Throwback Review: Deli Spice by DELISPICE

 

 

 

 

Each month, we at KPOPWORLD like to look back into the earlier days of Korean music and the foundations of K-pop as we know it. Who are the artists that helped K-pop reach the heights it has? Who deserves a second listen? This month, we look back at 90s rock group DELISPICE’s debut album and their impact on Korean rock and pop in the decades to come.

 

 

While DELISPICE is certainly not a household name, the group has been cited as an important part of the Korean music shift in the late 90s and early 2000s. At the time, both the pop and countercultural music scenes were pushing in polarizingly opposite directions. So much from the era was either fluffy drivel or was overly serious and demanding. DELISPICE was one of the groups taking a unique approach to music by writing music that was both fun and meaningful. They helped support the indie and rock scenes through that era and passed much of their philosophy onto the K-rock and K-pop groups that would come later. From Thornapple to Dreamcatcher, many Korean groups that center on both fun and substantive music have DELISPICE and their contemporaries to thank for pushing those sentiments into a more accepted space. 

 

Despite their relatively low profile since then, several publications have highlighted DELISPICE’s contributions to Korean pop and rock music, with some listing them among the most influential Korean acts and albums of all time. Rolling Stone even put one of their songs at number 22 of their list of the 100 greatest songs in Korean pop music.

 

The group’s debut album, Deli Spice, released in August 1997 and is genuinely fun, with tracks feeding into that quintessential late 90s sound. The opener, “No Carrier”, feels ripped straight from an arcade racing game, as the gurgling foundation of synths carries soaring guitars and anthemic vocals along with help from a wired drum beat. The whole album has that sort of feel-good sound that carries a little bit of the feeling of wistfully reflecting on innocence and could easily be the soundtrack for a summer adventure movie.

 

Funnily enough, a few DESLISPICE songs have, in fact, been used in film and TV before, including the third track here, “chow chow” (alternatively titled “Chau Chau” or “No matter how hard I try to block it I can hear your voice”, depending on the streaming service). The song is a melancholy bop featuring a layer of strings under repeated lyrics and feels like The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight” but with an edge of despondency and the underlying wish for the other person to shut up and go away. The Smashing Pumpkins mixed with U2 are actually a great reference point for this whole album, but with just a touch of Modern English or R.E.M. thrown in there for good measure.

 

 

 

Picking a favorite track is hard, as all the songs here come with their own strengths. “Mask” has fuzzed out vocals and a reversed guitar riff that give the track a wonderfully tasty texture. The synth line on “an underworld tour” is infectiously catchy and the guitar riff feels like standing on the precipice of something stupid before you jump in, consequences forgotten. “Who?” leans more into dance music than the rest of the album, making for an interesting switchup part way through, and DELISPICE echoes Pink Floyd’s haze on “It’s been a long time since I’ve been out”. (Man, just that title certainly feels relevant to certain world conditions a few years back, right?). Finally, “Sagittarius” is an epic six-and-a-half minute long rocker full of guitar solo goodness.

 

Truth be told, Deli Spice, much like the group that shares its name, is neither groundbreaking nor incredibly surprising, but it is a great album that certainly stands the test of time. While I don’t think it will appeal to most mainstream K-pop fans, anyone who enjoys Korean rock (or just rock in general) will find the album worth a listen.