Umu: Hello everyone, my name is Umu, and I'm Reacttothek's channel creator.
Isaac: Hello, this is Isaac from Reacttothek,
And we'll be reacting to Gfriend today.
Umu: (laughing) So, I've seen all your comments, and sorry for getting to this late,
sometimes it takes a while for me to contact a reactor to react with me, and for us to find
the same time that we are both available to film our reaction, but we have finally gotten to it.
So when I think of 'Apple', the title 'Apple', I think of either Snow White or the Garden of Eden, right?
But just from the opening shot of the music video,
maybe Garden of Eden concept-ish, so-
which is interesting, because 'Song of Sirens' is the name of the album.
So perhaps, temptation is the concept of the song?
But, uh, anyways, lyrics are on! English lyrics are on.
Isaac: So, starting with reaction right now (hits play).
It's actually been a while since I've watched any Gfriend, so we'll see how this goes.
[spoiler: it's a bop]
Umu: Is this going to be the chord progression of the song?
(increasingly more shocked) Hmm! Oh!
(intrigued) Ooh.
(hyped) Woo, we're in compound (triple) meter!
Isaac: So we've got an edgier...
approach to the sound.
Umu: Oh, that was an interesting- BBBBBRRRRRRT- transition sound.
Yeah, the swing triplet (vocalizes the rhythm).
Makes the song so much more ~sexy~.
Isaac: Some - nice little bit of a modal mixture.
Umu: We took away this triplet subdivisions and we're floating. Just duple: one, two, three, four.
Oh, yeah. This is nice.
(incredibly satisfied) WOOO!!!
Oh, that leap in range, though!!!
Nice catchy post-chorus with-
"kiss! kiss!"
(realizing the texture shift) Oh, that's taken out.
Isaac: Very different in the atmosphere, compared to the previous songs that I used to listen to.
Umu: Ooh, I like the synth that goes (sings that driving line).
It's providing us (with) motion forward.
Isaac: I like how their voices are distinctive from one another, but also, it comes with the...
audio editing.
Umu: The bass part is so good, the gentle, gentle singing harmonies are so good.
And then we have, like, the lower percussion (vocalizes) transition to the - thicker - sound.
When we have these subdivisions back.
So much reverb!
Isaac: Some sustained pedals.
Umu: Bass is back in.
Isaac: The butterfly motif.
Umu: Satisfying high note.
"Let go the timid child".
(still intrigued by the lyrics) "Witching hour".
Isaac: Some - slight - dissonance slapped in there, here and there.
Umu: The melody is almost siren-esque!
Whoa, you go girls!!!
Woo!!! [me too]
Ooo↘hhhho↗OOOOOOOOOOOHHH↗hhhhhhh [me too]
Okayyyyy...
Isaac: I guess this is fantasy-like music.
With their older songs - not really older songs - but their past songs,
but this one seems to carry on that same (fantasy-like) motif, but more on the darker side.
It's actually quite interesting to be able to maneuver from such an innocent purity
to a more, edgier... Well, you're introducing more darker themes. So, it's interesting how they have so many...
slight moments, where you have
dissonances thrown in here and there, some modal mixture to highlight the exoticism
of certain passages. Other than that, there wasn't too much variety?
Umu: "Dance the fiery dance, starlight shines on me",
"Translucent glass beads glowing red".
Wow. "Don't look back, don't let yourself worry"- yeah, just to go out and do stuff, don't let things limit you...
"In sweet darkness the witching hour descends". It's really - it's haunting, it's beautiful, it's catchy!
I think my favorite thing
about this track is the soundscape.
The gentleness of the synths, and then we have some more punchy percussion that we use to,
uh, transition between sections.
Okay, time for Zoom discussion time with Isaac.
Hello? Do you want to go back in, like, a little bit?
Isaac: Uh-
Umu: And just re-listen to some stuff, because I also - like, while we're on Zoom, we can, like, go through a tiny bit.
Isaac: Um, I'm okay. It's just - I think it was more confused - just...
(about) what I just listened to.
Umu: Mmm! What were you confused about?
Isaac: I think it was just the general atmosphere of
Gfriend.
Umu: Yeah, it's completely different, right? Modal mixture, huh?
Isaac: A lot of - a lot of it.
Um...
I don't know. I feel like it's just for show and not - it doesn't really...
Isaac: I think that's the criticism I'd take off, um- Umu: The modal mixture is for show?
Isaac: It doesn't really add to
the whole- (Umu: really?)
Isaac: I personally don't think - because like - uh, I think near the end, you hear like a really strong dissonance?
*sings line*
With the... underlying bass.
Umu: Uh huh.
Isaac: That would make sense, but then the other one was just more like...
Um, it sounded like a weird flex.
Umu: The reason why I liked it is because the modal mixture made us feel
like we were kind of going through different worlds of darkness versus lightness.
So...
because- (I: So, right through.)
Umu: Throughout, it truly felt like a magical
fairy, maybe,
mystical world because of the reverb, the sound of the synths, and because of the modal mixture.
So I did enjoy that use of the switching to major in a minor key.
Isaac: I wouldn't say that it's
not enjoyable - I think I was a bit confused by myself
Because it's just, listening to their other tracks, the way they create a fantastic-
fantasy...
They would use it, but it's-
not so much like this one.
I think it was different. It was different from their previous tracks, so I think it was a bit confusing-
Umu: That was just, like, a bit like whoa!
Soundscape chain shock.
Isaac: I think there's also the shock that um,
I guess the appearance. I think it's just the darker makeup, darker outfits- (Umu: Darker makeup!)
I don't know. It's just like, the dark - the really dark plots, okay, at the very end.
It's like well, you don't really see that...
Umu: Well no - 'Time For The Moon Night', that was dark! Didn't one of them disappear?
And also 'Fingertip'! Eunha...
falls off a building, boi!
Isaac: Well, see, that's the thing-
It's like, those are subtle but this one's like - well, very - very...
Umu: Oh, the aesthetics are more dark while their past songs storylines were dark.
Isaac: Yeah, it's like,
not saying they never touch dark topics, but I think there's just, um, presentation of it.
Visually, that was one thing that shocked me because that's part of the experience of looking at K-pop.
I thought it was interesting how they're taking this turn.
Umu: But remember, um their most recent summer song after 'Sunny Summer' ('Fever').
Umu: Wait... Isaac: I don't think I've ever listened to that one.
Umu: You should take a listen because that was also an extreme change. Is it 'Fever'?
[yes it is]
[ssgfriend players where u at]
Isaac: Which one is this? ['Fever'] Umu: Like, I felt this was also
Umu: quite the sound change. Isaac: is that 'Crossroads'?
[another bop]
Umu: No, this one is 'Fever' - so it was 'Fever',
they released 'Fever', then they release 'Crossroads',
and then they released this. Isaac: *mouthing titles* Okay.
Isaac: I guess this is because of the way they mix it; you can still hear their voices.
I - I was mentioning in the reaction, just-
I like the way - whoever's mixing it, they actually gave them...
the...
the sp- actually, the frequency spotlight, so nothing's like watering it down or taking away,
or detracting or adding too much, so you can actually hear each one of their voices very distinctly.
But then later, it kind of just washes away and-
Umu: Reverb, it's like - the amount of reverb and the amount of harmony.
(I: Yeah.) Because there was a lot of voices which just melded with also the reverb on the instrumentals.
So, it became one long,
beautiful,
blanket of sound. So it's something that I think - I think we appreciate different aspects of Gfriend's music.
Because - or like different aspects in music, because I can understand
why you prefer to have their voice clean and you can hear their timbre well, right?
Versus,
it (the vocals) mashing,
um, completely with the instrumentals and being blended into that.
Isaac: And it's just - it depends on what you're going into, because I think going into it,
I haven't listened to them - the group members - for a long time. I'm (not) necessarily thinking of all - the producer who made the song,
or the composer who wrote the song out and compiled everything.
So, I guess it really depends on how you go into it, because I was thinking, I want to listen to their voices.
And I think it was - it started mending with the sound, which is nice, but - it takes a lot of skill to do that, but...
One thing
with the mindset that I have with going in, I couldn't really hear that, so I was a bit confused-
a bit confused when going in, yeah.
Umu: Yeah, do you have any other thoughts - did you, like, have a favorite moment of the track?
Isaac: I think it was just the dissonant part in the chorus.
Umu: At the very end or just all choruses?
Isaac: I think - particularly the end, because I think it was just - it creates a...
Having some dissonance, it always is...
In history, the way that they used it in music is just to create an alarm, in a sense.
You're kind of going through life, you don't really-
Nothing really happens to you. You're in the middle of nowhere, and nothing happens to you, right?
And then all of a sudden, you have, like, something hap-
tragic happens, like an earthquake, and somehow it hits your town. Everything's destroyed, and I think there's that...
similar motif with dissonance.
Because dissonance, you're so used to their sound, you're so used to the wave,
or atmosphere that's being created. But then all of a sudden, you slap in some dissonance.
I think that really took me out (of the atmosphere).
Like, I'm listening to the song- Umu: And then they grew horns.
Isaac: They grew *hoarse* horns!
Umu: So that dissonance was hinting at something.
Isaac: Yeah, I think it was it was interesting how
they played on that dissonance, because you listen to the...
modal mixture,
kind of hints at it (the darkness), but it's not as strong as having that-
that six semitones separate apart, just like, uhhhh, that tension. (U: Yeah.)
Isaac: Yeah, they they used it quite well, I would say.
Umu: Yeah. Yeah, I - I totally second you on that, and then also I love the transitions because so much we had this constant driving-
*singing the instrumental*
moving, fluid- (I: Oscillating.)
right? Um... movement forward,
and then when we had the transition, we had-
DU DU DU! *imitating the percussion*
You know, like, some of these
completely different soundscape, that, like,
provide a last-minute change of feel before we moved on to a different section, and at one part,
it sounded like - you know those percussion instruments with the ridges and
then you run a stick across it and goes like-
Isaac: *guiro impression*
Umu: Yeah, yeah! We used that in this track, that was awesome.
I love, like, the little percussion sounds used to transition
and like just sprinkled throughout, and I thought it was really nice, and I just like compound meter songs.
Isaac: There's something about compound meters (that) just make it so much more interesting, because you could count-
in whatever groupings you (U: Yeah!) feel at the moment, (Right?)
So if it's four (4/4), it's like, okay, there's no argument.
There's a "one, two, three, four, one" - or if it's a bit faster, it's like (counting in) two, okay.
But with compounds, like, well...
Umu: *counting various compound meters*
*groups into 6/8, 12/8, 12/8 in cut time, 6/8 in cut time* You know, there's so many ways-
yeah, it's so many different ways to feel it.
Isaac: But if you mention it like that, it does add to the...
fantasy aspect, because you get to choose (what meter you feel the song in).
Well, you have more options to choose.
Maybe you're just fixated with whatever compound meter they put into the track,
but maybe you stop listening for a second.
Maybe you come back to it, and you're like, "oh, maybe I feel like this".
A little bit different.
So it's pretty interesting how they actually - the way they compose it at the beginning really sets it up,
on how you should...
Well, not how you should, but more like how it is
portrayed,
and how you perceive i.
Umu: Yeah, that was nice.
Thank you so much for our Buddies tuning in to our reaction!
Once again, sorry that we got to this a bit late, but I hope you all have an amazing day. Bye!
[bye guys~]