Jarod: *sings*
Oh, man, I read that guy like a book, dawg!
Seq- bum sequence down, up, half cadence
Repeated line and tonic
Ooh, sentence-period what have you?
*DABS*
Umu: Yeah, so Hyukoh is a K-indie band– not kpop band
This is actually you know like Day6 they play their own instruments and they (L: yeah!) compose their own music
Fiona: I'm gonna be so into this Linsey: this is so Indie I could tell from the album Fiona: I'm gonna be so into this
Umu: they are signed to drdr
AMC and high ground in May 2014
And they consist of four members so this very first song that we reacting to is called Mer
Kevin: it means the ocean slash sea in french
Umu: this was released in 2015 and was composed by the main vocalist named oh hyuck
This is a k-indie band, but this song happens to be in English I recently discovered
This is a b-side song so there's no music video for it, but this is a lyric video.
Fiona: I like that cool
Hugo: Un, deux, trois
Hugo: oh this is so nice
Gwen: oh I love the triplets.
Peyton: Yeah, it's kind of cool
It's like...
Could easily like going to like this quasi-double time thing if they want it to, but it's like
It's because of like it's like a little pickup into it's like
Peyton: *dropping a beat example*
It's like
Charlotte: cuz you can feel like like the big beat Peyton: yeah Charlotte: and you get like "uh uh uh"
Emiel: I Think he is using a vocoder Henry: I was just gonna say that yeah, I think he's using a vocoder, which is cool as shit actually
Isaac: It's like it's going through chords of D. And G major
So it's G right now
Kevin: Now it's C *stutters* C over G- *G over C there we go
G chord over C bass
katie: wow, that's like very much in the back of the beat
Stephen: The effects that they have for the vocal lines (N; yeah) are kinda weird
Naoki: ocean-y Stephen: yeah yeah oceany actually
Naoki: ya know it makes sense
You know
Stephen: makes sense. I just mean weird and like unorthodox. I'm- I
Don't really hear people sing like that
Naoki: Yeah
Henry: This is really- I can't tell if it's totally real or not, but it is this cool kick drum pattern
*sings bass drum line*
Kevin: stress or-WHA T
Charlotte and Peyton: LMFAO *imitates guitar part*
Charlotte: and it's like a mood swing
Peyton: okay and now it's like
It's like I was like wow almost a quasi-swing thing
Kevin: what just happened
Isaac: the F# major is what happened
Kevin: that is F# I thought it was F#, but I wasn't sure
Isaac: Well, it's cuz it pitches up
kind of
Isaac: fun bass Kevin: what an interesting...their English the line delivery is so weird
Like some of them like a lot of their
Longer lines they feel like there's stumbling over their words, but maybe that's the intended effect
Hugo: And then I like it that they took the guitar out for this part
Gwen: well one of them
Hugo: Yeah, well they took the driving triplets out they have a guitar with the phaser and chorus on theirs
Peyton: oh cool then yeah see they like take away the drums for a whole like 30 or 45 seconds
and then It's like a whole- like a whole nother thing. You know like
And then they bring it back in like
*sings beat* first verse of the drums you'll hear it
Fiona: I love like the wide-ness
of the harmonies have such a width of range that
and so Lindsey: they're like-
Fiona: It creates like this kind of hollow like wave fell Lindsey: how many singers are there?
Just one and he just merged the tracks Fiona: it's very flexible and like
lines
Naoki: Yeah but I really like his guitar part
Naoki: it's an Ostinato Stephen: it's a good Ostinato yes
naoki: Ostinato Stephen: the drum parts really cool because so it sounds
It's in like a long three where the back beats on like the second bar 3/4. (N:Uh-huh) and so it's like way of crashing
sort of like you that make sense
Like it just has a big opening Naoki: Yeah, I can hear that now that you mentioned t
Stephen: it's like reset
Peyton: and then like the triplet is kind of like elongate the feel you know?
it has you kind of going like this
Gwen: This is one of those songs that when you listen to it, the world is more beautiful
Kevin: It's like whoa
It's like gravity just stops on that F#
for like one second
Peyton: it's like a little... it's a little trampoline onto like a different thing
Cause it's like eerrrrr then it goes into swing
Charlotte: I don't like that
Peyton: well it's like quasi swing Charlotte: i don't like that
Peyton: it's Like a triplet thing more than like real swing
Fiona: i'm so happy with this part of the song
Lindsey: I just don't wanna analyze this cuz I enjoy listening to it
Lindsey: know what I mean? Fiona: yeah
Lindsey: I'm just really enjoying like
Fiona: i just wanna listen to this lindsey: listening
Fiona: but if I had to say something about it i love how it's in 6/8 and I love
This guitar thing going on
Lindsey: yeah like the arpeggiations in the guitar or not even arpreggiations because it's like
moving by step
Kevin: It seems like there's a lot of
Like everything they might have used- did an effect where like it fades in
And it fades out so everything feels like it's fading and fading out
instead of like *demonstrates immediate rhythmic attack* "I long for that" It's
"I loNG foR tHAT"
Fiona: I Love like how they sound speaking in English like it sounds like
Lindsey: yeah like the- the way that they're
The timbre of their voices with their like accents that are slightly coming through because a lot of the time
I've noticed that when people sing their accents like disappear because everyone just sounds like they're singing
Fiona: But it's nice when they have like a little tinge of it anyway. Lindsey: It's like something different
(F: Yeah) than what we're used to hearing and it's really really just like beautiful sounding with the music
Umu: anyways Yeah, so what do you guys think about that song overall?
Kevin: good stuff
It never felt repetitive
it felt just like it was delivered in one breath
Okay, Isaac, you like said one thing and then you were quiet
Isaac: so the reason why I was so quiet
Is actually this has a very nostalgic feeling towards me because I have listened to music like this but it's um
Well, that's like the instrumentation. It's guitar synth and then there's the way they use the guitar
It's like it's always singular picks or arpeggiation so like in the beginning happens mostly in D
And G major triad and then obviously like in like
Choruses where they want to wrap up the chord progressions, or it's just like the energy
in that segment they change the course ascending descending or
Rapidly changing it
Kevin: you mentioned the chords like you know there's like more intensity in the choruses
But throughout the whole thing it remains diatonic. I feel the entire thing is it's always built upon the scale. I mean the f-sharp
Technically it isn't in the scale but That's the that's the only thing that sounds a little like whoa
Isaac: But actually like if you look at pieces like Shostakovich, it's like a Major anything a major Prelude
He uses diatonic and it only takes the class in it notes so like through limitations
You can actually make really good stuff like in this yeah
they only use major, but they're just able to give you that dissonance
of like slapping 2 F#s in the piece, and it's just like
What?
Like it's like a little water droplet just boom in the middle of the sea, and I was like yeah
Kevin: That's a big water droplet.
Peyton: Yeah I thought the rhythm the rhythmic pulse was very
It was kind of what kept it going with the whole time and it allowed it to like
Allowed it for the voice of the guitar to kind of float over time (Ch: yeah)
it was a Really really good song
Umu: Yeah, so to sum up your thoughts on this song
What do you think how do you think it went with the lyrics or the meaning of mer what you might see
Stpehen: sure
well
Just kind of like we talked about earlier what with what now if you said earlier something setting you heard a lot of that
At least where they're specifically using like a compositional idea to portray something
Physical about the ocean whether that's the wave crashing or like you could say yeah, like if sun glittering
Yeah, sparkling in some ways. Yeah, so that's really cool
I don't know you can add to that
Naoki: you get the rise and swell of the piece itself
(S:Yeah) you know how much that's a bit too deep
It's like yeah
Stephen: But I mean- I don't know like if you're open to that sort of thing you can hear that in this song
And I feel like it's it's used tastefully
Umu: Yeah, okay, let's move on to next hyukoh song this was actually released in 2017
This is a title track song so there will be a music video. This was composed by oh hyuck again the main vocalist
He said that the meaning of the song is out of the two sides of you. I express the depressing side
Everything is unfamiliar and strange, but we still want to succeed I try to show the feeling of being stuck in between those two thoughts
Isaac: tomboy.........SHAZAM
Kevin: Okay
Henry: Wow I hope this whole video is animated like this
Peyton: Woah, they're dancing!
Dancing flames that's pretty cool
Stephen: I like the timbre of his voice with the acoustic guitar Naoki: oh yeah for sure
I really like the balance between them as well. (S:Yeah)
Katie: The bird is singing!!!!!
in Korean :O
Kevin: oh Yeah,
oh I love the clarity in their mixing. It's just so good
Gwen: They just simply went with an acoustic guitar even though they had an electric one before
Hugo: they've got both in this one which is nice
Stephen: It's nice too like he's not using a full drum set
He's using more like percussion instruments like shakers. He's got bass drum and like cross cymbals but it's not like-
Naoki: very basic
Stephen: Like here, it's into like a regular beat, but at least the beginning it wasn't
Naoki: I feel feels right now (S:yeah)
Just the harmonic progression feels super nostalgic
Stephen: sure
Katie: I feel like we need a lighter
Kevin: Oh my god!
Oh, yeah
Sequence
La La Land sequence.
IT IS THE LALA LAND SEQUENCE!. Oh my god
Lindsey: whoa that Like
Lindsey: I expected that to go down to 1 but then it went up to 3
Fiona: This is so powerful Lindsey: yeah
Jarod: sequence down, up, half cadence
Repeated line and tonic
ooh sentence, period, what have you?
Peyton: Interesting artistic representation of the song
Gwen: this melody is so complex
Hugo: I know, I love his voice
Gwen: it just sounds so easy
Katie: Sorry um the chord progression reminds me of something
a dominant applied chord
um it's its...
Reminds me a lot of Green Day
Naoki: It's like in major but it still sounds like kind of sad-
Stephen: Right that's what I'm talking about Young the Giant does that really well and it remind me a lot of that.
Naoki: Yeah,
Emiel: I can understand the vibe too that you describe how that kind of fits with this
Henry: It feels like the frustrating duality
Isaac: oh we got juked oH
Kevin: ooh, panning, ooh mm
descending, descending tetrachord
Henry: Okay, I like this
this texture changed of just the
Total departure from what was just happening?
(E:Yeah) totally comes down and builds back up again really like a necessary break
Henry: And they really go for it, I love it I
Gwen: I have goosebumps
Hugo: And he's got a rawness to his voice
Gwen:: oh i have so many goosbumps
Jarod: The grasshoppers my favorite-
or is that a praying mantis,
that was a praying mantis....
Katie: that's a praying praying mantis you insensitive fuck (LMFAO)
Jarod: tell me how you really feel, Katie
Henry: man the way they think about characters and their movement and their placement
oh my god this animation is just
Emiel: Now I kind of they're like the all-out vibe Henry: absolutely beautiful
Henry: I do yeah
it really just feels like an arrival
Gwen: I
Absolutely love that
Hugo: That was awesome.
I feel like I've been missing pop songs or rock songs that end on I, you know everyone tries to be
Fancy-schmancy with it. It's just just just (I: straightforward) ends. I: Very straightforward. K: Yeah
Umu: so thoughts overall on their
Hugo: oh i loooove them
Gwen: it was drop dead gorgeous Hugo: i love them
Gwen: So the guitarist that they have
Hugo: so good
Gwen: They are amazing the way that they they have multiple guitar lines going and they interweave so perfectly
It's like some freaking counterpoint mess
Hugo: more than uh
vocal line fits in so well in it too, on both songs!-
Gwen: yeah it's as if all three says if all three of the lines
Were created together
Hugo: mm-hm and his his voice is also perfect Gwen: it was gorgeous
Nothing first of all- technique wise there's nothing that stands out, but the color that he manages together
It's just so gorgeous, so it's it's very
(H:Unproduced) yeah, it's very raw and relaxed. It's kind of like why everyone loves Adele
Hugo: but different cuz Adele can be Gwen: but it's a different
Style, but you you know they like the rawness and the emotion in her voice
It's like that but obviously a very different style of music
Umu: What do you think of this song overall musically and how like the visuals match the...
Atmosphere
Stephen: so one thing that I thought was cool that you kind of touched on earlier
But I guess talking about more song setting where cuz you were talking about how?
At least like the meaning of the song right was supposed to be depressed
But still having that drive of of like fulfillment or purpose
Yeah, well I mean like you kind of hear that there was what you'd mentioned where it's like
It's in major, but it still sounds sad
So I just thought that was really really cool
Naoki: it's like sadness tinged with a bit of optimism. (Yeah) like a hint of optimism. (Yeah)
Kevin: AHHHHH
I Like this way more than mer
Umu: Why? Isaac: *betrayed*
because the instrumentals in mer are still so you know there's so much rise and fall on vocal just
But in tomboy man the vocals support those instrumentals
And I can hear everything and then like the last time the chorus is ahhhh and you get some of that growly high note arggggg
Umu: Yeah, so comparing this song to mer
What do you think about the musically and how they differentiate it or maybe either
Fiona: well the other one seemed more like?
like kind of like modern
Indie like with the kind of like spacier feel and this was just like I don't know it's kind of a throwback to more
early like 2000 style even
I don't know this was like a lot of a warmer like straightforward vibe the other one was just kind of like
Looser, but they were both really good
Henry: very obviously the same musicians very obviously the same intention however they both
Capture very different moods, I thought one of them was a little bit more
lull to sleep one of them was a little bit more being kept awake.
Emiel: Yeah,
Katie: very similar.
Jarod: I like this one better
I think I like the line a little bit more because like they're both kind of like like a vibe
I think I just like this one a little bit better a little more involved. Katie: I think I like mer better
Jarod: Yo you wanna fight
Katie: Yeah, I do actually
Jarod: whoa
Katie: Who would win comment below
Jarod: yeah, who would win a fight?
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