{"id":123336,"date":"2026-08-18T11:45:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T11:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/123336\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T11:45:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T11:45:06","slug":"k-pop-worlds-collide-at-fka-twigs-seoul-rave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/123336\/","title":{"rendered":"K-pop worlds collide at FKA twigs’ Seoul rave"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seoul Community Radio x FKA twigs rave (2026)<\/p>\n

Gallery \/ 23 images<\/p>\n

Just 24 hours after arriving in Seoul, I find myself watching FKA twigs pole dance to a surprise performance from K-pop boyband stars The8 and Vernon. Just moments prior, no one expected that this would happen (why would you?). German-born producer Mechatok was knee-deep into DJing his roster of hyperpop anthems when he suddenly teased the opening, turbocharged beats of \u201csingasong\u201d \u2013 his gloriously left-field collaboration with the superstar duo otherwise known as V8. Suddenly, The8 and Vernon rushed the stage for an unannounced set, prompting every smartphone camera light in attendance to switch on in unison. Moments later, twigs \u2013 the night\u2019s headliner \u2013 glides into view and begins writhing on the dance pole at the side of the stage. I was in shock. This isn\u2019t the K-pop I\u2019m familiar with, I thought to myself. But, it turns out, that was kind of the point.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s rewind. The event took place last Tuesday (August 11) at central Seoul\u2019s spaceship-like Dongdaemun Design Plaza, and was organised as one of three tenth anniversary celebrations for groundbreaking South Korean radio station-slash-club-movement Seoul Community Radio taking place this year. Featuring performances from K-pop revolutionary The Deep, Yves, German-born EDM-pop producer Mechatok, FKA twigs and, of course, the unannounced V8 set, the event paid homage to the wide-ranging dance sonics SCR has uplifted over the past decade \u2013 and also led to some unexpected encounters on the dancefloor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Throughout the night I saw K-pop-style glow sticks pulse to Skepta\u2019s \u201cShutdown\u201d during cult Madrid DJs Josef and Diego Armando\u2019s set; I saw all-black-clad techno acolytes of twigs\u2019 Eusexua era vogue to a donk remix of \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Safe\u201d; and, at one point, I even spotted two South Korean ravers half-seriously doing the tectonic dance during Mechatok\u2019s hyperpop anthems. My preconceptions were checked from the moment I arrived.<\/p>\n

\"Pin<\/a>\"DAZED_FKAtwigs_Rave_SeoulThe DeepPhotography Stephen Choi (@stephenswchoi); Assistants Minje Kang (@kangminjedot) and Minjae Sung (@sung.m.j)<\/p>\n

But the true heart of the event was The Deep and Yves \u2013 two local rising stars who are innovating on the globally recognisable K-pop formula. Along with contemporaries like Effie and kimj, they represent a growing Korean subcurrent of maximalist sonics, diverse influences and, most importantly, a railing against the rigid restrictions usually applied to major label Korean talent. \u201cIt\u2019s like what grime was to garage,\u201d SCR founder Rich told me a week before the event, highlighting how this new generation of Korean artists are starting to repackage the flashy excesses of K-pop in a less-polished, more-DIY box.<\/p>\n

On the night, I put Rich\u2019s theory to a South Korean raver I met in the impromptu smoking area (really just a cordoned-off bin next to a main road): \u201cIt\u2019s like the counter-culture \u2013 people got bored of K-pop so this is the new thing,\u201d Ha-joon* told me. \u201cNo K-pop artist would ever play here.\u201d I smiled knowingly at that last point. Just you wait, I thought.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because, to everyone\u2019s surprise, two K-pop superstars did perform that night \u2013 but their appearance only underscored Ha-joon\u2019s point. Splintering off from award-winning boy-band Seventeen, The8 and Vernon\u2019s latest collaborative project is notable for exploring the sort of digital maximalism that distinguishes The Deep-and-co\u2019s movement, and even features guest production from kimj himself. Their recent collaboration with Mechatok, meanwhile, is similarly telling, paying homage to the Drain Gang-affiliated producer who has recently become a ubiquitous presence in forward-thinking electronic scenes the world over and going so far as to name-check him in the track\u2019s chorus (\u201cI feel like Mechatok\u201d the duo croon). V8\u2019s involvement in the event, then, was symbolic: K-pop\u2019s biggest names now want a piece of the underground pie.<\/p>\n

\"Pin<\/a>\"DAZED_FKAtwigs_Rave_SeoulPhotography Stephen Choi (@stephenswchoi); Assistants Minje Kang (@kangminjedot) and Minjae Sung (@sung.m.j)<\/p>\n

Of course, all of this took place before the event\u2019s real headline performance: FKA twigs \u2013 who, climbing off the pole and returning after one of many outfit changes throughout the night, really got the rave going. Twigs\u2019 DJ spun upbeat, techno-flicked dance rhythms as, one-by-one, the ethereal singer dragged all the artists that had performed that night up onto the stage: Yves rubbed shoulders with Vernon, The8 rubbed shoulders with The Deep, and event staff began to gyrate on the stage\u2019s strip-pole in what I took as a sign that all rules had gone out the window. Indeed, soon after came various members of the crowd \u2013 K-pop stans, twigs\u2019 techno troopers, even my new friend Ha-joon were invited to mob out the stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I later learned that an unexpected sore throat had prevented twigs from singing much that night, but, in the midst of this chaotic curtain call, no one seemed to care. What twigs had done was even more powerful: knowingly or not, she had christened the K-pop underground \u2013 and everyone, it seems, was invited.<\/p>\n

Check out the gallery above for a closer look at the night.<\/p>\n

Photography assistants: Minje Kang (@kangminjedot) and Minjae Sung (@sung.m.j)<\/p>\n

* name has been changed.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seoul Community Radio x FKA twigs rave (2026) Gallery \/ 23 images Just 24 hours after arriving in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2839,2844,2843,2845,2846,2847,2848,2849,2257,2840,2841,2842,195,913],"class_list":["post-123336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-art","tag-dazed","tag-dazed-confused","tag-dazed-confused-magazine","tag-dazed-and-confused","tag-dazed-and-confused-magazine","tag-dazedconfused","tag-dazeddigital","tag-fashion","tag-film","tag-ideas","tag-ideas-sharing-network","tag-k-pop","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}