The Shadow Palace, the first regular album of 9 and Numbers, '9 and Numbers' LP, unfortunately came to an end. For 9 (Song Jae-kyung), Shadow Palace was a very important band. 9 wanted to lead the Shadow Palace and make a mark in the Korean pop music scene. As much as such aspirations, the Shadow Palace played enchanting music. The combination of dreamy psychedelic sound and strange melody was unique. However, it was realistically difficult for such musical characteristics to be accepted in Korea at the time. In order to maintain the band, I worked at an academy and worked hard, but what came to me was burnout.

Sometimes I think about the fate of music. There were songs that he wrote quietly alone at home, exhausted to the point of burnout. Songs written lightly, incomparable to the effort put into the Shadow Palace, piled up. It wasn't a song I wrote with an announcement in mind to the point of expressing myself as unfamiliar, but I decided to leave it as a keepsake. The Shadow Palace was dismantled, the label it was operating was also organized, and as an office worker, it was a souvenir-like music that announced a new start after a period of 9, which was about to face a new social life.

Everyone knows what happened to that music. Critics posted the music of 9 and numbers on the stage of praise, and various media introduced the music of 9 and numbers. When I was active as a shadow palace, I was able to face a full audience and sing, which I had never experienced before. It was the first time I experienced many things, and I decided to try a new band 9 and numbers with the pleasure of the experience. The song that I just made without any particular desire stood on its own and led 9 to where it is now.

I still vividly remember the first time I heard the music of 9 and numbers. When 9 sings “Your eyes are as bright as stars” with the sound of the synthesizer in the first song of the debut album “9 and Numbers”, two emotions of wonder and joy crossed. I was relieved when the chorus of "I miss you every night looking for me" came out. The wonder of remembering the Shadow Palace soon turned into a sense of joy and relief that he was still making good melodies. The clear melody of "Tell me" that followed was a clear declaration that clearly announced 9's transformation.

retro and melodic. This was the signature and musical characteristic that 9 had until then. Even in the Shadow Palace, he borrowed the sound of psychedelic bands in the past, but sang a soft melody that only he could create in it, completing unique music that could not be heard anywhere else. Even in 9 and numbers, the retro sentiment and melody were still valid. In Shadow Palace, I focused more on sound and style and didn't emphasize the melody in the foreground, but in 9 and numbers, I put the melody at the forefront. It was clear enough that you could sing along to the melody of "Tell Me" after hearing it just once.

In terms of sound and performance, I chose familiarity rather than experimentation. The second half of "Orange County" gives you the feeling of listening to the music of a campus group sound in the late 1970s. The synthesizer sound faintly heard in the following ?Dance of Farewell? guides you to the synth-pop era of the 1980s. With the background of the times of the 70s/80s, while revealing one's taste as it is, it is not old-fashioned and touches the present without any disturbing parts. Even now, 14 years after it was announced, it is still conveyed with a sense of nostalgia.

When talking about the music of 9 and numbers, the indispensable thing is the lyrics. If the 9 of the Shadow Palace wrote the lyrics in an ambiguous metaphorical sentence, the 9 and the 9 of the numbers show the 'literature boy' we know. Even in one song, there are so many ingenious expressions that it is difficult to enumerate them all, and overall it seems like reading a piece of literature. Words such as 'paper crane', 'grass bug', and 'flower seed' appear, but they are completed in one sentence, and old-fashioned turns into romance.

When the CD of ?9 and Numbers? was released, this phrase was written on the promotional sticker.

“Songs with the perfect number 9 that suddenly came to us, the amazing magic of Korean indie/synth-pop/guitar-pop/folk music unfolds.”

Most promotional phrases are exaggerated, but now, surprisingly, these sentences are all true. 9's song, which came out of nowhere, contained all the emotions of synth-pop, guitar-pop, folk, and old songs while continuing the Korean indie tradition. And those songs have played a magical role of arousing the surroundings the moment you hear them. Songs that I keep looking for and listening to even now, 14 years later. So, the last sentence of this article has no choice but to borrow the lyrics of “The Dance of Farewell”.

“Our own familiar melody that we hummed together.”
? Kim Hak-seon/Popular Music Critic

* 2LP transparent yellow color (French pressing) (limited edition of 1300 copies)
* Gatefold jacket + lyrics/liner notes
* Designer Lee Jae-min artwork