Leenalchi

“The anticipation and joy that exist between an exclamation mark and a question mark”: That is how Ahn Yi-ho, one of four vocalists in the astounding Korean group Leenalchi, described the band’s frisson in 2025. Indeed, for many Western listeners, Leenalchi will initially prompt loads of questions. What sort of seven-piece, for instance, has two bassists, a drummer, a keyboardist, and four vocalists who have trained extensively in pansori? And what exactly is pansori? Pansori is an ancient Korean storytelling form, used to transmit epic Korean stories through song across centuries and steeped in shamanism, so that the surreal supplants reality. Leenalchi founder Jang Young Gyu, or Mr. Jang, has been pushing pansori into Korean pop for 20 years, including with SSingSSing, a band that went mega-viral through NPR’s Tiny Desk. Their debut EP and LP for Luaka Bop are based on pansori; 2026’s Sugungga relays the story of a turtle out to save a king with the liver of a sacrificial rabbit.

But to listen to Leenalchi is to love the exclamation mark. Their two-bass bounce recalls the gilded minimalism of ESG, the red-hot joy of The B-52s, and the psychedelic romp of Parliament. Pansori vocalists often train alongside waterfalls, not only building strength by overcoming the sound of rushing water but building versatility by aiming to move the way water moves. The singers in Leenalchi are electrifying, diving deep for verses on “If You Want Me to Say” before their harmonies spread out like a rainbow and treating “A Fish Map” a little like a rap song anchored to a contagious chorus. “Leenalchi has changed the way I think about music and Korea,” Brian Eno said amid the global K-Wave. “I have never heard anything quite like this.”