hankyoreh

Sultan of the Disco (provided by BGBG Record)

More and more South Korean rock bands are appearing at overseas music festivals.

One of the latest is Sultan of the Disco, a band that will be playing at the UK’s Glastonbury Festival between June 22 and 26. The rock duo Dead Buttons, the dance rock duo Wedance, and the psychedelic punk band DTSQ earned official invites to appear on June 2 and 3 at “The Next Big Thing,” part of Spain’s Primavera Pro event to discover new indie acts.

Sultan of the Disco, Dead Buttons, and DTSQ shared their excitement over the opportunity, the first in a telephone interview and the latter two by email.

Sultan of the Disco, which specializes in “live disco performances,” describes itself as “fun but not ridiculous.” The music alone is enough to leave shoulders bopping. Once the live performance is factored in, listeners are floored.

This year is Sultan of the Disco’s second straight appearing at Glastonbury.

“We thought it was a joke,” said lead vocalist Abdullah Nahzam of the first invite. A programmer for the festival contacted the group after happening to see a performance on a trip to the bathroom. The venue was Cheoyong Festival in Ulsan, and music business insiders happened to be attending the Asia Pacific Music Meeting next door.

The band’s second invitation may have come thanks to that same enthusiasm coming through at one of the world‘s top rock festivals.

Audiences of all types have responded especially strongly to the “triple threat” during on “The Power of Oil,” as guitarist Omar Hong lies down and dancer J. J. Hassan provides support from behind as Abdullah Nahzam climbs up to play a keyboard solo.

DTSQ

DTSQ (Delta Sequence) consists of Kim Su-hyun on vocals, Lee Joon-sub on synthesizer, and Park Soon-pyung on drums. The music is an indefinable combination of punk and psychedelia - but the music has no equal in excitement.

The band said they like making music that’s unpredictable, but also make it so that it‘s not too inaccessible to listeners.

The invitation from Primavera came in the middle of the night. Shaking, Kim and Lee sent each other texts saying “No way.” Both were too excited to sleep. Park slept through the text message alert, so the other members called him up to wake him.

The act’s trip to Primavera comes after previous performances at France’s Nuits Sonores and Liverpool Sound City.

“For our Primavera performance, we want to present something like the way we perform in Korean clubs,” the members said.

Dead Buttons

Consisting of Hong Ji-hyun on guitar and Lee Kang-hee on drums, Dead Buttons is a rock band with a powerful sound. The act is currently on tour after the European release of its first official album, “Some Kind of Youth.”

“We came back to Britain not long ago after finishing a tour in Switzerland, France, and Germany. We’re currently planning to perform in London, Manchester, and Liverpool before moving on to Spain,” Hong and Lee explained.

Lee, who spent his teenage years in Ecuador, had been hoping to go to Spain anyway after the European tour ended.

“At one point, we were talking about how we wanted to go to Primavera, and then we got invited. It was a huge surprise,” the members said.

“We really like [US garage rock band] Black Lips, which is going to be playing at Primavera,” they added. “We can also see [Canadian rock band band] Destroyer, who we couldn’t see when they played in Korea because we were on tour.”

Dead Buttons is set to continue touring after the festival.

By Ku Dool-rae, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]