DABDA
Yonder
Electric Muse
My cousin and I are both fond of bands from Korea, but we’re not listening to the same things. She is a big fan of K-pop bands like BTS, while I’m finding the indie rock scene to be pretty exciting. Of course, it’s far easier to hear about K-pop. K-pop is a huge export for Korea, while the local indie band scene is almost irrelevant to the country’s music industry. Still, bands like Say Sue Me and DABDA push on to make the music they want to play.
DABDA play an infectious brand of math rock — sort of a hybrid of psychedelic and old school prog with post-rock. There isn’t that much of a scene for band-oriented music in Korea, so DABDA has gone outside the country looking to build an audience. They have played festivals in Thailand and Mongolia. Because of the economy of the Korean scene, they look forward to touring internationally as much as possible.
Yonder is DABDA’s latest offering of what they call “pastel psychedelic” music. The EP opens with “Playing With Fire.” The opening riff makes me think of Yes covering AC/DC. Lee Joseph’s guitar propels the song through various mutations before the song wraps up. Kim Ji-Ae’s vocals drift over the strummy chords that power “Flower Tail.” Dreamy arpeggios drive the song “Cloud City.”
Since I don’t understand a word of Korean, I have no idea what the songs are about. The song title “One, World, Wound” suggests that there are some heavy topics flowing through the gossamer bliss. DABDA being the acronym for the five stages of grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance also makes me think there are probably some heavy ideas floating around in there, too. They feel like they’re songs about finding happiness and hope in an uncaring world. That’s a sound I can really get behind.
