written by: McRoth

Not exactly K-Pop, but not underground either, rock duo Toxic have found themselves in an interesting position in the world of Korean music. Descending from the KBS competition show Top Band, Toxic have spent a lengthy amount of time after their win crafting their sound to remain edgy, while taking a new consideration in appealing to the masses. To the K-Pop ear, Toxic may be one of the most engaging and exciting acts to debut this year. With a quick listen to their debut EP, ‘First Bridge,’ it’s easy to see why.

‘First Bridge’ channels everything from funky garage rock to glitchy electronica and somehow Toxic manages to fuse it all together with addictive melodies to make it flow really, really well. I don’t want to call it digestible Korean rock, but for a lack of a better term, that’s kind of what it is.

There aren’t any incredibly deep and rich moments of rock in this release, but just enough kick to get the message across: we are rockers, hear us roar. For a couple of rookies, that’s sort of the way to go.

“Get Out” opens the small collection with all guns blazing. It’s a heavy rock intro that unfolds rather quickly into a hypnotizing thrill of adrenaline. The impression is a lasting one, and with the relatively demure lead single, “외로워,” acting as the fall from the high, we receive a very wholesome dose of the range this duo is capable of attaining in their music.

It’s refreshing, really, to hear Korean pop music, and I use the word pop very loosely here, embrace such bold experimentation. For such a unique point of view, I only wish this release was longer. There isn’t enough here to get a good grip of Toxic’s potential nor how complex their musicality can be. I kind of want more and that right there tells me Toxic’s doing something right.

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Scorecard

Points to stars conversion: [(2.5/4) x 5] + 0.25*

3.4/5

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*there is a 0.25 bonus for every album. The logic is that, if every song were “pretty good”, it’s a 4-star album.

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