Jigu 
Shin Yung-Hyun & Music Power : 1st (KO,1980,re.1990)**'/*°°
airplayed : Tr.7, 14 min
SYH was banned to make music in public or release any music for many years. When the times were changed and his ban was lifted he tried to adapt his own sound to the now commercialised disco era. This track is such an effort. It is incomparable to his previous psyhedelic years but it has some good and intereting elements, but in a way it is a sad and slightly lost-in-time try mixing disco, brass funk and psychedelia with mainstream pop and rock guitar.I personally find this track worth hearing.
When the ban on Shin Jung Hyun's music was lifted musically a lot was changed. People were listening to disco and music was merely entertainment. Shin Jung-Hyun tried to get into the scene with his own voice and a certain integrity intact. With this release and his new band Music Power, clearly a studio/podium band with not much creativity to add he made the best of a poor situation. First we hear a few different versions of older famous songs. The first one with a simple strummed rhythm sounds, a simplified folk-pop version. The band is a drummer and bass player who keeps it simple, synthesisers which fit with the disco area, and a trio of soul podium female backing singers, the singers responding with a groove to Shin's own soft voice singing. Compared to most disco influenced pop music from these days this still is better or more serious, the result is also a more lame version of the psychedelic years. The sixth track is a bit more funky, and we can also hear some trumpets added. The 7th track is counting more ambitiously to over 13 minutes, has a couple of changes and surprises and some longer electric guitar parts too, the arrangements remain from the same area. The singing is led by a female singer. You can hear the adaptations and hints to the funk and disco area. The last track shows this disco touch as well. Despite the time frame dominance which has a sad aftertaste after all, the result still is enjoyable.
about this period :
"Following his arrest, Shin was banned from performing in Korea for years. Sympathetic fans on the military bases helped ensure he always had a place to play, even if it was just a small, solo show, but still, it was tough for Shin to make a living.
It was the start of the bubblegum pop and syrupy ballads that have ruled Korea ever since. “It was all, ‘Let’s work hard,’ and ‘Let’s be happy’ kind of stuff,” Shin says, with a soft, matter-of-fact bitterness.Only with Park Chung Hee’s passing, in 1979, was the ban on Shin finally lifted, but he discovered a greater obstacle in his path—time. The rock trend passed by in the late 1970s to be replaced by a curious blend of disco, modern synthesizers, and a return to the old trot tunes that Park Chung Hee had enjoyed—it was the start of the bubblegum pop and syrupy ballads that have ruled Korea ever since. “It was all, ‘Let’s work hard,’ and ‘Let’s be happy’ kind of stuff,” Shin says, with a soft, matter-of-fact bitterness. “It was completely physical, with no spirit, no mentality, no humanity. That trend has carried over all the way to today, so people are deaf to real music. They don’t know because they are never exposed to it.”
Shin tried to update himself, making disco versions of his old hits, but his era was gone. In the 1980s, he opened a live music club that did well in the foreigners’ enclave of Itaewon, but he was forced out by his partner. In 1986, he opened another bar, Woodstock, in the southeast edge of Seoul, and based there for twenty years. When Shin’s son met Seo Taiji at Woodstock, Shin helped to usher in Korea’s second great age of music. He released a few albums that sold modestly, toured from time to time, and taught at a local university, but Shin has, for the most past, spent recent years quietly."
