Jaeho Hwang is releasing his second EP, Inner-self, on Chinabot. Combining elements of gabber, industrial rythms components and experimental music gleaned from ten years in London's electronic music scene, Hwang also uses traditional Korean instrumentation as part of his compelling, original voice.
The literal and spiritual follow-up to his 2019 EP Non-self, Inner-self examines contemporary life through a Buddhist lens. But where Non-self took delight in the glitchy, dissolution of the self in a digital landscape or on the dance floor of a club, Inner-self looks back towards Korea's past, exploring the echoes of past people and cultures in Seoul's modern landscape.
Hwang's desire to reach into the past is personal. In 2020 he moved from London, his home of a decade, back to Seoul to spend time with his mother before her death in 2021, which he calls “the most shocking, sorrowful, and bizarre event in my life.”
In the self-directed video for the lead track Betweenness/사이, archive footage of early 20th century Seoul life is interspersed with Hwang's own daily life, a hundred years later. Many actions remain the same across the centuries – dancing, working, walking down the street. The two time frames are interlinked further with hovering squares of facial recognition technology over the faces from the past, an attempt to use technology to “recognise” people who are ultimately unreachable, but whose culture deeply influences those in Seoul today.
“During this period [of his mothers passing], I was lost in thought of how the deceased affects or changes us who continue to live in this world, what kind of meaning has been left after they have gone,” says Hwang. With its joyful melody piped out on a classical Piri flute, undercut with a dirty, bouncing bass line, Betweenness/사이warmly embraces living traces of the past.
Traditional Korean instrumentation continues to meet sounds from contemporary clubland throughout the record. On the closing track On the Way to the End, created in the final months of Hwang's mothers life, a tense shiver of Kkwaenggwari cymbals are punctuated by a clash of the Jing gong, while a post-industrial dirge whirls beneath. The track is the first time Hwang has used his own vocals – his distorted voice becomes a primordial wail of grief and rage.
On Yellow Eardrum, gabber beats and a punching kick drum create a driving rhythm under an otherworldly voice, a sample from master shaman Dae-rye Kim. Born in 1935 on the island of Jindo, Kim believed she could cleanse the souls of the recently deceased, as well as their living relatives, through her shamanistic singing and ritual practice she had learned from her mother. Similarly, Inner-self creates a space of communion between the past and present, making for a cathartic, timeless record.
About Jaeho Hwang
Jaeho Hwang is a London/Seoul-based DJ, producer, and visual artist who recontextualises traditional Korean instrumentation and brings it into the contemporary club music scene. After releasing his first EP on Chinabot in 2019, he has been featured in DJ Mag, BBC Radio 6 Music, 4:3 Boiler Room, XLR8R, DUMMY Magazine and Mixmag Korea. Now based primarily in Seoul, he is involved with Seoul community radio and Nek-O Future Club.
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