Looking in the archives, the first time I heard of KIRARA was 2014. 10 years later and with ctsb : KIRARA’s 10th Anniversary Anthology, she highlights and cements her place in this area of electronic music. Honestly, it’s impressive how many releases happened in 10 years. And her “official” discography didn’t include a lot of early releases. But this anthology takes care of that. It’s a collection of songs, including cts3, cts4, and cts5, and gives listeners a pretty expansive lesson in KIRARA’s music.
I don’t think it’s worth saying too much about KIRARA’s music because you, as a listener, should get a true first impression. And since most of my listening history is with her earlier releases, it’s nice to return to some of these songs I forgot.
But one issue that happens with all musicians is potential repetition in the music and KIRARA is no stranger here. ctsb : KIRARA’s 10th Anniversary Anthology is 16 songs on Spotify with one hour and 15 minutes of music. That’s a good chunk of audio. But starting bedroom electronic artists might get more out of this set of songs rather than a casual listener. It’s a great background listen for most people who will hear a great hook and then reference the song. But It can feel like one long song.
A bonus is that all the songs are reissued with new mixing and mastering to take advantage of “today.” I think a nice set of headphones or speakers adds to the experience. If you’re an old fan and got some of these EPs off Bandcamp, you’ll like the audio improvement.
KIRARA’s music is a Korean electronic staple now. She’s produced so much work and created a signature sound and style that’s instantly recognizable. There are small steps with every release and this is a great example of where her journey showed the biggest growth.
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Written by Chris P for Korean Indie.