Seoul instrumental rock trio Hellivision will be playing a pair of Hongdae gigs this weekend at Mudaeruk (November 30) and Salon Badabie (December 1).
A local “supergroup” of sorts, the band includes guitarist Lee Tae-hun (from Second Session and Flower Pot), bassist Oh Gun-woong (ex-The Mustangs), and drummer Jung Ji-wan (from Underwears Band, ex-Cocore). Formed in the summer of 2011, by fall of last year the group were already building a buzz in Seoul’s underground scene. In November 2011, they were invited to open one of the Korean reunion gigs for American post-hardcore pioneers Bitch Magnet – pretty impressive considering that show was only Hellivision’s third gig.
“I told Gun-woong I wanted to start a gnarly band,” says Lee on the group’s formation.
“Tae-hoon came to my house and said he wanted to play stronger music,” adds Oh. “He proposed starting a new band together. I thought about who would be a good a drummer for the band and then asked Ji-wan to join us.”
The group released their debut full-length “HellRevision” in October through the newly formed RCL imprint. RCL stands for “Reggae Chicken Label,” and was founded by the owner of Hongdae’s popular Reggae Chicken restaurants (and former drummer for The Mustangs), Ryu Kwang-hee.
“We were thinking about making an album and then Kwang-hee asked us about recording and releasing music thought RCL,” says Oh. “We all said ‘Yes!’ because we love Kwang-hee.”
As the only act on RCL right now, does Hellivision get any perks when they visit either branch of their label boss’ eatery?
“Sometimes Kwang-hee gives us some free beer and rum,” laughs Oh.
Clocking in at over 70 minutes in length, the seven tracks on “HellRevision” were written from June 2011 to January 2012. The album was recorded from this past February to May at Hongdae’s EFlat-Tracks Studio. A fantastic mix of noisy breakdowns and trippy psychedelic rhythms that are accented with an occasional bit of dubby goodness, “HellRevision” offers a great glimpse of a talented act that are only beginning to scratch the surface of their potential.
And while Hellivision’s music could easily fall under a number of genre classifications, how does the band like to describe their awesome sound to people?
“I like to call it ‘mess rock,’” says Oh.
“I prefer to think of it is as Korean traditional music,” says Lee with a smile.
Hellivision play tonight at Mudaeruk with Vidulgi Ooyoo and The Quip. Tickets are 15,000 won and the show starts at 8 pm.
They will also play Saturday night as part of Salon Badabie’s birthday celebrations. Tickets for tomorrow’s show are 20,000 won and things get started at 6:30 pm.
