Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble performs "Our Factory's Girls"

From North Korea's nonstop hit-making music machine: Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble - "Our Factory's Girls."

(Is there some kind of rule that says all music made in dictatorships shall be played on Hammond E-100 knockoffs?)

(Thanks, Brian!)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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http://twitter.com/RGBSEXONPSDS MarteGracia

The Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble is fucking fantastic. My favorite song of theirs has to be “Reunification Rainbow” It even adds a killer electric guitar solo.
saint_al

Pass the ear bleach, please. Image at 1:00 made me recall P.J. O’Rourke’s comment “Commies love concrete”.
- millie fink
  
  Sadly, you also remind of his written comment, while looking at a crowd of South Korean protesters, that “they really DO all look alike.”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

The second slide proves that the DPRK is still number one in the world in production of really, really big noodles.
Mark_Frauenfelder

Wikipedia: “They have been reported to be one of the country’s most popular groups, although other critics have questioned what it means for a group to be popular in a country where the only music legally available comes from the few state-sanctioned musicians.”
http://walkingwithshimmer.wordpress.com/ Werther deGoethe

I give it a ten because it’s got juche and I can dance to it.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Nell-Anvoid/100002383626402 Nell Anvoid

Can’t get it out of my head.
peregrinus

Isn’t this the french entry to the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest? I’m sure I remember Terry Wogan commenting on the more oriental aspects of the composition.
peregrinus

… oh, and yes, the rule for PRNK NKPD KPDR North Korea is “if you don’t use a Hammond E-100 knockoff, you will be selected as the failsafe manual-operation mechanism for the Republic’s Glory in ensuring its nuclear weapon test proceeds smoothly”
fuzzyfuzzyfungus

Do the masses make passes at girls who wear glasses?
spacedmonkey

The E-100 knockoff is an acceptable alternative to bombastic symphonic arrangements of traditional songs selected to express your nationalist fervor.
pjcamp

His master’s voice.
http://jimbeach.net mindfu

I lasted 24 seconds. Anyone else?
- Paul Holt
  
  I’m on my second time through, waving my arms back and forth while sitting in my office chair, filled with love for Beloved Leader.
SophieMerry

Well, Dick, it has a catchy tune and you can dance to it; I’ll give it a 75.
Paul Holt

No I just gotta turn it way up and go for a third. This is DPRK’s answer to Gangnam Style!
Paul Holt

Blow your mind with Reunification Rainbow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jhre5q9fzg
gorfulator

My eyes mroisten when I hear this resplendent ballad ….
http://profile.yahoo.com/65CSAR3QATRNKJW4NYNB2BESZE JohnQPublic

holy crap. Why would you want to (re)-unite with that country? I wouldn’t even invite them to brunch!
Thomas Houlberg

It seems to lack a certain panache… perhaps they could try adding a hint of reverberation.
- http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
  
  It reminds me of a tape of ‘pop music’ produced by BYU I had as a kid; like it has that Lawrence Welk quality to it.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=7609309 DJ Hatfield

i’m thinking that this sonic dreck fuels a counterdesire–probably provided amply on black markets–for mandopop and kpop from the south. just sayin’
Jonathan Badger

Is there some kind of rule that says all music made in dictatorships shall be played on Hammond E-100 knockoffs?

It’s more like how the aesthetic sense of isolated dictatorships tends to resemble that of the West of decades past. Compare the East German Trabant, which ignoring the shoddy build quality, rather resembles Western cars of the 1950s and 1960s, despite being made into the early 1990s.
howaboutthisdangit

According to Wikipedia, they have released over 150 CDs as of 2007. It takes a special group to be that prolific while still remaining fresh and innovative.

I hear this track is at the top of Dennis Rodman’s playlist.
unaboomer

I’m a huge fan of PEE. When I’m working late at the factory sometimes me and the other guys get together and let its warmness course down our bodies at high volumes.

I can honestly say that PEE is the best thing to come out of an organ in years.
http://twitter.com/buddhamachine buddhamachine

for fans of this “genre”, check out a full album-length mix of the stuff i did a few years back for the label Sublime Frequencies…

http://www.sublimefrequencies.com/item.asp?Item_id=26&cd=Radio-Pyongyang:-Commie-Funk-and-Agit-Pop-from-the-Hermit-Kingdom