Pop sensation Psy put South Korea on the musical map with his much imitated global sensation Gangnam Style.
Now an unsigned London band are hoping to capture the public’s imagination in the same way with an electro pop song about its rogue neighbour North Korea.
But compared to the scantily clad women of Gangnam Style, Vanish the Night by Ooberfuse is rather less light-hearted. The song — which features lyrics such as “Who’s that killing every human enterprise? Who’s that launching deadly missiles in the skies?” alongside footage of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un — has already had more than 20,000 views on YouTube.
The song also features the voice of Shin Dong-Hyuk, the only person known to have escaped from North Korea’s notorious Camp 14 prison camp.
The band said they were inspired in part by the recent Panorama documentary on the state. Keyboard player and backing vocalist Hal St John, 28, from Woolwich, said he and fellow band members, former LSE student singer Cherrie Anderson, 24, and guitarist Nico Cox, 22, were so shocked by the human rights abuses of the state that they wanted to create a song highlighting the plight of its people. He said: “It’s just unthinkable and inconceivable that this kind of situation can still prevail in the 21st century.”
