Korean indie band Youthlim will play Delay Relay Festival. Courtesy of Youthlim

Now that 2025 is underway, speculation has already begun about the shape of Korea's festival scene, with several big festivals having already made announcements. A new event has also been created, aiming to shine a spotlight on Korea's much-celebrated shoegaze scene. Delay Relay, founded and organized by James Lee, will take place from Saturday, Jan. 11, until Sunday, Feb. 2.

Korea — at least its indie scene — seems to love shoegaze music. There's something about the fuzzy, heavily layered guitar sounds, the sweeping melodies and the indecipherable vocals of shoegaze. For the uninitiated, shoegaze is a genre of music that stemmed out of the post-punk and dream pop scenes of the U.K. and Ireland in the 1980s, with bands like the Jesus and Mary Chain and Cocteau Twins taking their music in increasingly distorted directions. "Shoegaze" — a term derived from the amount of time band members spent staring down at their guitar pedals and effects boxes — came to describe a loosely connected group of bands, including Slowdive, Ride and the band whose music defined the genre, My Bloody Valentine.

Ironic HUE / Courtesy of Ironic HUE

"For me, shoegaze is basically distortion," Lee told The Korea Times. "It's a kind of noise that interferes with what would otherwise be a very clean, communicative performance. The warping frame of shoegaze adds or subtracts meaning and feeling to music, so shoegaze reminds us that what we hear and what we know is not always as clear-cut as we might or might not like it to be."

Landing Gear / Courtesy of Landing Gear

Lee has been working in Korea's underground music scene for years. He was the owner of Hippytokki, a short-lived but much-celebrated live music venue that sadly closed down shortly after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. He also organized Seoul Underground Music Festival, a multi-venue event that brought together some of Korea's coolest bands. In 2022, Lee recorded and produced "The Post-Rock," a compilation album consisting of 10 different artists working in the post-rock genre — a style of music that shares many aesthetic similarities with shoegaze.

"At the end of the day," Lee said, "any sort of project that helps out the underground scene here, I am always up to hearing about and discussing."

Nanparan / Courtesy of Nanparan

There's a rich legacy of shoegaze in Korea with a plethora of well-known names and underground bands exploring the style. But why does Korea's indie scene identify so strongly with this particular genre?

"I think the introspective sound of it really suits the indie bands here in Korea," Lee said. "Also, I haven't really thought about this before, but maybe there's something about the landscape of Korea. Korea has a lot of mountains. And hiking here is kind of a thing to do. I think shoegaze is kind of like that. It's a journey up a mountain, and there's a view, but in the end, you come back down and life goes on. It has this sort of ambiguous journeying aspect that is appealing to that sort of sensibility, possibly? But I'm not sure."

Narotic / Courtesy of Narotic

Over the years, Korea has produced some shoegaze bands that have gone on to become well-known names on the local scene, including Precocious Neophyte, Vidulgi OoyoO, TRPP, Electron Sheep and zzzaam. Beyond that, too, many big names that do not comfortably fit the shoegaze label have produced work that is clearly inspired by the genre — acts like Say Sue Me, Parannoul, Jambinai and 3rd Line Butterfly. And this is only scratching the surface — there's a whole ecosystem of well-loved, if lesser-known, musicians working within the genre in Korea.

This is where Delay Relay comes in.

Noise Between the Lines / Courtesy of Noise Between the Lines

"I was discussing with the owner of Club Bbang about organizing a multi-venue music festival," Lee said. "Bbang has a great connection to the local shoegaze scene, and many great ones have passed through their venue. I wanted to do an event that shined a light on some of the underground scene here, so I decided on shoegaze. For me, it was either that or punk, as I knew a few bands in both scenes. But punk has its own DIY ethos, so that scene kind of takes care of itself, whereas the shoegaze scene has been somewhat neglected in terms of promotional wrappers. Also, shoegaze has been on a bit of an upswell after the pandemic — emo and shoegaze. Both of these genres really kind of fit the zeitgeist, that overall mood of uncertainty and anxiety, so better now than never."

Saihan Yoon / Courtesy of Saihan Yoon

Delay Relay will feature 32 artists from a number of genres, but all of them are inspired by the aesthetics of shoegaze.

Of the 32 bands, Youthlim is the one Lee is most excited to see. "They're an alternative band that I have known since the Hippytokki days that have been dormant for a while and are reappearing on the scene this year with a new album that is supposed to be shoegaze," Lee said. "I am also excited to see Hamster Powder Club, who are coming back to life, back from the dead! Everyone likes zombies, right?"

The full lineup includes Narotic, NANPARAN, Not My Bass, daydream, Dim, Landing Gear, re:nier, Lilly Eat Machine, MXNX SLXXP, DESERT FLOWER, Seoul Magic Club, Swiimers, Skittles, Syntapunk, ironic HUE, YOUNG OH, Ghost Bookstore, Youthlim, Saihan Yoon, .iRO, Wings of the ISANG, ZANRYUPA, Zzzaam, Jeon Dain Band, JUNG JE, Jane Coral, Jinchang & Quad J Boys, Kozy&Noisy, Pale Blue Sound, FOG, Hamster Powder Club and Noise Between The Lines.

"Luckily, I will get to see them all live," Lee added.

Syntapunk / Courtesy of Syntapunk

Planning the event has not always been smooth sailing, though, and Lee has faced some challenges, particularly when it came to connecting with 32 artists.

"Club Bbang has a history with some of the oldest bands in the shoegaze scene and helped connect me to some of those bands," Lee said. "I also want to thank Charity Lynn, who designed the poster and also gave some great suggestions about bands. She probably knows the local shoegaze scene better than I do."

A poster for Delay Relay / Courtesy of Charity Lynn

Delay Relay bucks the trend of most music festivals by being spread over several weekends, with one stage open per day. This offers two clear advantages for festival attendees. First, it gives ticket holders the chance to cherry-pick which acts they want to see, buying tickets for the bands they're interested in. Second of all, it allows for the possibility of Delay Relay attendees to see every act that's participating without scheduling clashes.

Follow @delay_relay on Instagram or visit bit.ly/delayrelay for more information.

Jamie Finn is chief editor of Platform Magazine.