* Grand Rec.
He6 : Vol 1 (KO,1970)**°°
Tr.1, "The love of grassland" 3 min
Tr.3, "Wulrung Island Ballad" 5 min
Tr.5, "Wang Castle place of old time" 5 min
Radioshow comments : "The first track is 60's psych styled with sweet vocal harmonies and birds sounds. The second chosen track is similar, and has great additional electric guitar solo's and handpercussion in stead of drums. The third track has great electric guitars ! The covers on the B-side, like "Proud Mary" and "Aquarius let the sunshine in" and "Let the sun shine" I like much less than the original songs. Especially the first side is highly recommended to 60's psych fans!"
* Grand Rec.He6 : Would you He6 with go go Music ? vol 1 (KO,1971)***°
The first track is a great instrumental of a go-go psych with some flute, great organ, electric guitar, and with a stretched middle passage with drum mostly. The second chosen track is a funky psych track, also with some flute, and lots of percussion. A recommended album.
LP's reissue (1000 printed only and sold out now) :
Beatball description : "This amazing set shows an excellent mixture of psychedelic,Latin jazz rock, blues-oriented hard rock. Kim Hong-Tak's heavy fuzz guitar allover the set with best funky rhythm set [Cho Yong-Nam & Kwon Yong-Nam (later SJH & Yeop Juns)] and flute ever in Korea"
Greatest Hits description : "Spontaneous 70's rock from Korea. These two album features a mix of 60's beat, psychedelic and funky rhythm based brass rock. Both albums, housed in quality sleeves comes packed in a hard carton Boxset, including a 24 page booklet, a 6 postcard set, band logo sticker & two big sized posters. Lim. to 1000 copies."
Rockin Hood description : "Spontaneous 70s native rock music from Korea. Initially only 300 of these 2 albums were released as promotional copies. This amazing set shows an excellent mixture of psychedelic, Latin jazz rock, blues-oriented hard rock. Kim Hong-Tak's heavy fuzz guitar allover the set with best funky rhythm set [Cho Yong-Nam & Kwon Yong-Nam (later SJH & Yeop Juns)] and flute sounds."
Aquarius Records description : "Recorded in, yay, 1971, pressed in a ridiculously limited (promotion only) quantity of 300 copies each, and subsequently all but forgotten, these two records by Korean psychedelic groovesters the HE 6 are some gems indeed! With the exception of the closing side-long seventeen minute cover of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (which faithfully does indeed include the obligatory drum solo as per the original version, along with what sounds like a police siren and also an added *flute* solo!) all the tracks on the two albums Go Go Sound '71 vol. 1 and Go Go Sound '71 vol. 2 included here are instrumental jams -- numbered themes with titles like "Theme 2. 4/4 for Guitar" and "Theme 3. Running Human". And even "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is mostly instrumental of course.
Listening to the other tracks on this disc it makes sense that they would choose Iron Butterfly's opus as the sole tune to cover. Like that tune, all of their originals are extended jams led by fuzzed-out electric guitar and Hammond organ. In addition, the aforementioned flute gets a workout too. (Yet another victory for the flute, so often mistakenly perceived as diminutive instrument! But the flute can certainly hold its own in this heavy, groovy, acid-rock band.) And it's crucial to mention that HE 6's rhythm section is darn tight! Indeed, this stuff's funky enough that we're sure they were probably just as much influenced by James Brown's band The JB's as they were by the likes of the Vanilla Fudge and Iron Butterfly. If not so obscure, we're sure this would have been plundered by DJs looking for the swank breaks... who knows, maybe hip hop producers in Korea have done so? So, very much recommended to all you folks into these sorta swinging '60s/'70s sounds -- especially if you dig the Cambodian Rocks and Thai Beat comps!
'Tis an expensive import, but the packaging helps justify the price: a gorgeous heavy-duty mini-LP styled gatefold sleeve, complete with a booklet featuring extensive liner notes (in English!) and photos, plus you even get two colorful HE 6 stickers! Nice."
Mutant Sounds : "...And the Lemmy-goes-to-India sounds of Sam Gopal. And the Juan dela Cruz Band from the Phillipines. And Turkish music galore. And all those incredible Cambodian Rocks comps. Et cetera, et cetera. Yup, we've had a lot of vintage heavy rock and psych reissues from all over the world now, but this is maybe the first time we've gotten our hands on something from Korea (and hopefully not the last -- we'd love to get Sanullim discs too, someday).Recorded in, yay, 1971, pressed in a ridiculously limited (promotion only) quantity of 300 copies each, and subsequently all but forgotten, these two records by Korean psychedelic groovesters the HE 6 are some gems indeed! With the exception of the closing side-long seventeen minute cover of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (which faithfully does indeed include the obligatory drum solo as per the original version, along with what sounds like a police siren and also an added *flute* solo!) all the tracks on the two albums Go Go Sound '71 vol. 1 and Go Go Sound '71 vol. 2 included here are instrumental jams -- numbered themes with titles like "Theme 2. 4/4 for Guitar" and "Theme 3. Running Human". And even "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is mostly instrumental of course.Listening to the other tracks on this disc it makes sense that they would choose Iron Butterfly's opus as the sole tune to cover. Like that tune, all of their originals are extended jams led by fuzzed-out electric guitar and Hammond organ. In addition, the aforementioned flute gets a workout too. (Yet another victory for the flute, so often mistakenly perceived as diminutive instrument! But the flute can certainly hold its own in this heavy, groovy, acid-rock band.) And it's crucial to mention that HE 6's rhythm section is darn tight! Indeed, this stuff's funky enough that we're sure they were probably just as much influenced by James Brown's band The JB's as they were by the likes of the Vanilla Fudge and Iron Butterfly. If not so obscure, we're sure this would have been plundered by DJs looking for the swank breaks... who knows, maybe hip hop producers in Korea have done so? So, very much recommended to all you folks into these sorta swinging '60s/'70s sounds -- especially if you dig the Cambodian Rocks and Thai Beat comps!
Excellent weird LPs to blow your mind and set your psychedelic "love in"(!)) party to fire!"
This album was reissued on a double CD as well and is highly recommended. It is one of the better psychedelic albums from Korea !
Other tracks used from He5/He6 (compiled on one cdr for practical reasons) :
Historical facts that lead to He5 (- from Key Boys, Add4 to He5- ):
"Kim Hong-Tak (1944~) was one of the 2 leading figures in the early days of "Group Sound Era", of course with Shin Jung-Hyun(1938~). Kim Hong Tak was guitarist and naturally leader of the group. Here, it seems better to put aside the question " Who was the first?". Because with this question of 'the first' or more properly 'the Origin', the ansters will not is the same according to the questioner's perspectives.
For example, if we take one perspective, in this case that of 'Popularity', it will be the Key Boys of Kim Hong Tak which was followed soon afterwards by the Add4 of Shin Jung-Hyun.
A little remark. This Key Boys is not the 'Later' Key Boys who sang the smash hits like "Let's go to the seashore". or "Memories of the seaside", but the 'Earlier' Keyboys. They played some 'Package shows', under the name of the Lock & Key in the stages of the 8 th U.S army which settled in South Korea. Also they played at some new venues like 'Music listen Rooms', 'Live Music Salons', or the traditional ones like in Cinema.
[Cf. At that time the concert was held frequently in Cinema Houses. It was called as 'Cinema Show].
With these latter acts they were known to general 'Korean' public. They were nicknamed as the 'Beatles of Korea' - At that time this meant more similar to a 'cover band of the Beatles'.. (Cf. Because the stages in 8th Army of U.S. was for the Korean in the forbidden area for the evident reason of security. So generally a Korean group or artist who played there was a totally unknown figure to general Korean public).
In the mid-60s which prevailed by the worldwide phenomenon ' Beatlesmanis', the Key Boys, in molding the archetype of the Rock band (or Rock Group) who 'sing and play' (With the Kkokkirri Brothers, the Fools, the Kim Chies, became the pioneers of a new cultural phenomenon (we may now be able to say that it was the early days of 'Pop culture' in Korea). And here lies one symbolic fact concerning the popular culture in general that 1964-1965, the period of their debuts coincides with that of the birth of the 'Weekly Magazine'. With the time, the members of the Key Boys left the group: some Cha Jung Rak and Cha Do Gyun going to solos, some Yoon Hang Ki joining to the Korean Army's entertainment Unit which was sent to the Viet-Nam War, and finally Kim Hong Tak too. But Kim Hong Tak had launched his career of guitarist in a rock group. It was the He 5.
Precisely speaking, the He5 was not launched by Kim hong Tak. According to the memories of its members, the group was found in the winter of 1967 'the five young guys' all belonged to the Wha-Yange Entertainment Inc. had set up the group together; Han Woong (Rhythm guitar and vocal) issued from the Four Guys, Cho Yong Nam (lead guitar and vocal) from the Shin Jung Hyun and the Jokers, Yu Young Chun (vocal) from the Silver Coins, Han Kwang Soo (Bass) from the Kee Jin Sung's Orchestra. For the connoisseurs, they were all 'top-class' musicians from the leading groups of that time.
And in this period Kim Hong Tak was still in the Key Boys. (Cf. Wha-Yang Entertainment Inc. was one of the enterprises who dealt wht matters concerning the distribution of musicians and entertainers for the 8th Army of USA.- tiwh the Universal, Dae-Young,Dong IL).
The He 5 begins tis gigs at the Seven Club in I-Tae-Won (a small quarter of Seoul which is now well know even internationally for its diverse markets, restaurants and bars mainly for the foreign customers. This quarter was the bassist Han Kwang Soo soon afterwards was a challenge for the He5. Kim Hong Tak was recruited as a lead guitarist (So-called 'first guitarist' at that time) and Cho Yong Nam, the griginal lead guitarist of the band changes his speciality to bass guitar. The joining of Kim Hong Tak not only strengthens the group's musical forces but also gives the occasion to the group of presenting themselves to 'general Korean public'. So ends a 'Boy' period of Key Boys, comes a new era of the 'He'."
(taken from liner notes on He6 "Would you gogo Sound vol 2")For Keyboys introduction see here
