Music: Top of The Drop

▲ The restaurant’s simple menu.

a little salty. You get crispy bits from the charring of the stone and tender mouthfuls of what didn’t get to touch the pan. Subtle hints of the flavor of everything but never too much of anything. Does that make sense? Let’s call it a campus-friendly, local Korean culinary symphony of tastes.

Hopefully, this piece of writing will serve as the written trailer for the establishment, and will leave you intrigued enough to visit whether you are interested in the décor of the place or are merely trying to save up on cash. Whether you’re simply looking for diverse local food experiences to make the most of your journey in Gwangju or are a student searching for meaning in every nook and cranny of the CNU area, like myself, this place has got you covered with taste, atmosphere, and price.

CHEONJIYEON GRILLED PORK BELLY

천지연삼겹살

Address

Seoljuk-ro 214 beon-gil 90, Buk-gu, Gwangju (Chonnam National University back gate area)

광주 북구 설죽로214번길 90 Phone: 062-522-9210

The Author

Yousra Feriel Drioua is a KGSP 21 scholar from Algeria, and previously a CNU Korean language trainee and currently a mass communication and journalism graduate school student at Kangwon National University. She seeks to learn and gain various experiences all around. She loves coffee, driving, deep conversations with friends and writing. Instagram @ myyilgi

Top of The Drop

By Daniel J. Springer

Each month, Daniel Springer of the Gwangju Foreign Language Network (GFN) picks his favorite newly released tunes that you may not have heard yet, along with some upcoming albums and EPs that you might want to keep on your radar. — Ed.

BEYONCÉ – “PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA”

Okay, we’re just going to get this out of the way to start because, as usual, the latest Bey bombshell sits astride the world like it’s riding for fun, and you can’t help but stare, and it’s almost impossible to hate. The seventh studio album from the Houstonborn Personification of Pop Quality is here, it’s called Renaissance, and it’s just quality you cannot deny even with the SJW ruckus over language that forced a change in the lyrics and therefore the album post-release. This is one of those moments where the digital age of music is clearly inferior, as it would be pretty sweet to have a vinyl copy of the original album.

PINE BARONS – “BABY BLUE”

This is a band out of South New Jersey who’ve been putting together some very interesting projects since debuting in 2017. Their latest is a tribute

to the genius of Fishmans, the cult-favorite band from the 1990’s lead by the ever androgenous and experimental Shinji Sato. I Love Fish is out in full, as of July 8, and shows the band’s growing maturity in approach, having very competently put their own twist on the Fishmans sound – not an easy thing to pull off.

NICK LENG – “EASY”

Throughout this hypnotic and intricate joint layered with atmospherics of all kinds, a beautiful piano, and buildups that groove so hard that once the wave crashes over, the lyrics state “you make it look easy.” And that’s just what Nick Leng does, however impossible it may seem at times, as the LA-based South African takes you through the jagged motions of every excruciating multi-layered dream cake of Spirals, which dropped July 22.

WHITNEY – “BLUE”

The on-the-rise Chicago indie outfit really hit a major note with 2019’s Forever Turned Around and 2020’s Candid, the latter being a collection of very diverse covers of influences for the band that was just perfectly delivered. With the release of this tune, the duo of Max Kakacek and Julien Ehrlich have announced their next album Spark, due out on September 16.

RON TRENT (FEAT. KHRUANGBIN) – “FLOS POTENTIA (SUGAR, COTTON, TOBACCO)”

If you’re like me and a big fan of deep house music, you could not have missed the Chicago veteran Ron Trent’s reinterpretation of “Shida” featured on the Mordechai Remixes LP. Now, the trio that claims Houston as their home, even though they are from some outer region of another galaxy, have added some elements to this track, a truly expansive and macrocosmic bit of piano-centered Afro-Cuban dance music that truly lets the mind wander. Khruangbin will also be in Seoul November 12, so do mark that if you were unaware previously.

SUN’S SIGNATURE – “BLUEDUSK”

If you were looking at this band name totally unaware of what this was, do trust you are not alone. The band is a duo consisting of Cocteau Twins’ lead singer Elizabeth Fraser and romantic partner Damon Reece, releasing a self-titled collection of five songs on an EP that just crackles and glimmers away. Only five songs, these tracks are a decade in the making, but Fraser, after all these years, still has a voice that could make a child possessed by demons coo peacefully.

US GIRLS – “SO TYPICALLY NOW”

You might have been starting to wonder where Meg Remy had gone since the release of 2020’s stunning Heavy Light. Of course, the answer to that is locked down with the rest of us, but clearly thinking a lot harder about the larger implications of COVID, with this tune wondering about both the overconsumption of the wealthy amidst this crisis and Remy’s own complicity in that.

MAGGIE ROGERS – “ANYWHERE WITH YOU”

There may be artists in the last decade who rose to the very apex of the game quicker than Maggie Rogers, but the student who turned the head of Pharrell years ago feels like the real deal. Here to stay. It’s rather disorienting to think that this summer’s Surrender LP is only Rogers’ sophomore album, but it is. Oh, it’s also absolutely smashing stuff.

ALEX G – “CROSS THE SEA”

The artist that was once known with “Sandy” attached is now just “Alex G,” and this tune heralds God Save the Animals, which comes out in full on September 23 (along with like, ALL of the others for this year… it’s insane). This tune sees Alex G fluttering between a folktronica base and

moments of ambience to create a cut that feels both semi-choral and right next to your ear at the same time.

RINA SAWAYAMA – “HOLD THE GIRL”

This is the title track to Rina Sawayama’s career-third LP, which promises to be a very different animal than the sophomore record Sawayama, logically thrown down after the London-based artist’s 2017 debut Rina. The album has been described as a development of ideas from “across the pop spectrum,” and pop those influences certainly are, but somewhat surprising, nonetheless.

NURDJANA – “DO THE RIGHT THING (REVISION)”

One EP we neglected to shout out last month was this wonderful Dutch Canada-based artist’s Coming Home. This is a wonderful collection of Daptoneesque soul tunes that are both a tribute to and completion of the songwriting work of her father, a touching collection of incredibly well-made soul tunes.

The Author

Daniel J. Springer (aka “Danno”) is the creator, host, writer, editor, and producer of “The Drop with Danno,” broadcasting nightly on GFN 98.7 FM in Gwangju and 93.7 FM in Yeosu from 8 to10 p.m. Prior to this, he was a contributor to several shows on TBS eFM in Seoul, along with being the creator and co-host of “Spacious” and “White Label Radio” on WNUR in Chicago. You can find “The Damyang Drop,” his monthly collaborative playlist with The Damyang House, on YouTube and Spotify. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook: @gfnthedrop

August LPs

Lauv – All 4 Nothing (August 5) Kasabian – The Alchemist’s Euphoria (August 5) Danger Mouse & Black Thought – Cheat Codes (August 12) Kiwi Jr. – Chopper (August 12) Osees – A Foul Form (August 12) Hot Chip – Freakout/Release (August 19) Cass McCombs – Heartmind (August 19) Panic! At the Disco – Viva Las Vengeance (August 19) The Mountain Goats – Bleed Out (August 19) Ezra Furman – All of Us Flames (August 26) Julia Jacklin – Pre Pleasure (August 26) Stella Donnelly – Flood (August 26)

September LPs

Two Door Cinema Club – Keep on Smiling (September 2) Built to Spill – When the Wind Forgets Your Name (September 9) Sampa The Great – As Above, So Below (September 9) John Legend – Legend (September 9) Santigold – Spirituals (September 9) Sudan Archives – Natural Brown Prom Queen (September 9) Blackpink – Born Pink (September 16) Death Cab for Cutie – Asphalt Meadows (September 16) Suede – Autofiction (September 16) The Beths – Expert in a Dying Field (September 16) The Mars Volta – s/t (September 16) Whitney – Spark (September 16) Say She She – Prism (September 23) Alex G – God Save the Animals (September 23) Editors – EBM (September 23) Makaya McCraven – In These Times (September 23) Christine & The Queens – Redcar les adorables étoiles (September 23) Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Cool It Down (September 30) Off! – Free LSD (September 30) Titus Andronicus – The Will to Live (September 30)