Review Summary: The Glow Pt. 2 Pt. 2

Asian Glow is an anonymous emo/noise-pop bedroom project from Seoul, next. You know what Asian glow is; draw your own conclusions as to why the project is named as such. Their/his/her/whoever’s new album Cull Ficle is a bittersweet electric mopey bolt of joy, packed with jagged waves of fuzz, coursing melodies that bleed into one another like half-regretted daydreamed days on an old calendar, and an attitude to both rhythm and dynamics that is just as likely to rush the album three paces forward as it is to plonk its feet up at any given moment. By the sum of its parts and the thrusting pathos of its tone, it’s an emo record through and through, but there’s so much fission behind its hotblooded shifts of intensity that it bypasses the ennui and overbearing earnestness commonly associated with its Midwestern US correlates. Many an emo record has been built around inviting its audience to share the weight of its baggage; Asian Glow spare us the bother, throwing theirs skyward with a delicious abandon.

On top of that, Cull Ficle is thoroughly adept at making old tricks its own. Asian Glow keep their acoustic guitars lofi and underscore them with enough waves of amplified overdrive to all but erase the difference (“들판”); they feint at starting and stopping their tracks so many times that the moment they finally let rip somes with the surprise of a forgotten promise suddenly realised rather than the telegraphed gratification of a traditional climax (“Circumstances Telling Me Who I Am”); their most exuberant outpourings feel impossibly restless even as they let loose into perhaps the most cathartic walls of noise you’ll hear this year (“카리스마 대빵큰오리”). In this sense, the album’s approach to release is thoroughly non-committal, further reflected by how each song maps out different configurations of the same emotive and dynamic beats rather than actively building on anything laid down over the course of its sequencing. This runs the risk of homogeneity, but there’s enough desperation and energy in Asian Glow’s all-powerful fuzzy layerings that it’s as invigorating to hear them run up the same hill across consecutive playthroughs as it is from song to song. This version of Sisyphus has more than enough residual angst, melodic flair and DAW plug-ins to flesh out an infectious reminder of why his act is such a recurrently compelling one.

Aptly enough, Cull Ficle’s closest parallels aren’t yesterday’s Midwestern fads, but now-aged rock opuses that attained timelessness through similar songwriting kineticism, raw tones and sheer depth of conviction: The Microphones’ The Glow Pt. 2 and Bloodthirsty Butchers’ Kocorono spring to mind. Cull Ficle doesn’t have quite the same diversity or innovation of either of these; it’s an excellent bedroom record not an era-defining staple, but I have a hunch it’ll preserve its thrills just as well.




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user ratings (47)
3.5
great

Comments:Add a Comment 
JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
April 6th 2021


62343 Comments

Album Rating: 3.9

tl;dr it's a Glow Pt.2esque fuzzy barnstormer from a korean bedroom emo project and it's name-yr-price and it's very good. band name is unfortunate

Review is not my best, wanted to try a flash writing exercise, so I pushed through a draft + redraft in p much exactly an hr flat. But now there is a review, hooray

also big thanks hal for recing this. beaut stuff

parksungjoon
April 6th 2021


47231 Comments


>so I pushed through a draft + redraft in p much exactly an hr flat

jesus

Gnocchi
Staff Reviewer
April 6th 2021


18262 Comments


dude.

JesperL
Staff Reviewer
April 6th 2021


5664 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

nice yes will read in a bit, jammed this morning and it's very good

Slex
April 6th 2021


17255 Comments


Is that not how everybody writes??

Ily Johnny finally putting this on rn

Prancer
April 6th 2021


1634 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

took me several times noticing the album title to realize it didn't say "Full Circle"

hal1ax
April 6th 2021


15777 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

lol you are the man

lovely record

Gyromania
April 6th 2021


37468 Comments


"Aptly enough, Cull Ficle’s truest correlates aren’t yesterday’s Midwestern fads, but now-aged rock"

This prob works but it seems like an awkward way to use 'correlates'. Good review tho

Cormano
April 6th 2021


4255 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

sign me the fuck up



also review is good my dude

hal1ax
April 6th 2021


15777 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

i love everything about that second paragraph

Slex
April 6th 2021


17255 Comments


Sick album

GhandhiLion
April 6th 2021


17677 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

nice, this album was ok mopey microphones emo

Colton
April 6th 2021


15755 Comments


very unfortunate band and album name

dbizzles
April 6th 2021


15253 Comments


There is still time to delete this summary : )

Colton
April 6th 2021


15755 Comments


Sowing-esque in his review summaries, Joe

Gyromania
April 6th 2021


37468 Comments


Couldn't get into this

Slex
April 6th 2021


17255 Comments


Shame dude

JesperL
Staff Reviewer
April 6th 2021


5664 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

imma settle on a 3.5 for now bc it do be very long but i can def see this being a grower

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
April 6th 2021


62343 Comments

Album Rating: 3.9

"Sowing-esque in his review summaries, Joe"

if this was a Sowing summary, it'd say The Glow Pt.3; the current ver is too dumb to be anyone's summary and therefore it's perf

"This prob works but it seems like an awkward way to use 'correlates'."

Hmmm, I can hear this in my head/out loud but also I am very very sleepy and you're probs right, will replace

also have never noticed the length, but damn ig it do be that way

Snake.
April 7th 2021


25376 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

big if true



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