Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Rice, yeast, nuruk and water


During the infamous Japanese occupation in South Korea, among many graver violations, the government prohibited Koreans from distilling traditional homebrewed spirits, which contributed to the dominance of the sweet, commercial-grade soju as we know today. This tidbit came to mind when I was gathering info for this post's artist, Kim So-Hee (김소희), as it seems that almost every South Korean name search will return a K-artist as the primary result -- yeah, I'm aware of the restrictions in Korean names.

The recent South Korean cultural boom, or hallyu, certainly brought a well-deserved attention to the resilient South Korean culture, but It came to me how similar the government-sponsored K-pop is to the ubiquitous green-bottled soju, both sweet and inebriating. 
 
Kim So-Hee's musicality, however, is far from sweet and hangover-prone. She is a master of p'ansori, a beautiful Korean folk storytelling style with plenty of room for improvisation. Complex and with an unexpectedness only found in a homebrewed spirit.

ps. It's been a while since I got these files, so I'm not entirely sure if they all belong to the same record, sorry in advance.