Analogue Appreciation: Balming Tiger

Gongbu — In an ever more digital, online world, we ask our favourite artists about their most cherished pieces of physical culture. Today, it’s K-pop experimentalists Balming Tiger.

If K-pop group Balming Tiger’s new album Gongbu sounds, looks and feels like a fever dream, that’s because it’s meant to. Across its 14 tracks, the record revolves around the fictional neuroscientist Park Min, who runs a dream research centre named eponymously Gongbu Korea and acts as its protagonist and narrator.

It’s visualised in the music video for the album’s latest single ‘Keep On’, where band member Omega Sapien’s floating head provides vocals in a hotpot, before a person dressed in a head-to-toe dalmatian outfit holds up a clock. “I think it’s running out / Tell me, what’s going on?” Omega half raps, half sings.

After the music finishes, the video cuts to Park Min going to work, where for over three minutes, it sees him sitting at a desk, eating, taking notes and watching dreams on a screen. In an age of questionable attention spans, Gongbu features a level of worldbuilding and experimentalism that’s rarely seen in pop music. 

Formed in 2018, the Balming Tiger collective have carved their own alternative corner in the expansive world of K-pop, featuring singers, producers, creative directors and more. Gongbu is a showcase of their willingness to push the envelope, which beyond its story and concept blends groovy electronics with shoegazey guitars, quirky folk sonics and oddball psychedelia in an LP as built for listening as immersing.

To find out more about their creative inspirations, we invited them to take part in Analogue Appreciation, with different members picking out their favourite pieces of physical culture in an ever more digital world.

• Read next: Swan Moon’s cinematic portrait of growing up Korean in ’90s Los Angeles

Omega Sapien – Fountain pen

When I write by hand with a fountain pen, there’s a clear difference between the speed of my thoughts and the speed of my writing. Within that clarity, in the small gap between the two, I “think.” By creating inefficiency, I make space for myself – a space where I can briefly forget the world and rest.

bj wnjn – Upright piano

Some of the piano sounds in Balming Tiger’s music come from this upright piano. It’s an instrument that has been with me since childhood. Back then, it was simply something I practiced on, but now it’s a precious companion that inspires all of my work.

sogumm – Calligraphy brushes

Not long ago, I visited my hometown, Daejeon, and happened to stop by a traditional brush shop that has been passed down through four generations. I’d always wanted to learn calligraphy, so I bought two brushes. Knowing that there are not many places left in Korea that still make brushes using traditional methods made me feel strangely bittersweet, but I was also happy to buy such beautifully crafted brushes from a place with such a long history. It made me want to take good care of them and use them for a long time.

As it happened, I already owned a book by Kim Gyujin – a calligrapher, painter, and photographer who opened Korea’s first modern commercial art gallery – explaining how to paint orchids, so I tried following along. (The book and drawing in the photo above.) I first learned about this book while reading one by the painter Lee Ungno, who founded the Paris Oriental Art School. When I read that Kim Gyujin had been his teacher, I naturally became curious and sought out the book.

When I bought the brushes, I was told that good brushes last longer when used with good ink. So I bought ink as well, and once I started using good ink, I naturally began paying attention to the paper too. As I slowly gathered each item, I found myself becoming more careful and thoughtful whenever I used them. Somehow, even my mindset started to change.

Using good paper, a fine brush, and quality ink to recreate paintings that have been passed down for generations felt strangely moving. It also made me wonder how my own music will be passed on to people in the future. These days have been interesting.

• Read next: Analogue Appreciation: Searows

Leesuho – Paper tiger

After Balming Tiger’s headline show, this was a gift we received from the owner of Lemon Seoul, a retro gadget shop in Seoul. It’s a tiger sculpture made from crumpled paper. Since it’s made of paper, it has a unique texture, and there are many small details, like the way its head shakes. Looking at it makes me feel reassured somehow. I place it in the most visible spot at the entrance of the studio – it feels like this little guy is watching over us.

Hong Chanhee – Yoshitomo Nara’s photobook the good, the bad, the average… and unique

A photobook published in 2003. It’s a visual travel journal by the painter Yoshitomo Nara. It makes me want to look at the world with a pure state of mind and a clearer sense of wonder.

Gongbu is out now.

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