So obviously that Pavlov poll isn't functioning too well, so I suppose it's better to just do this the plain old way.

I wish to give away two copies of Pavlov's debut EP, 반드시 크게 들을 것. It's the least I can do for messing up before MAP, February 2009 edition... For you to have a chance to get one of them, I want you to visit Pavlov's MySpace, listen to the songs, and then inform me (in whichever way you prefer) which song was your favorite - preferably with a few words on why this is too - no later than March 7. Thanks!

I easily take a liking to female fronted rock bands, and Biuret has been no exception. In 2007 they finally released their first full length album, Be Full Of Spirit: Beautiful Violet, and if we're to trust Hyang Music Beautiful Violet is the title of their second full length album as well. Though from what I can see the cover only mentions title track Dreams Come True. Either way, Biuret has a new album coming out on March 10! 11 tracks in total, including No Pain No Gain from last year's Santamaria (잘못된 만남) OST.

On March 4, female singer/songwriter Flowing will release her first full length album via TuneTable Movement. A bunch of samples from the self-titled album, 흐른, can be heard at Hyang. Should you be interested in some of her previous works - visit MySpace to sample Mellville St. from the 3rd Bbang Compilation and a couple of tracks from her 2006 debut EP 몽유병 (Sleepwalking).

I can't quite make up my mind about "One-Man-Rock'n'Roll Band" Jimmy Strain, but it's clear he's got a lot of variety to offer - from acoustic folk to hard rock/metal stuff. March 6 a remastered edition of his Emotion Frequency will get a release. To sample pieces of the original 2008 album (released in just 200 copies) you could visit CD Baby or make use of the SoundClick player at his Jimmy Strain's MySpace. Seoul Selection has a review.

On March 5, eleven months since the release of Story of Us, Clazziquai Horan's Ibadi will release a "conceptual mini album" called Songs for Ophelia.

Mark Russell named Kingston Rudieska's Skafication album as one of the best releases of 2008. The ska collective will return with an EP called Ska Fidelity on Mars 2. Listen to an EP trailer at Myspace.

Tomorrow, February 27, the three member strong Ganas will release their debut EP on Beatball Records. The title is 너의 기쁨 and if you wish to sample their "campus rock group sound" a visit to Beatball's MySpace, where a couple of their songs are streaming, is recommended.

Once a member of esteemed acts such as Yellow Kitchen, Ftone Sound and Bihaengsun, DJ Unjin (a.k.a. Rainjacket) released an EP under his own name yesterday, February 24. The title is Dokdo and it's released through the Korea division of East Collective Intermedia. The title track as well as the other song on the EP, East Sea have both been remixed by others for the release and they can all be sampled in short through the "Junoplayer" at Unjin's MySpace. From the blog there it seems like Unjin is also the one behind some of EE's music!

What do you get if you mix DJ Gon and Guitarist Mayo? Apparently the answer is Starsheeps. From what I can tell DJ Gon is the resident DJ of Club Answer whereas Guitarist Mayo remains something of a mystery to me. Anyhow, the duo releasred what appears to be its first EP today, February 24, and the title of it is Luna.

After more than a decade primarily working together with others, most notably in Bulldog Mansion, Lee Han Choul will release his third full length solo album, 순간의 기록, on February 26.

Acoustic guitar stuff and more is what H. Guitarcus offers with his recent 기타의 붐이 온다 book+CD release (February 19). Information online is sparse, but I did find that he late December played the same evening as both Earip and Zitten, which of course increased my interest in him. Samples for every track on the CD available at Hyang.

Just visited soompi's k-underground section and found a link in Mardi09's signature to a new soompi feature called "Under The Radar" for "Korean artistes who are distant and not really well known". The artist of February is Taru, which should interest quite a few of you. Though incomplete as far as releases go and not spot-on about R.A.I.N.B.O.W being her solo work (it was produced by Sentimental Scenery who's more into shibuya-kei style electronics - if Matt was right her upcoming album will sound nothing like it) it's certainly nice to see somebody noticing her at the biggest English language k-pop forum/site there is.

More from boonga Boonga Record: Jang Ki Ha and The Faces will release their first full length album on February 27.

Over the past year boonga Boonga Record has evolved into one of Korea's most interesting indie labels. February 9 it released the first EP, 슬픈 노래, of Amado Band. The title track can be sampled at Hyang - in spite of the line-up of five, the folk rock band has achieved a pleasant stage of simplicity in their songs.

Not Korean music per se, but Brazilian music remixed by Espionne (aka DJ Soulscape). 360 Radio, February 2009 edition, is just that so do have a listen if you're in the mood for some old-ish South American music to chill out to.

Acid Jazz/Reggae duo Aquibird released an EP called 일어났어? through Sky Music on February 11. It features nothing but the title track in 7 different remixes. See the Aquibird blog for details.

And while we're on the subject of Pastel, here's a bunch of upcoming releases announced during the week:
- Epitone Project will release a "special album" called 긴 여행의 시작 on February 24. One new track on the album called 그대는 어디에 features Han Hee Jeong and there's another bunch of new tracks on there too. Then there's 나는 그 사람이 아프다 (where Taru is featured) from With or Without You and a fair amount of titles familiar from the digital albums 1229 (2006) and At Your Favorite Place (2008). Epitone Project's first full length album too should get a release before long.
- Taru too will release her first full length album in not tooo long.
- Sentimental Scenery will release his first full length album. It would seem Paris Match's Mari Muzoni is involved in some way...
- IDM act Toxicbiasfleurivy will have it's 3rd album, Particles, released in March. Teaser vid here.
- Han Hee Jeong is expected to release a mini album.
- adultchild will release a 2nd album!
- Misty Blue's second full length album is finally almost here.
- Sogyumo Acacia Band has a fourth full length album coming up.
- Yozoh is expected to release something too, but what exactly seems unclear. Last year there was something about yozoh & friends...

Though I can't find any trace of it on Pastel Music's website it would seem there's a new Pastel artist called Technicolor that as of February 17 has an album out called The Brilliant Future. The album info mentions hip-hop, house, tango, jazz and "80`s pop" and to make it even more intriguing the tracklist lists several interesting artists featured. Among others there's Casker vocalist Lee Yoong Jin, sweetpea, Yozoh, Sweater's Earip, and jazz songstress Woong San.

For those of you following the blog via RSS (hence not noticing what goes on in the sidebar), till the end of February mrKwang Store has a special discount for Indieful ROK readers! Just use coupon code surprise when checking out and you'll get 10% off the items.

Finishing off a busy week I figured it was time to finally get on with that Pavlov focus I mentioned earlier. See, since they didn't get one of their songs in February's MAP post I'll put one of their songs in the March post instead. With the help from a couple of select friends I did pick a song for February, but I figured now that it didn't happen I have the chance to get an opinion on their material from you too.

So please visit MySpace where you can listen to all of the songs from Pavlov's EP debut, 반드시 크게 들을 것, and then visit Indieful ROK to vote for your favorite! If you feel up to it you are also more than welcome to tell me why you made your choice (through a comment, email, or whatever you feel more comfortable with) and you might just end up with one of the two Pavlov CDs I intend to give away to a couple of the nice people helping me out. Let's say you have till Mars 7 to make up your mind.

And this is where I apologize to that other artist mentioned in the MAP post below, Pavlov. And to Bryan of The Black Skirts too, that helped me out in a tricky situation despite being awfully busy. Pavlov - I'm very sorry that I did not feature a song of yours this month. It was very unprofessional of me to let this happen and I can only hope that you will allow me to make up for it as best as I can.

Until further notice there'll be something of a Pavlov focus here.

It's the 15th of February and so it is time for a new Music Alliance Pact post! As you recall from the previous months of Indieful ROK representing South Korea, this is all happening because of Jason over at Scotland's The Pop Cop and we're of course as grateful as always to be one of the 22 fine blogs in the pact. Twenty-two? Yes, this time we're welcoming Mexico's Club Fonograma!

This month I'd like to thank mrkwang for taking the trouble to ask permission from Seokjune to use one of his song when my messages were all caught by MySpace's spam filter... I had even made arrangements to go with another artist when mrkwang put in his last efforts just before the deadline. (And in case you're a reader from any of the other blogs and have found your way here curious to know how to get your hands on Korean indie music outside of Korea, mrkwang's your man.)

AMERICA: I Guess I’m Floating
Here We Go Magic – Tunnelvision
Brooklyn’s Here We Go Magic is the bedroom folk-pop project of Luke Temple, who is releasing his self-titled debut this year. He has been praised by Sufjan Stevens and Ben Gibbard for his uniquely gorgeous vocals and meticulous lo-fi production aesthetic. Tunnelvision is the first single – one part Shakespearean sonnet and one part circus music, swirling in a beautiful mess of poetic acrobatics.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
Pablo Dacal Y La Orquesta De Salón – Ella Ya Está En La Playa
Pablo Dacal is a musician, singer and songwriter from Buenos Aires. His first songs circulated in tapes and between 2000 and 2002 he published a series of EPs that caught the attention of the media. The Orquesta De Salón was founded to collate this loose collection onto his first proper album, 13 Grandes Éxitos (2005). His next record was La Era Del Sonido (2008) and Ella Ya Está En La Playa is one of the finest songs from it.

AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?
The Crooked Fiddle Band – The Rom Rebellion
More furious fiddling from The Crooked Fiddle Band, who have a new EP called Rise which they are currently touring. I’ve been getting into bands like Balkan Beat Box and while these guys are different, I like the punk element in the songs. It just sounds like it would be a whole lot of fun to watch.

BRAZIL: Meio Desligado
João Brasil – Orgasmadance
Like a tropical version of Girl Talk, João Brasil’s music is a mashup of beats and artists from different styles and backgrounds. With a strong influence of Brazilian funk carioca, a style derived from Miami bass and famous because of its explicit lyrics about sex, João Brasil released his first mashup album last year, Big Forbidden Dance. Orgasmadance is one of the best samples of his work. It starts with pieces from Orgasmatron and Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura, before suddenly meeting Justice’s D.A.N.C.E. and other songs from Justin Timberlake, Nirvana, Snoop Dogg, CSS and Michael Jackson.

CANADA: I(Heart)Music
The Rural Alberta Advantage – Four Night Rider
The Rural Alberta Advantage, who are actually from Toronto, with frontman Nils Edenloff's birthplace being Alberta, are one of Canada’s best-kept secrets. They specialize in Neutral Milk Hotel-esque pop with a slight twang and, as Four Night Rider demonstrates, the results are simply, passionately amazing.

CHILE: Super 45
Congelador – Abrigo
For more than 10 years, Congelador have been a cornerstone of the Chilean independent rock scene. After four record releases and two years in a hiatus, the band came back with the Abrigo EP - six songs that gracefully move around post-rock, noise, pop and electronic music.

ENGLAND: The Daily Growl
Let’s Wrestle – Let’s Wrestle
I could continue to bring you songs from London’s fertile folk-pop scene but it’s time for something a bit different. This month we have a singalong theme song from the self-professed ‘most miserable and hateful band in London'.

GERMANY: Blogpartei
Bratze – Jean Claude
Bratze is a Hamburg-based duo consisting of Der Tante Renate and ClickClickDecker. They make beautifully simple electroclash and indietronic music accompanied by sophisticated lyrics, all mixed with a DIY mindset. The featured song, Jean Claude, was their breakthrough as a newcomer in 2006.

ICELAND: I Love Icelandic Music
Hjaltalín – Goodbye July/Margt Ad Ugga
Hjaltalín is a nine-piece collective, so almost an orchestra, which uses an eclectic selection of instruments, from bassoon to bass, accordion to clarinet. With these instruments and two singers they create a wall of sound for their folky indie-pop songs. This song features the beautiful voice of singer Högni Egilsson, a catchy chorus, broken up with an Icelandic hymn sung by Sigga Thorlacius.

IRELAND: Nialler9
Tenaka – Alaskan
Tenaka is Ronan Carroll, a one-man band who creates melodic and sinewy slices of electronic pop from his bedroom but which suggest an imagination far beyond the physical. Alaskan is the soundtrack to dipping your toes into ice water before dive-bombing into the sunshine-infested yet chilly waters. The song features on EPonymously Titled, a free EP available from his MySpace. No excuses, download it now.

ITALY: Polaroid
Wax Anatomical Models – Recollections Of Our Times
Wax Anatomical Models may just have formed but they already have plenty of skills. Their sound mixes post-punk, hardcore, shoegaze and electronic influences, but the results in their first demo stand on a different level. Emotional and driving, they are a band to keep an eye on.

MEXICO: Club Fonograma
Natalia Lafourcade – Azul
The expectancy for Natalia Lafourcade’s upcoming album Hu Hu Hu is building up quick, her redefined lyricism and instrumental complexity showing true signs of an potential masterwork. She’s naturally cute and affecting, and previous material indicated talent, but her sharp new musical vision has finally reached widescreen. Azul is ornamentally sublime. In Mexico, it’s rare to find such a beautiful delicacy.

NEW ZEALAND: Counting The Beat
The Enright House – Scattering The Sun Like Gunshot
The Enright House is the musical project of Mark Roberts from Christchurch. Despite being predominantly a solo affair, his 2007 album A Maze And Amazement was filled with songs that had a real sense of grandeur. Some of these have recently been re-released in acoustic form on the Six Acoustic Renditions EP and, as demonstrated in Scattering The Sun Like Gunshot, they lose none of their epic qualities in the translation.

NORWAY: Eardrums
Richard Holmsen – Great Speed
Richard Holmsen is the singer of the band Delaware but his main focus these days seems to be his solo project. His music is fragile and simple, with few elements other than his guitar and tender vocals. This is quite the opposite of Delaware’s grand, melancholic indie-rock sound. In recent years Holmsen has also made music for film and been involved in an electronica project called Sea. Great Speed is a Music Alliance Pact exclusive, written and recorded only a week ago.

PERU: SoTB
Catervas – Covida
After 10 years in the local scene, Catervas – formed by brothers Pedro, Raul and Javier Reyes – swapped their previous shoegaze sound for melodic rock on 2008 album Hoy Más Que Ayer. With its optimistic, convincing pop songs, Hoy Más Que Ayer is pure passion made into music. Covida is the second single from it and easily the band’s best song to date.

PORTUGAL: Posso Ouvir Um Disco?
PressPlay – Play Hot (extended mix)
PressPlay are Playgirl and Lisa (aka The Party Queen). Playgirl does vocals and guitars, while Lisa does vocals and electronica. Their influences are PJ Harvey, Peaches, Electrocute, Cobra Killer and Miss Kittin but they sound much better than some of their heroes – and they’re definitely cuter. The extended version of Play Hot, which is the debut single for their upcoming debut album, was mixed by Woman In Panic, who is actually a guy called Pedro Lourenço.

ROMANIA: Babylon Noise
The Amsterdams – Suffering And Surfing
The Amsterdams are a post-punk, indie power-pop band based in Bucharest. Inspired by the famous Dutch city, their name symbolises the freedom of spirit in every sense. Suffering And Surfing is featured on their forthcoming album, a blend of reckless vocals with freewheeling, volatile riffs and rhythms.

SCOTLAND: The Pop Cop
Broken Records – Nearly Home
Edinburgh seven-piece Broken Records have just signed to renowned label 4AD, the just reward for over two years of personal sacrifice and preaching to the soon-to-be converted with their relentless touring schedule. Devoted followers like myself have already amassed as many as 18 of Broken Records’ epic, swooning, orchestral songs in one form or another – enough to predict that their debut album, scheduled for release this summer, will probably be 2009’s best.

SINGAPORE: I’m Waking Up To...
Nuance – Fear Strikes Mankind I
Nuance is a four-piece rock band, with a recently self-released eponymous EP. At the heart of the record is the two-part epic Fear Strikes Mankind, an ambitious and intense journey that invokes the rock sensibilities of 90s Radiohead and contemporary post-rock experimentation. In the first part of the song (provided here), the biblical narrative of Abraham’s willing sacrifice of his son, Isaac, is related through the perspectives of both father and son. It’s a troubling journey, but the band does well to face the challenges head-on, both existentially and emotionally.

SOUTH KOREA: Indieful ROK
Seokjune – Dok
Seokjune released his first EP, Dok, at the start of 2009. Equipped with an acoustic guitar and a voice that conjures Elliott Smith, he performs one delicate tune after another while singing in Korean or English.

SPAIN: El Blog De La Nadadora
Nouvelle Cuisine – La Comunicación No Verbal
Nouvelle Cuisine are a band with a French name but Spanish nationality. They come from Galicia and have self-produced their new album, De Memoria, which is reminiscent of indie bands in the 90s. They develop their essence in personal lyrics and the soft melodies of their songs.

SWEDEN: Swedesplease
Love Lindblom – Till Min Syster
I’m a real sucker for catchy music like this which builds and builds into a frenetic climax. I love when the horns kick in. I love the DIY nature of the video – you just know he asked all his friends to help out. In short, I think I Love Lindblom.

To download all 22 songs in one file click here [zshare] or here [rapidshare].

An enthusiastic Jelly Boy updated his blog a few days ago with info on yesterday's release of Apollo 18's self titled EP. Quite different from the electronic music usually associated with Jelly Boy and his space travel alias Birdy Bitz Alien, this three piece band where he's the bassist are more into rock stuff ("Hardrock + Groove + Psychedelic +...." as you might recall from our first post on the band - sample now at MySpace). Though while the EP is released through GMC Records, it is marketed with the use of names such as Explosions in the sky and Mono - could prove very interesting, I think. Here's the Pause 00 teaser vid, and if you scroll down this Jelly Boy blog post there's another sample.

This just in from mrkwang: Breathless won the VPRO Tiger Awards Competition 2009 of this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam! More on that here.

As you might recall, The Invisible Fish made the music for this film, and some of the songs were re-arranged for the Loss/Sleepless EP (which happens to still be available from mrkwang store). With the recent success of the movie, it's been decided that there will also be an official release of the Breathelss soundtrack once the movie gets its theatrical release in Korea - probably in March or April.

Hopefully we can look forward to more from The Invisible Fish in the next Yang Ik-June movie!

More 99anger today: KoME has had an interview with the band's vocalist: Interview with 99ANGER's Hyun Lee before the re-release of their 2004 EP.

A couple of weeks ago hardcore punk act 99anger updated their MySpace blog with a bunch of release info. For starters, the The Anger and the Saddness EP of 2004 will get re-released - with a couple of bonus tracks: Friends You've Killed is already up on MySpace whereas we're still waiting to hear Last Promise.The EP re-release show will be held on February 14, and as soon as it's over the Jeju band will head into the studio to record a full length album.

In about a month or so, the winners of the 6th annual Korean Music Awards will be announced. I dropped by the site today to have a look at the nominations. Here are the nominees in the main categories:

Album of the year
Galaxy Express: Noise On Fire
Kim Dong Ryul: Monologue
Youn Sun Nah: Voyage
Verbal Jint: 누명
Sister's Barbershop: 가장보통의존재
W&Whale: Hardboiled

Song of the year
Sister's Barbershop: 아름다운 것
Wonder Girls: Nobody
Jang Ki Ha: 싸구려 커피
Toy: 뜨거운 안녕
W&Whale: R.P.G Shine

Musician of the year
Kim Dong Ryul
Galaxy Express
Verbal Jint
Sister's Barbershop
Toy

Newcommer of the year
Goonamguayeoridingstella
Loro's
Vidulgi OoyoO
Serengeti
Zitten

Personally I find the newcommers category more interesting - save for Jang Ki Ha I haven't actually gotten around to listen to anything from the other categories... At first I was surprised to find Goonamguayeoridingstella among the newcommers, but soon realized that their album debut 우리는 깨끗하다 was released too late in 2007 to be included in last year's selection. And that also explains why The Black Skirts (while very much deserving the price) isn't on the list. And it sorta surprised me to see both Zitten and Loro's on the list despite both releasing stuff a couple or more years ago, but so I realized that Zitten's debut EP was self released and TuneTable probably not big enough for Loro's debut single to really make an impact. Still happy to see them both nominated though and I sorta hope for one of them to win.

I might return with the genre and netizen nominations later if I can get a bit more time on my hands. If not you'll find them all in the 수상후보 section at kmusicawards.com.

Browsing the Korean Indie section Hyang Music just now I came across a couple of interesting rock releases from this week, complete with samples:

Guckkasten released a self titled album on February 2. Sample two songs in short here or head over to YouTube to watch the video for 거울.

Phonebooth released their first album, The Way To Live On, after several months of delay on February 5. Hyang has samples for every song on the album.

"Alternative hip hop project group" Cloudancer will release its first full length album, A Walk In The Clouds, on February 12. As you might have realized by now, I'm not really keeping up with Korean hip hop (any such posts at Indieful ROK are usually a consequence of orienkorean's participation) but after noticing that Sogyumo Acacia Band is featured on a track called 봄날의 곰을 좋아하세요? curiosity arose. Turns out Cloudancer is made up of two people: 수다쟁이 (who does the MC stuff) and Aquibird's DJ Magik Cool J. Could prove quite interesting even for someone like myself.

All female pop punk/garage trio Clerks released their first EP, May I Help You?, today, February 6. Four songs are on the CD, two of which can be sampled at MySpace.

Thanks to icq4ever.blog we learn that byul and Underwear Band member Jowall will release a solo album on February 7. The title is Things You Are Going To See Here and it's manufactured and distributed by byul.org label Club Bidanbam. Hyang Music has a sampler track.

It's February 5 and so the launching day for the Fuzzpop short sleeved shirt series has arrived. Both The Invisible Fish EPs are represented and the handprinted t-shirts are sold in those Loss/Sleepless type boxes, accompanied by a data CD. See the blog of slowzz for details and more pictures.

Just visited the website of Happy Robot Record and spotted plenty of interesting names in the "Upcoming Album" section. No dates as of yet, but I figured I'd share anyway:
- No Reply will follow up their 2008 고백하는 날 (propose day) EP with their first full length album.
- Oh Ji Eun - that just had her first album re-released in a Happy Robot edition - will release a second full length album.
- Happy modern rock act naru will too release a second full length album.
- EZ Hyoung - that appears to have gained plenty of fans with the release of Spectrum in 2008 - will release his third full length album.

mrkwang asked me about my thoughts on Skasucks today. January 21 they released their second EP, New Generation of SKA, on I Wanna Riot - Dope's new sub-label. Skapunk is not entirely my type of music, but I find Skasucks interesting enough - especially during the Mexico influenced instrumentals (El Mariach and The ship going down) they have up on MySpace. Four songs from the new seven/eight track EP (the first press edition contains a bonus demo track) and a couple of songs more can be sampled in full from there.