, a debut album of a one-man rock'n'roll band in its truest sense, full of emotional outbursts on the human conditions of the comtemporaries from socio-political to personal challenges. is the second album of Jimmy Strain. An artist's insight into the future, a musical call for the death of the present wrongs, and an ardent wish for the birth of new vision and ideas. Jimmy Strain is a self-taught guitarist who began to play the guitar as a junior high school student and became a songwriter during high school years. He was first recognized by winning the Korea Entertainment Producers Association Award in the Seoul Art College Music Festival in 2006, with his original composition. Early next year, he made an EP containing six songs in which he experimented with various recording techniques and instruments such as MIDI-guitar by which he could produce and record the sound of piano, saxophone and percussions. A few months later, he composed a song for the Seoul City sponsored 'Hi! Seoul Festival' and performed on the main stage and sub-stages, leading a group of musicians. During the festival, the group improvised on an extended version of his song, which was almost three times longer than the original, for dancers who danced to the music. After his successful performance at 'Hi! Seoul Festival,' Jimmy didn't perform in public. Jimmy started making his long awaited rock'n'roll numbers into a heavy metal record entitled 'Emotion Frequency'. As he created some techno music back in 2000, he dreamed of a rock band in which one man composes, performs and records a whole album without employing any session musicians. Just like the EP he had produced before, he composed, played and recorded all the instruments and did the mixing. Not only that, he also sang this time. He never lived or studied abroad but he wrote verses in English, talking about his personal thoughts about human beings and issues of the world and Korea. His experiment of putting emotional melodies of such famous Korean folk songs as 'Jindo Arirang' and 'Sae Taryong' into his music turned out to be a great success. After almost a year's hard work, he released prototype of this record for promotional purpose. Even though the audio quality of the prototype was not too satisfactory, it garnered favorable comments and reviews from listeners and critics. In the autumn of 2008, he started his next project and re-mastering of the prototype record, and in March 2009, the re-mastered version of 'Emotion Frequency' was finally released. After releasing the remastered version of his debut album, he released even more progressive one, [ FUTURE ]. "It is truly unbelievable that one person did all of these. However, the lack of publicity on who Jimmy is doesn't mean he is using secretiveness as a strategy. He not only stayed away from TV programs but also from the radio. Rather, he seems focused on getting recognition solely for his music and this small project should be part of such efforts. " "No matter how talented a person may be, he is destined to expose weakness when he has to do many things at one time. Jimmy Strain, however, proves to be an exception. I am not an artist and I may be inappropriate to judge album artworks, but as long as the music itself is concerned, I see almost nothing to be desired. The heavy yet speedy metal sound, properly mixed with 'emo', invites listeners to a state of great excitement. When I use 'emo' in describing Jimmy's music, I am not doing so because of soft melody or screaming. In other words, emo is not a genre here but a way of approach. Jimmy connects to the senses of the listeners directly instead of beating around the bush. Jimmy's music is truly emotional in that it helps the emotional outburst of the listeners. " "His messages are imbued with love for humanity. He sees through the darker sides of his inner self, but he doesn't stop there. He also turns his eyes to his surroundings and beyond with profound introspection and sympathy, thus helping the listeners experience moments of self-purification. " "When was the last time that I looked around the reality of my town, my country and my world because of music? " "That Jimmy Strain has done everything about this album is indeed amazing and the quality he has produced is even more surprising. If only he could refine the sound more technically, he will be able to please those with the most sensitive ears. It has been a long time since we Koreans had an album of this quality, both in terms of the lyric and sound. The fact that this has been done by one person, let alone a newcomer, makes us hesitate to give up on Korean popular music. Definitely the real thing! "