It’s time for another episode of Kpopalypse Nugu Alert!  Sit back and relax as Kpopalypse brings to you more nugus for your entertainment!

So 2022 in k-pop has gotten off to an interesting start so far, with quality tracks from the A-listers being in very short supply over January, but then picking up more recently.  However what abut the nugu end of the spectrum?  Well, it’s been a similar kind of mixed bag, with a lot of absolute crap, but also some really interesting songs coming from lesser-known artists as well.  This episode of Kpopalypse Nugu Alert is here to highlight some of the better nugu tracks that I’ve deliberately left out of roundups, because I thought they deserved attention in a standalone feature, especially given their extreme low view rate.  All of these songs could potentially end up in best-of lists at the end of 2022 (on the positive end), depending on how the year goes and what else comes out, or doesn’t.

Criteria for this episode:

• Less than 20,000 views across official channels scratch that, we’re going for less than 1,000 views for this episode!  Let’s keep it ultra-nugu!
• These acts are probably not big enough to be getting invited to perform at a propaganda concert at the behest of your favourite despotic regime
• Relevant to Kpopalypse

Let’s go!

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Yedd – Colorless

Here’s a track that a lot people all submitted for roundup, so I’d like to take this moment to thank all 23 of you who sent this one in.  It seems that many of you presumed that Yedd’s “Colorless” would be up my musical alley, and you presumed correctly!  Yedd pulls out a track that comes off sounding something like Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” if it had less funk concessions and was written on maybe about 40% less heroin and 100% less viagra.  The video has some neat visual ideas too, using harsh lighting, stark contrast and cheap props to create some arresting images that fit really well with the song’s theme without carving a massive hole in the production budget.  Really the only criticism I have of it is that the vocals are a bit too loud compared to the backing track, and that sort of vocal-centric mixing practice probably won’t bother many pop fans, but I would have liked to feel those synths hit a bit harder in the mix.  Regardless, this is still cool and let’s support Yedd so she can afford to get some new coffee cups.

Youtube views at the time of writing: 928

Notable attribute: new stockings didn’t even last one video shoot without getting massive holes in the feet, and she doesn’t even have long toenails, whatever brand she’s wearing don’t buy it

Nugu Alert rating: extreme

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332pp – Underrated pt. 2

I don’t know where part one of this song exists, but if it does, it’s not on 332pp’s album “Body Full Of Swamp“, so maybe it’s on a demo somewhere.  That’s not the only confusing thing about this song, the few snatches of English in the lyrics don’t make a great deal of sense so hopefully it’s a little bit more coherent in Korean, I honestly wouldn’t know for obvious reasons but it’s certainly a track for The K-pop English Project to get their head around, should they choose.  Regardless of all that, “Underrated pt. 2” rocks along with a fast breakbeat that most of today’s rappers in Korea or elsewhere would be far too scared to rap over, and packs a lot of entertainment into its very short running time.  The music video doesn’t have much happening, with most of it involving having bright lights shone in your face so you don’t notice that they’re renting the far corner of an SM box video set after pulldown, but this song has made me approximately 1.53% less prejudiced against young Korean men in beanies.

Youtube views at the time of writing: 411

Notable attribute: at 1:24 I guess the director yelled “cut” as two of the guys in the background forget to stand around like badass gang members and start moving off the set, guess they really needed to pee or something

Nugu Alert rating: extreme

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LEF-T & KMZ – Drive Thru

So far the songs here have had a pretty dark vibe, so let’s change moods for the rest of this episode and highlight some sunnier tracks.  “Drive Thru” is just a fucking good pop song, nothing much more or less, featuring the kind of understanding of melody-writing that has eluded a lot of the major k-pop songwriters over the past few years as they continue to jump the shark into “wacky mouth noises” territory.  Even the rapper turning up and quoting Wu-Tang for no reason and the usual overuse of Autotune can’t really wreck it all that much.  It’s all really nice, and even nicer is how they drag some cafe owner into the video to take some time off work and relax even though she has evidently fucking nothing to do with the actual song.  I guess it’s cheaper than hiring a female model to give your video some visual interest and gender balance.

Youtube views at the time of writing: 365

Notable attribute: lighting fireworks on a public beach in South Korea is an offense that carries a $42 fine, don’t tell the Korean government about this video as I don’t know if these guys can afford to pay

Nugu Alert rating: extreme

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Tainee ft. Tey – Beautiful

Honestly a pretty decent-looking and fair-sounding production given its ultra-low view count, Tainee and Tey certainly have a reasonable rock-based pop song on their hands with “Beautiful”.  From the ending credits (which I was happy to check out mainly due to the extended guitar solo that runs over them) there’s a fair few people involved too.  They even have a hired actress, plus separate people involved in the hand puppetry – these folks were actually ready and willing to hire some special person to sit under a desk and wave their hands with a sock on them, so perhaps they are more well known in Korea, who can say.  If only they didn’t fade out the guitar solo I’d be a lot happier, but then maybe the guitarist started to shred in a really awkward way that sucked and they’re just sparing us the wank and giving us the good parts of the guitar solo only.  Anyway, thanks to all the folks involved here, it made my day a little better.

Youtube views at the time of writing: 336

Notable attribute: the woman takes over two hours to wake up, brush her teeth, apply a little makeup and put on a suit – that’s the sort of effort that should be reserved for the weekend surely… oh that’s right Koreans don’t have weekends, they just work forever until they drop dead from exhaustion

Nugu Alert rating: extreme

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That’s all for this episode of Kpopalypse Nugu Alert!  The series will return soon with more nugus!