K-Pop Beyond The Charts: Shirosky Takes Her Sound To The Next Level On 'Domino' [AUDIO]

K-Pop Beyond The Charts is an occasional review column highlighting Korea's modern day musical innovators who have yet to find mainstream success.

Shirosky calls herself "the first female jazz hip-hop musician-producer in South Korea."

While I cannot confirm or deny this claim, she is a prolific producer who has developed a unique and adventurous style. Shirosky' s earned the right to throw a little shade. Besides, she is in the rap game and displaying bravado is a vital part of hip-hop culture.

Last month, Shirosky released her fourth EP, "Domino." The album is a major step forward, refining her concept of bridging jazz and hip-hop while adding modern electronic blips and bleeps.

She's doing her own thing.

On the opening track "Polaroid," Shirosky utilizes many unique and abstract layers to create a cohesive and funky song. You can hear the amount of hours this woman spends in front of her computer tweaking and perfecting her music. There are tons of sounds, samples, and delays popping in and out of the fore and background.

On a tune like "Domino," Shirosky proves she can produce commercial dance pop, but on the next song "Poem," she combines weird backwards sounds and synth bird tones to create quite a strange and mesmorizing track.

Check out the lyrics for "Poem," spoken by a woman whom I presume is Shirosky herself:

"In a poem, I am in the graceful rush of beautiful butterfly sing in the sky. When I close my eyes, I forget about everything to make all fears go away. In a poem, I am into each lovely thing."

Her diversity of sounds is her strength and I like the more bizarre songs the best. They remind me of my favorite British experimental soul artist, James Blake.

"Every Single Moment" is such a rad beat, so many strange layers and cool buried sounds, It has such a great vibe.

The song "Pink Sand" features the vocals of MINI. This track is a perfect showcase of Shirosky's nice jazzy chords and her electro hip-hop influences.

I'm glad she included the instrumental versions of "Domino" and "Pink Sand" on the album as well. Hearing the songs this way, we can really get inside the producer's head and hear her influences.

"Domino" comes from a similar place as Daft Punk's "Get Lucky." "Pink Sand" features nylon string guitar and a million other layers creating a breezy atmosphere.

The dizzying array of textures and sounds on "Domino" reveal a true artist. Shirosky's sound is way out there and that's just the way I like it.

Check out Shirosky's "Every Single Moment" from her new album "Domino" RIGHT HERE

Colin Langenus is a guitarist and songwriter in several groups including Colin L. Orchestra, CSC Funk Band and Usaisamonster. He produces and engineers music at his recording studio in Brooklyn. 

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K-Pop Beyond The Charts
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