은방울 자매 / Silver Bell Sisters "Eunbangwul Jamae"
은방울자매 전곡 (거성레코드) 거성레코드 | 1990년 05월 01일 Geosung Records
01. 마포종점 / Mapo Jong branch
02. 쌍고동 우는 항구 / Ssanggo-dong Crying Port
03. 무정한 그사람 / The heartless man
04. 삼천포 아가씨 / Samcheonpo Lady
05. 섬마을 선생님 / Island Village Teacher
06. 흑산도 아가씨 / Heuksan Island Lady
07. 낭주골 처녀 / The virgin bone virgin
08. 감나무골 / Persimmon Tree
09. 물레방아 도는데 / Spinning the watermill
10. 가슴 아프게 / Heartburn
11. 타국에서 / From other countries
12. 공항의 이별 / Farewell at the airport
13. 그리움은 가슴마다 / Longing is every heart
14. 한번준 마음인데 / I gave it to you
15. 삼팔선의 봄 / Spring of the Three Arms
16. 목화 아가씨 / Cotton lady
17. 당신이 좋아요 / I like you
18. 아리랑 목동 / Arirang Herdsman
For western listeners no tracks can be taken out to check.
Silver Bells Sisters are one of the so many Sisters bands. They only sing Trot music, and this for many, many years and have a lot of LP’s. Some of the tracks I know are worth tracing for the arrangements, but in general they also sweetly, perfectly repeat a well sounding variation of a formula, or shall I say perform a sweet musical language, which has that sort of attraction even when it shows some rather small variations only, even less than a creative process would really imply and allow itself to happen. It means that after a few tracks, or a couple more, you might already get the impression more quickly that you have heard it all already, or in some other case still might become hooked to it, like you can have that with the taste of sugar. The background band consists of an orchestra but also of a combo with electric and acoustic guitar, bass and several keyboards, and accordion and flute, playing safely and smoothly with certain fluency and harmonious combinations, a combination like that of a TV ballroom-setting. They succeed to keep a certain attraction one could hardly object against. I found the album second hand and cheaply, and I cannot object to have it either, but I must still warn collectors here, that although this is decent, somewhat predictable music, it will not be the kind of stuff that will be searched for in the West by too many people either. I enjoyed it at first, then tried to listen through it, but could also not help it but to start slumbering a bit with it too. I guess this recording is all from around the same period, I guess from around mid seventies or even 5-10 years later.
I will describe this as harmless, fine but entirely mainstream and formula based music, as a conservative safe heaven music. In general I would say to western collectors: to avoid.
은방울 자매 - 논스톱 애창곡 86곡 (2CD)
CD-1] 1. 난 정말 몰랐었네 2. 구름 나그네 3. 돌아와요 부산항에 4. 오동잎 5. 앵두 6. 눈물 젖은 두만강 7. 가거라 38선
8. 녹슬은 기찻길 9. 비내리는 고모령 10. 불효자는 웁니다 11. 짝사랑 12. 타향살이 13. 목포의 눈물
14. 목포는 항구다 15. 해조곡 16. 꿈에 본 내고향 17. 추억의 용두산 18. 단장의 미아리 고개 19. 두형이를 돌려줘요
20. 고향무정 21. 한강 22. 외나무 다리 23. 향수 24. 물방아 도는 내력 25. 홍도야 울지마라 26. 덕수궁 돌담길
27. 대지의 항구 28. 이별의 부산 정거장 29. 무정열차 30. 아메리카 차이나타운 31. 아리랑 낭랑 32. 무너진 사랑탑
33. 봄맞이 34. 낭랑 18세 35. 대한팔경 36. 즐거운 목장 37. 기타치는 털보선장 38. 황성옛터 39. 가거라 슬픔이여
40. 산장의 여인 41. 산유화 42. 고향초 43. 희망가
[CD-2]1. 감격시대 2. 바다의 교향시 3. 복지만리 4. 노랫가락 차차차 5. 맹꽁이 타령 6. 임과 함께 7. 비둘기 집
8. 그때 그 사람 9. 무정한 그 사람 10. 기타부기 11. 외항선 부두 12. 무역선 아가씨 13. 삼천포 아가씨 14. 청춘고백
15. 알뜰한 당신 16. 영암 아리랑 17. 나는 울었네 18. 울어라 기타줄 19. 임 그리워 20. 물새 한 마리 21. 나그네 설움
22. 추억의 백마강 23. 갈대의 순정 24. 선창 25. 그러긴가요 26. 삼다도 소식 27. 개나리 처녀 28. 울고 넘는 박달재
29. 영등포의 밤 30. 번지없는 주막 31. 찔레꽃 32. 돌아가는 삼각지 33. 단골손님 34. 바다가 육지라면 35. 서울야곡
36. 전선야곡 37. 미사의 노래 38. 카추샤의 노래 39. 정 40. 봄날은 간다 41. 미워도 다시 한번 42. 대전 블루스 43. 명동 블루스
After having found this album, luckily cheaply, I still didn’t know how this duo’s approach could become really that commercial. Their harmony singing is pleasant, but the TV show-band arranged medley, a jukebox of 43 tracks or melodies in one take on CD1 alone, I guess this is not really something a western collector is really looking for, and this had put me off a bit at first. The first CD I couldn’t go through listening the whole way at first listen.
The second album, focusing on the keyboards, bass, brass and other instruments, and of course the always convincing vocals, heavenly light Korean Trot-songs, I loved already better due to its light entertaining even somewhat swinging character.
