Habit of Sex's recent HYONE post has hipped me to the wonderful '90s K-Pop style, "Pon-Chak", or "Techno Trot". The genre's pioneer is Lee Yong-Seok, or E-Pak-Sa ("Epaksa") or "Mr. E". This Fancy Mag article is an extensive biography of E-Pak-Sa and well worth reading. Pon-Chak is part E-Pak-Sa's mutation of Korean "Pansori" story-telling, and part vocal glossolalia, smashed against repetitive Casio rhythms. Listening to a Pon-Chak tape is similar to taking in an entire mix of "Sleng Teng" versions.
E's earlier albums are just a Google away, so I may not bother to post them here. This one seems a bit harder to come by, and is a repackaging of the earlier Space Fantasy album from 1997. This record is essentially E's crossover record for Sony Korea, and sounds more like 90s Idol Pop in most places than Pon-Chak. The obvious stand-out track is the closing medley, the 22-minute "Pon-Chak" which includes "Young Man" and other classic jams.
I'm still looking for the unaccounted-for E-Pak-Sa records. Find Encyclopedia of Pon-Chak HERE. 5cm Haigher And Rising is HERE.
WFMU article
Fancy Mag
US Wiki
JP Wiki
BUY E-Pak-Sa
E-Pak-Sa MySpace
E-Pak-Sa Facebook
PLEASE ENJOY
Oh yeah--I've got a month or so between semesters, so I plan on getting a lot of posts up in May, and fixing all the links that are still broken.
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