Friday, December 19, 2014

North Korean Music Box (Pyongyang 1977, 10 Inch)


So here is something quite rare I suppose. The music is reminiscent of revolutionary Chinese opera, but more militaristic and probably about the promised land ruled by the supreme commander. Some songs are reflecting North-Korea's idyllic landscapes in which everyone is happy and satisfied.

Most North-Korean records were only distributed as presents to other composers from communist countries like Cuba or Eastern Europe. I'm absolutely unsure whether these records were sold within North Korea to the people. I'm not even sure whether people had record players in North Korea. Since the communist takeover North Korea has been completely closed to outsiders making it nearly impossible to find music from the People's Republic.

If you want to know everything about the history of Korean Grammaphone Records and records from Korea in general you should go here to this excellent blog.

I did not seperate the songs as I couldn't read the Korean language. Moreover I just uploaded the whole albums to Youtube. Anyone interested in the labels of the vinyl can contact me.

Get it HERE