Reviews

bewhy_gottasadae

“BewhY GOTTASADAE!” How a Man Builds His Kingdom

GOTTASADAE.” First of all, BewhY… ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS VIDEO?! How does one articulate the mastery of one of the most brilliant pieces of visual art to come out of South Korea? There are so many avenues. So many theories. However, one thing stuck out to me in about a dozen different ways. The ego of man. “GOTTASADAE” seems to be the perfect visual representation of a man constructing a kingdom unto himself. BewhY and director Hobin have expressed that with form, color, and references, all of which blew my mind.

From the outset it’s obvious something’s… wrong here. One can point to the most blatant example of perhaps “troubling” imagery (the nearly naked men writhing in motions indicative of contemporary ballet). However, if you allow yourself to ruminate in those moments of silence on screen you can’t help but notice the symmetry.

Every part of this music video relies heavily on the illusion of perfection. It’s this obsessive attention to detail that is so incredibly unsettling. You see it in horror films like “American Psycho” or Stanley Kubrick films: absolute control. A glamour of a reality in which the main character meticulously maneuvers everything to fit in its place. The ultimate God complex.

Musical Geometry

It starts, as most things do, with sound. “GOTTASADAE” is a song that you must listen to with headphones. Only then will you pick up on its truly frightening details.

The weight of each sound is almost identical. As in, the volume is absolutely the same. What gives it that feeling of “offness” is that both manipulations of BewhY’s voice are in separate ears. The low distortion of the word “BewhY” in the chorus is spanned 180 degrees (completely in the right ear). Meanwhile, the distortion of the word “Gottasadae” is spanned -180 degrees (completely in the left ear).

Thus you get perfect balance that seems unbalanced because of its perfection. The sounds being absolute (completely in one ear or the other) creates both a vacuum effect and the illusion of surround sound. The added dissonance of the filtered bass line (compliments of a gritty fuzz pedal or pedal design), the ambient manipulation of a violin superimposed atop the pitch-perfect staccato of the choir. It’s all measured. Intentional. Symmetrical. Oppressive.

This equity of sound means BewhY has imposed his kingdom on all sides. You are surrounded by it. Seemingly his “walls” are indestructible. The first layer of his self-made domination lay in the listener’s own equilibrium.

Kingdom of the Mind

Visually “GOTTASADAE” is intoxicating.

I found aspects of multiple films in “GOTTASADAE,” particularly in terms of coloring. However, the most powerful parallel came from one of my favorite films, “The Cell.” Though Hobin doesn’t have Tarsem Singh’s visual aesthetic, his eye is attuned to find beauty in the painfully distorted.

The overall imagery of “GOTTASADAE” falls in line with Carl Stargher’s house of depravities. (Warning: The linked scene is NSFW.) Singh borrowed heavily from the Quay Brothers’ stop-motion short film “The Street of Crocodiles” (based on the collection of short stories of the same name by Bruno Schulz).

The ultimate moral of that story is the decay of the current society in lieu of the progression of modern society. Technology infringing on (instead of coinciding with) memories of a country’s former self. (“Hangeul will be sold”; “The standard of old and new will be me.”) How this plays out in the short film and Singh’s references to it is through very meticulous movement and an uncomfortably close look at man’s attempt to control his environment.

The stables.

bewhy_gottasadae-9

The near nudity of the dancers in “GOTTASADAE” is not unlike the deceptively semi-nude women trapped in Stargher’s own twisted kingdom. As with Stargher’s prison, the dancers act as BewhY’s living dolls. Various versions or manifestations of himself. His pride, his madness, perhaps even a bit of his self-loathing. But when they’re not trapped in their own cells, they move to his command. Are subject to his whims. The twitch of his hand like a conductor with a baton. His fingers poised like a violinist on his bow, the strings plucked to his cadence. He moves and the dancers react involuntarily.

BewhY Gottasadae…

Further, in “The Street of Crocodiles,” the dolls have no eyes. BewhY’s dancers wear horse blinders. It’s a device used to keep horses from noticing their surroundings as they cart about loads of humans. Supposedly it’s meant to keep them from becoming startled. One can infer that the blinders are meant to keep his dancers from seeing the world around them. Forcing them to focus on the commands of the human on their backs: BewhY. Further making it impossible for them to question their station. How can they if they can’t see anything beyond what’s in front of them?

After all, “in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” When no one can see what’s in front of them, the one with his eyes uncovered can construct the future. (“Leaders will follow me. I will be a pioneer. Money will find me. I will make a generation of my name.”)

bewhy_gottasadae-3

Their bodies contort as much as he does. However, when fully clothed, heads and faces covered, they jump as one, giving concrete form to the pulse of the bass. In fact, nothing moves until the first iteration of “Gottasadae!”

He has given his orders and expects them to be carried out. In this world of his creation (set inside a place for raising, training, and displaying horses), nothing lives until he gives it life.

Kingdom Ruled by Power

Lyrically… I’m… so angry! I’m angry at the absolute gall BewhY has. The first thing I did, straightaway, was look up the translation for “gottasadae” (가라사대). There isn’t a direct English equivalent. The root of it is “to say.” The honorific level of the word places it in the “voice” (for lack of a better word) of someone “holy.” Think, “And God spake unto them…”

bewhy_gottasadae-5

This casts the shade of the entire song. BewhY lines out the divine decrees of his new kingdom where he is the ruler of all. A kingdom of himself: “I will be who I want to be. I will be myself.” (“I am that I am.” (Exodus 3:14))

The introduction of the Bible verse is fascinating. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” (1 Corinthians 4:20) In the entirety of the third chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul defines the people of God’s church and what’s expected of them.

At the end of the fourth chapter Paul issues his warning to those who’ve grown arrogant. “Arrogant people,” Paul essentially says, “are full of talk. So I’ll come and see how much power they actually have.”

As BewhY stands in the small opening of the barn door (“The center will be me”), his congregation awaits him. The eight men standing on pillars (stripped before a congregation of men whose heads are covered) represent the measure of him as a man. His words are provocation, a warning. He declares, “I will set a standard. I will show the future. Fakes would be living with regrets.” His kingdom is built on power. His “disciples” are a visual representation of that power.

Damn.

There’s Just Too Much!

BewhY has big brassy ones for pulling this off with such fearlessness and precision. Let us be clear. This video, the music, the lyrics, his delivery are precise. Not an image (visual or otherwise) was dropped in by mistake. BewhY has a vision of himself as king among paupers. Every aspect of this piece is another brick in the foundation of his of kingdom.

bewhy_gottasadae_3-1

Obviously this doesn’t even scratch the surface of the majesty of “GOTTASADAE.” The relevance of the janitor. The meaning of the letters and numbers on his shirt (1017 A L Y X 95M). The cage/lacrosse mask over his face… There’s just so much! I had to focus on just a few things because I could’ve honestly written a dissertation on the visual and aural imagery of this piece of absolute magic!

Follow BewhY:
Amismyk - Dead Rockstar (album cover)

A Pre-Release Review of Amismyk’s “Dead Rockstar”

After officially debuting as a rapper in 2018, Sima Kim reveals the sophomore EP of his alter ego Amismyk. He fashions himself a darker persona that talks brazenly about his fascination with female genitalia and distaste for personal relationships. As far as debuts go, it’s… well, it’s an interesting one.

Dead Rockstar

Let’s just get it out of the way with the first track. Amismyk’s production is bananas! That almost goes without saying. So much of who he is is wrapped up in his ability to make sounds rub against each other in unexpected and downright uncomfortable ways. No matter what he does, his music is never going to let you down as an adventurous listener. In terms of the actual rapping itself, opening number “Dead Rockstar” isn’t exactly a good indication of his skills up to this point. Him pretty much droning on about how he’s a dead rockstar while letting the music take point.

Nobody

The first time we actually hear him flex his muscles as a rapper comes with the next track, “Nobody.” This is when the EP starts in earnest. Lyrically, there’s not much to hold onto here. It’s a lament that’s easily identifiable — realizing the person you thought you wanted was a complete waste of your time and emotions. Then devolving into bouts of overexaggerated machismo.

Lyrics like, “I don’t like you just like your pussy” and “All little bitches crush on me” do very little to endear the MC persona to me. While there’s some universal meaning there, “Nobody” isn’t the track one would listen to for its actual content. Rather, the droning of the almost metallic delivery coupled with the thick atmospheric production does the work of making this song palatable.

One of a Kind

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately depending on your focus) this is a trend throughout the entire EP. Lyrics that fall short of anything either interesting or impressionable. “One of a Kind” is the most effective as a legitimate “turn up” song. That is a track that would find its place in a club where twerking was the imitation of the day. But again, this has more to do with the overall mastery of Amismyk’s production. Though we’ll have to agree to disagree about his uniqueness as an MC, I can’t deny his musicality is a rarity.

Without Feathers

Then we move on to “Without Feathers,” his duet with rapper Leni. This is by far the album’s most emotionally weighty track. It’s the first notion that Amismyk might actually be taking the craft seriously, if only for the few moments of its running time. There’s something really poignant in the push and pull of the music. As if the composition dragged the song out of Amismyk by force. It’s sluggish, but not lazy. A real emotive bit of sound nestled between work that’s seemingly more superficial.

Swaying

“Swaying” ends the album on something playful. Just as with the track that opened the album, there aren’t many actual lyrics to judge it by. I’ll give the song full marks for being a bright spot on the album amidst a lot of heavy, dark, and gritty.

Unplugged

Bonus track “Unplugged” is another glimpse into the emotional musician that is Sima Kim. As Amismyk, he uses more of his abrasive and oftentimes cartoonish lyricism to actually express a cloudy bit of ennui on his part. Declaring, “I’m over it,” he seems to be pulling back the veneer of a wholly unserious rapper to implore us to realize this is all a sham. That he only removes his guards for someone special (“You know who I am”; “You are my everything”). Another surprising track that hints that there might be something more meaningful in his future.

“Amismyk” the MC

Let’s just make something plain, Sima (under his alter ego Amismyk) is not a rapper. If the interview we had last year holds true, he doesn’t even seem to want to be. His goal is to “have fun and make money.” He certainly appears to be taking the piss. Basking in what most consider the simplicity of rapping.

His past work, at least, suggests that he’s done the same thing. Then we get “Dead Rockstar,” which seems to indicate that he might be learning how to craft something out of his nonchalance with the genre. While it would still be a stretch to call him a rapper, I will concede that with “Dead Rockstar” Amismyk has found an amicable relationship between his very intricate production and half-serious delivery and lyricism.

His style of MC is derivative, mostly uninteresting. Those stalwart of the genre could almost be insulted. But perhaps that’s the ultimate point. In style he’s pointing out and making light of the laziness of current rap trends (what many might label “anti-rap”) perpetuated by those who, like him, claim to only want to have fun and make money. Setting himself up as an example of where hip-hop could end up under its recent title as “most popular” genre.

Overall Concept

Listening with my eyes closed, I see a vivid image. A robot chasing his human master through the crowded streets of Tokyo. The overarching theme here is he is an animated bit of AI that has lived so long among the humans he wants to be them. He acquires/practices the language of the flesh bags. Their slang, the affected and exaggerated masques of blackness. (Something they’ve not so surreptitiously dubbed “internet language.”) He clings desperately to the hope that if he copies them enough he will eventually become one of them.

amismyk_kprofile

Amismyk is the robot giving chase. He wears rap at the surface like a costume. His ultimate goal is to appear to be human even as his digital mimicry of the craft glitches, rags, and stutters along. AI that’s decided it wants the feeling of being “real,” with all the flaws and seeming material reward of those who created him.

Conclusion

In the long run, “Dead Rockstar” is forgettable lyrically. BUT (and, yes, this is a huge “but”) you couldn’t in any good consciousness deny the innovations in composition, production, and the ability to use those innovations with a chopped, screwed, and feedback-gritty delivery. One could almost forgive the mostly stream-of-conscious but wholly derivative lyricism because the music itself is just so damn good.

Almost.

For me, an album must be the full package. This almost quadruples in my mind when it comes to any of the many avenues of hip-hop. Lyricism is God in the world of an MC. However, perhaps Amismyk is attempting to make the music the focal point, throwing it all the way back to the early ’80s when the MC was almost an afterthought. I don’t know if he’s that versed in hip-hop’s history. If I were to force myself to give him a pass when it comes to the lackluster verbiage, that would be it. Otherwise, just bow down and weep at his feet for the compositional work he put together here.


“Dead Rockstar” officially releases June 15. To pre-order the album go to Sima Kim’s Bandcamp page.

nafla at the ERR;OR Showcase SXSW 2019

MKIT RAIN Closes the ERR;OR Showcase with a Bang

There was a lot of expectation for the ERR;OR Showcase. With the lineup it was easy to believe it was going to be quite a spectacle. Some of the performances were just that: exciting, tantalizing, outrageous. Others… not so much. When it came time for MKIT RAIN to hit the stage, there was a tangible anxiousness in the crowd. As it turned out, the crew was the perfect way to close the evening.

Colde at ERR;OR Showcase; SXSW 2019

Colde Invites Us to His WAVY World at SXSW

There are few artists who live up to the mystery they project on camera. I can say unequivocally Colde is such an artist. It’s more than just the signature cap he pulls over his head (a seeming trend among artists of this new wave of R&B crooners from Korea).

He’s completely wrapped up in the persona. His aura is tinged blue, thus the deep purple hue he emits under the harsh red stage lights. As the third act of ERR;OR NYC’s showcase at SXSW, the mood of the night changed completely when he stepped up to the mic.

Epik High "Sleepless In __________" Tour 2019, Emo's Austin

Dear Epik High, Thank You

As someone who writes a lot of critique, there are times when you just don’t know what to say. Words quite literally fail you. This is especially true for moments when an experience leaves you so utterly awe-inspired, so emotionally moved the prim professionalism of a music journalist seems petty. This is what happened to me following Epik High’s Austin stop of their North American tour. At times like these there’s really only one thing to say:

Thank you.

XXX Korea Spotlight at Austin City Limits

XXX Are Understated Yet Powerful: SXSW Korea Spotlight

There’s a certain amount of pride in seeing artists you’ve watched grow get the recognition they deserve, even in small ways. XXX debuted at SXSW performing at the ScratcHouse, a medium-sized venue that houses a stage big enough for a DJ table and a back patio. Fast forward two years. They’ve matured in both sound and musical vision. Their growth doesn’t go unnoticed by the organizers. They land a spot on the largest stage for any Korean act at the festival: the Korean Spotlight hosted by Austin City Limits at the Moody Theater.