사실을 알고나니
isn’t it strange?
거울 inside 한번도 본적 없지?
So begins 약속 / Yaksok, the new single from Las Vegas trio Past Self, and already we’re cast adrift in the disquieting territory of promises: their fragility, their betrayals, and their power to define who we are in the eyes of others and in the mirrors we avoid.
Past Self were not born in neon shadows but within the walls of a College of Southern Nevada music production class, where Sung Joo Kim, Julian West (Spektor), and Holly Haywood (æther) discovered a shared inclination for texture, unease, and melody. Their early incarnation as Luxury Furniture Store leaned psychedelic, but the tumult of 2020 and the turbulence of its aftermath pushed them elsewhere. By 2023, they shed that skin and renamed themselves Past Self, a title that carries its own dirge of regret and recognition.
Their chosen moniker feels apt: the music is haunted by memory, by ghostly traces of who one once was. Past Self embraces their self-described “K-Goth” identity, fusing Korean and English lyrics into a single breath, pulling threads from darkwave, shoegaze, and post-punk until the distinctions blur. There’s something of The Cure’s mournful openness here, a touch of The Horrors’ dramatic sweep, the thick haze of My Bloody Valentine—but translated into a bilingual register that feels wholly new.
약속 translates to Promise, and the track sits in that liminal space between vow and void. Kim’s voice trembles with intimacy, weaving Korean and English into the same line, while Spektor’s bass rolls like undertow, dragging everything into its current. Æther’s keys shimmer at the surface, at once consoling and accusatory, while the absence of live drums paradoxically heightens the immediacy—the rhythm pulses with mechanical insistence, like a clock reminding you of time slipping away.
약속 is unsettling in its clarity: “Now that you know the truth, isn’t it strange? You’ve never once looked inside the mirror.” It is less confession than indictment, sung with the weight of knowing that self-recognition, once avoided, can no longer be escaped. The song holds you in that gaze until you flinch.
Listen to “Yaksok” below:
Past Self’s journey has been marked by growth through shadows: their 2023 EP Die Cry Hate announced their hybrid identity, while last year’s Premonitions expanded their palette. The single 녹슨 칼 / Nogseun Kal (Rusty Knife) explored toxic friendships with surgical coldness. Now 약속 sharpens their focus further, and their growing live reputation, sharing bills with Mareux, Pink Turns Blue, Vision Video, Drab Majesty, and Twin Tribes, suggests their promises are being kept.
Fresh off their wonderful performance at A Murder of Crows Festival in NYC, Past Self have a few more live dates coming up:
- Sep 27 Austin, TX Palmer Events Center
- Oct 23 San Diego, CA – The Che Café
- Dec 1 Seattle, WA · Funhouse
- Dec 2 Portland, OR – Dante’s
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