Jang Hyun and the men
Music performance by The men
Folkie Jin : "From this record only the song on Side B(2) got a reissue in CD format in 2002, on The men compilation album. The men was his best days group with Yupjeons and made highest perfectionist songs because of the participation of Son Hak-Rae(Saxophone, Oboe). They played mostly long time Psychedelic numbers and longer than original song at live show. It was a great improvisation performance!! But sadly, live songs weren't recorded. The Men members were Shin Jung-Hyun(Lead guitar and vocal), Lee Tae-Hyun(Bass), Mun Yung-Bae(Drum), Son Hak-Rae(Saxphone,Oboe),Kim Gi-Pyu(Organ),Park Kwang-Su(Vocal) with guest vocalist(Kim Jung-Mi,Lim A-Yung,Jang Hyun etc.)
At this time Shin Jung Hyun had to consider both a Popular and Experimenting approach, like the record company demanded. So Side A contains popular short songs with a Guest singer and Side B are more longer psychedelic songs of his group the Men, with Jang Hyun and the men, Jiyeon and the men, Yoon Young-Kyun. So you must pay attention to Side B songs!!
Side B2 Jandi(Lawn) means Marijuana (local secret language). This song is a very unique and fascinating eastern psychedelic number.
Side B1 Beautiful Rivers and Mountains is a masterpiece song of Korean psychedelica. He wrote this song for a week at Korean group sound office room. This song is a about praising the nature of Korea.
Great psychedelic Gem and Eastern psychedelic style song! And you can hear nice fuzz guitar sounds at the latest section."
Pony Canyon
Jang Hyun : Hit album (KO,1974,re.2008)***/**°°
airplayed : Tr.4, 4 min
Far less good than the more psychedelic SJH& The Men release, this is still enjoyable, mostly in a more relaxed way. But this specific track has something pretty wild too.
Jang Hyun was already the singer featuring on the famous Shin Yung-Hyu & The Men release. On SJH side was featured one of the most famous and most beautiful songs Shin Yung Hyun had ever written. This was arranged with some additional oboe. Where SJH and the Men sounded also musically inspired from start to finish, this album sounds like a shadow repetition of a successful formula with a similar but not so creative band, and with use of oboe and organ just like before, and with some sparse orchestrations, with several often melancholic songs, or otherwise it is the band that makes these songs more melancholic. It is a relaxed band which sound improvised, without ever being inventive or without really taking the time to add more creative ideas as if there wasn't time to build on these. Just a bit of organ, a chachacha idea, some trumpet and a slight touch of fuzz guitar on the seventh track, or some tiny spaces of time for the organ are added, not yet making the “extra” that could uplift this band to something further. The album is really enjoyable but the “good idea” of performing, of a psych-era related band sound now is already stretched very long.
Update : This now sold-out album has again been reissued by the label under the Shin Joong Hyun-Masterpiece Gold Series as Jang Hyun but it is also listed as Shin Joong Hyun/Jang Hyun (2011):
King Rec.Chang/Jang Hyun : Best (SK,1980,re.1991)**+
possible airplay : Tr.1,2,4
If I read and am informed well enough, this must have been an album accompanied by Shin Jung-Hyun. I assume this must have been at least a double album, or a large LP with a few bonus tracks, because I see a total of 15 songs for over 50 minutes of material., which could have been two LP’s in those days. Most material is comparable, which means rather melancholic and slightly mellow chansons, with a mainstream public approach. The band is rather interesting although the lead guitarist (Shin Jung-Hyun?) hardly shows much of himself, strumming the rhythms, here and there playing a part of the melody, with soft drums and bass and melancholic organ and some oboe arrangements, which are both nice to hear and shows Shin’s mark in them. A few songs have a light brass arrangement to it. Here and there we also have the whohoo and nananaa backing singers. The album is really nice but sadly lacks a bit of surprise so that the mainstream pop direction in the end still seems to have domination over the creative potentials that are still noticeable in the background, even though the band and producer seems to have been restricted in the studio arrangements.
Ebay description (Roach Rec.): "Rare lp out of Korea in the early 70's I'm guessing. I have had this lp for years and never put it on because I found the cover so... well boring. I put it on and it immediately sucked me in, and I don't speak a lick of Korean. The music bounces around from dark folk psych, then switches gears to bouncy pop psych, almost loungy at times, then switches to trippy melodic psych rock. Lot's of echoed and treated vocals, sound effects, crazy swirling organ and keyboards, fuzzed noodly guitar work, female backing vocals that are often haunting, almost spooky sounding..."
