KOREAN PSYCH-ROCK & FOLK-POP reissues : Oh Se Eun

Jigu Oh Se Eun : (3rd) (KO,1974,re.2008)***'/***°

airplayed : Tr.7, 9 min

A longer track with a worked out acoustic guitar intro.

Other instruments for improvisation within the song are electric guitar and piano,

and further on some female vocalist for a couple of high notes with a few other singers.

This third album sounds better or more attractive compared to the already reviewed fourth album. This is slightly melancholic, mostly acoustic folk/pop/rock with nice arrangements: songs led by male lead vocals with some dual vocal arrangements. The fourth track has some nice additional string arrangements, and also the 6th is a bit more mellow spinning-head track and has some viola arrangement and a female wordless backing vocalist. The 7th track has an additional electric fuzz guitar and piano arrangement and a small arrangement with the same backing vocalist. On the 8th track acoustic guitars with melancholic organ lead a sad and mellow song. A very enjoyable album.

Song titles : 1.My Lover. 2. Our Lover 3. The Girl 4.Goodbye, If do, 5. LIfe 6. An Orphan, 7. You 8. When is separate 9. This distance

Good audio track on http://www.youtube.com/...

Discography : http://www.maniadb.com/artist.asp?p=107192

Riverman Rec.O Se Eun : (4th album) (KO,1981,re.2004)*°°°’

airplayed : Tr.8, "My song" 4 min

I expected more originality from this one, trusting Riverman’s choice of reissuing rare Korean albums. There’s use of keyboards/organ, a pop/rock approach with attempts of more progressive use of guitars/organ (track 4), while most songs still are more mainstream. One track is soft blues-rock (track 5). But there is however one outstanding original track that makes up a lot(track 8) for its high note baroque theme on keyboards, taken over by two acoustic guitars, a highly original song arrangement. Last track shows also some rather rewarding arrangement on dual fuzz guitars (but still on a not too convincing song). Nice sleeve, but a less rewarding album.

Listing on http://www.rivermanaudio.com/... & on here

Jigu Rec.O Se Eun : (1st album) (KO,1972,re.2008)***'

possible airplay : track 3,4,8

This is a highly enjoyable folk songwriter album with a warm voice, with all comparable songs, accompanied mostly by two picking guitars and electric bass only and some accents here and there with a second harmony voice. The first four track also have subtle string (and the first track also some subtle brass) orchestrations, with some violin solo on the second and flute solo arrangements on the third track. The album is very pleasant and moody and invites for repeated listen. On the third track I hear a small English sentence with “Donna I love you”, so I assume this might be a cover.

This album : http://www.maniadb.com/album.asp?a=103963