UhUhBoo Project: Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance Soundtrack – Vengeance Trilogy Part. 1 (Colored Vinyl) Vinyl LP (Record Store Day) UhUhBoo Project

Music to Chan-wook Park’s 2002 crime thriller, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. The film is dark af and involves a botched kidnapping attempt, which the perpetrator plotted to pay for a kidney transplant. The child in the middle of the failed scheme accidentally gets killed, and the storyline spirals into new levels of darkness, albeit in the most cinematically gorgeous way possible. Backing up the demented human-psychology business unfolding on-screen is a soundtrack concocted by UhUhBoo Project, an experimental unit consisting of Hyun-jin Baek and Young-gyu Jang. The duo fuses traditional Korean sounds w/ avant-garde / contemporary rock; the earlier part of the characterized by eerie, tension-filled soundscapes, but starting with “Sympathy,” Korean vocals come into play, and the vibe shifts from aforementioned to almost comical. The style is a nod to 뽕짝, a Korean adult contemporary genre also called “trot” (similar to Japanese enka), and the mood of the songs delightfully contrast the visuals and the storyline. When the record first dropped in 2002, it sold out almost immediately, and if you’re a fan of the movie/director/trilogy, don’t sleep on this one. Picks – “Acorn Jelly in Mt. Seorak,” “Sympathy,” “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance,” “Un Unremarkable Dog,” and “A Story For Broadcast.”

• Music for part 1 of Park Chan Wook’s Vengeance Trilogy, Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance
• red vinyl
• gatefold sleeve
• newly designed artwork by Jae-min Lee
• 500 copies only
• music label: Beatball Music 2002 / 2018
• view all Record Store Day 2018 titles
• view all in-stock Record Store Day titles

reviewed by rei kwondo 05/2018