Seo Taiji: Eclectic or standard operating procedure?
Just listened to Seo Taiji & Boys IV from 1995, the first album I've heard by them. What follows is the genre designations I made for each track:
1. Ska instrumental feat. spaghetti-western guitar.
2. Progressive rock w/ elves, munchkins, and rap.
3. Ominous metal funk w/ shrieking punk rap, high-pitched Cypress Hill squiggles, and elfin harmony interlude.
4. Cypress Hill-style gangsta rap.
5. Sorta thrash psychedelia w/ techno inserts.
6. More Cypress Hill but w/ some old skool shoutiness, and flutes.
7. Lo-fi punk.
8. Smooth jazz instrumental.
9. Sorta thrash-metal techno w/ rap and progressive munchkin rock harmonies and DJ turntable scratching.
10. Strange chords and guitar slides and drifting dingbat falsetto, like the cheerful post-no-wave fucking around you got in NY circa 1980.
None of this sounds the least bit cold or mannered or Japanese or "postmodern" or anything like that. E.g., the smooth jazz instrumental is as authentic as anyone else's smooth jazz instrumental, which is to say boring. But despite this, the alb might have slipped onto my 1995 Pazz & Jop ballot had I (1) heard it, and (2) submitted a 1995 Pazz & Jop ballot; would've fit in with the rockeros and old Italodisco and Rancid I was listening to at the time.
Wikipedia informs me that one of the boys, Yang Hyeon-seok, went on to form YG Entertainment, which is currently bringing us 2NE1 and Big Bang and GD&TOP.
Click to view1. Ska instrumental feat. spaghetti-western guitar.
2. Progressive rock w/ elves, munchkins, and rap.
3. Ominous metal funk w/ shrieking punk rap, high-pitched Cypress Hill squiggles, and elfin harmony interlude.
4. Cypress Hill-style gangsta rap.
5. Sorta thrash psychedelia w/ techno inserts.
6. More Cypress Hill but w/ some old skool shoutiness, and flutes.
7. Lo-fi punk.
8. Smooth jazz instrumental.
9. Sorta thrash-metal techno w/ rap and progressive munchkin rock harmonies and DJ turntable scratching.
10. Strange chords and guitar slides and drifting dingbat falsetto, like the cheerful post-no-wave fucking around you got in NY circa 1980.
None of this sounds the least bit cold or mannered or Japanese or "postmodern" or anything like that. E.g., the smooth jazz instrumental is as authentic as anyone else's smooth jazz instrumental, which is to say boring. But despite this, the alb might have slipped onto my 1995 Pazz & Jop ballot had I (1) heard it, and (2) submitted a 1995 Pazz & Jop ballot; would've fit in with the rockeros and old Italodisco and Rancid I was listening to at the time.
Wikipedia informs me that one of the boys, Yang Hyeon-seok, went on to form YG Entertainment, which is currently bringing us 2NE1 and Big Bang and GD&TOP.