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.
