fills a couple of bars. (M/M - wholesale: shops, contact us)