Post-Rock Gallery vol. 3 is a 79-track collection of the rawest DIY stuff from Korea
By Jamie Finn (@jamiefinn2209)
Volume 3 of the annual Post-Rock Gallery Compilation was released today. At a staggering 79 songs in length, the album is an unfiltered collection of all the music shared by members of the Post-Rock Gallery message board. Here, we talk to the compilation's organiser about the project.
Talk to any alternative music fan in Korea, and they will tell you how important message boards have historically been to their communities here. The kind of music that was often ignored or even hated by the mainstream in Korea was being celebrated in small pockets of the internet here. Yet, while there are exceptions who have survived, these internet message boards are much less common these days.
One of those exceptions is Post-Rock Gallery. Despite the name, the online community discuss seemingly every genre, with the only goal being to find exciting, innovative, and occasionally weird music. While it's difficult to see how many people are regularly using the board, it is a popular place for music lovers in Korea to visit, with one post having over 120,000 views.
A message board with this many music lovers would only naturally attract some musicians. This is where the Post-Rock Gallery Compilation comes in. "It's a community of people who really love music," explains Wapddi, the compilation organiser. "It also attracts a lot of people who want to promote their music or get featured. So, I put a post up in Post-Rock Gallery every year and share the submissions for this compilation. There are loads of amazing amateur musicians who share their work to Post-Rock Gallery, and I wanted to expose some of it to the outside world."
But exposing the work of these talented artists is not the only thing that Wapddi hopes to achieve with this release. "By doing this, I hope we can encourage more people to create music. Here in Korea, there is a very conservative attitude towards activities that are not part of your studies. Anything creative that isn't practical is seen as a waste of time. By showing that there are so many amateurs making music for fun, I am hoping to inspire others to do the same."
So far, three albums have been released by Pst-Rock Gallery. The first two have 87 songs, and the latest one has 79 songs. That's a pretty impressive 253 songs in just three years. "We accept every submission," explains Wapddi when asked about the compilation length, "regardless of style, genre, or anything. The only rules are nothing legally or morally problematic. And, also, no previously released music.
The project has already become somewhat of an underground hit in Korea, with a buzz around the latest release. "The compilation started as an 'amateur's playground', so, obviously, the first time people start creating, the results are never perfect. I think that people who have made their first sloppy creations will use this as an opportunity to start creating more, and as they do, they will continue to improve. I was very proud when I saw a post from a participant saying he completed his first piece of music thanks to this project."
With that said, we have listened to every track on the recent release, and there is actually loads of really great stuff on there. While the production is obviously raw (like, really raw), there are quite a few real moments of quality here. Combine that with the impressive variety and the evident earnestness of it all; the whole thing is an interesting listen. It's like listening to the radio if they only ever played weird basement-made music.
Wapddi is a fairly established musician here in Seoul. So why isn't he featured on the album? "I am on there," he explains. "My music is always the opening track on the album. I'm performing under the name 노란남자."
"Actually," he adds, "There are some famous people on the compilation performing under different names. If you can find them."
You can follow Wapddi here. You can listen to the whole compilation and more below.
