Adam: Yeaow?
Kevin: Yo, it's time! I can finally know what's going on!
Jason: Aespa? Umu: Yeah! Do you remember aespa Jason?
J: I do remember aespa. U: The last song that you reacted to by them was called "Savage".
U: and it modulated like a billion times. J: I liked them.
Liam: How could we forget?
U: So you're now reacting to the four member girl group aespa and the 2022 comeback "Girls".
K: Girls?
U: What was that in reference to? K: "Icy"!
U: Girls, bring it on!
U: "Step back"! Sean: Yeah.
U: So this is the girl group that has like a huge ass storyline going on.
Where like they have artificial intelligence that they sync with
this like big black snake came and like... Jory: Our old friends...
U: Yeah, came and destroyed that
and so now basically they're like going into her lair--into her vault--trying to get past her guard to kill her.
Ali: This is so interesting, that like a lot of these K-pop bands have a storyline.
It's very like programmatic.
Because they don't really do that here.
U: They sing: "follow us, bow down, keep an eye out, my skill, you'll be surprised, say wow we come in".
So basically they're just saying like I'm more powerful now watch out. Like you're going down.
The song is composed by Dennis DeKo Kordnejad, Hanif Hitmanic Sabzevari,
Pontus PJ Ljung, Rodnae’Chikk’ Bell, Ryan S. Jhun, and Yoo Young Jin.
K: I wonder if aespa-aespa looks like asp
Owen: Snake! K: which is a which is a snake.
U: Before we get into today's reaction a huge thanks to our sponsor, Fashion Chingu.
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Now that we're all fashionably styled up, let's get back to the reaction!
S: I'm excited. I've been waiting months to listen to this...
U: Yeah...he's been waiting months.
Ju Young: Do you want to do the countdown?
Rachel: Girls in three, two...girls! Kayla and Adam: One!
K: Oh look it's Winter!
A: Floor snake! K: Girls!
A: Lean with it, rock with it!
K: This is my vibes today.
U: I love that face.
A: Yeow? R: Did she just meow?
K: Not as heavy as I expected.
A: I like the "Woo!". It's like a little bubble popping.
U: So far I'm liking how some like slidey some of the instrumentals are going in between pitches.
Will: That background line is pretty sick.
S: Nice, 3 3 3 3 3 4... U: Little flat 2...
U: add some extra GRIT.
A: Wow!
U: Bringing in some low strings for a contrasting vibe in the post chorus...
A: Period.
L: Ooo, I liked the panning on that. That was sick. R: I liked that!
J: Yeah I think that background synth is super cool. W: Yeah.
W: The way it's like pitch shifted. J: Yeah.
J: I like how sometimes the sub base it'll just give doooooo.
It just dropped but they don't do it all the time.
K: The punching matched with the syncopation. Hilarious.
L: The panning of the tom fill too. It's nice.
Kayla: Wow! Kevin: WHOAAAA!
R: And I like the contrast. L: Yeah, it fills it out.
J: Is this the bridge?
U: Keeping the same drum pattern but new atmosphere. S: Yeah.
J: Oooo! W: Nice!
U: Cause I'm guessing a dance break is coming up!
R: Key change dance break? L: is that a whole step up?
S: I like that little skittering sound above the main lead synth.
K: Real my world? Yo...
L: Yes.
L: I like that high note. R: They got some voices man.
J: The way they produce that was super crazy too.
R: I love that. L: Yeah. The 6 5.
K: YES.
U: YAY! They did it! S: Oh. Black Mamba breaking apart.
O: Crazy.
Not because the actual sounds are crazy but because our brains are super weird.
K: Maybe it's just yours...
K: No no I don't know... O: That's totally possible.
O: The fact that the music video had the thing going...like a portal that we were going into...
Right? It was going faster. And then also there was the rising tone, right?
It made it sound like other parts were speeding up even though they weren't.
O: My brain is like "what's going on? something's going on!" But nothing was going on at all.
U: Did the music assist in that like intense kind of scared experience at all?
A: When it like dropped out for a little bit I was like... K: Yeah...
K: The suspense was building each time and I didn't know what to expect next.
So it was very surprising to see the different scenes. And then the...
A: There's so many so many scenes... K: So many scenes... Yes!
U: This song was more consistent in vibe obviously, because we didn't have any drastic feel changes
or harmonic changes other than the dance break.
But it felt like we did get a lot of different shades and different emotions.
Brian: It was giving baddie vibes.
Baddie vibes were also created by definitely the rhythm and the the pacing I would say too.
Definitely has something to do with it.
It kind of just marches on.
They are not stopping for anybody and if you get in the way they will punch you in the face.
A: I got like major like dystopian futuristic Vibes like Tron came into my mind.
like The Matrix...there's a lot of...
The synths that they use they kind of sound like a deep like alarm, like when you're intruding.
U: We had a few comments on production was it mostly vocal production?
J: Yeah I liked how they fuzzed out her vocals.
It sounded a little pinched but I don't know if that's like maybe just like her natural timbre.
R: I like how a lot of the stuff that they did with the vocals as well like really...
I think it just like everything blended really well.
I liked a lot of like the riffs and ad-libs and stuff especially at the end that stuff was really nice.
J: They had like the synth running in the back of verses that was actually really cool.
W: That was cool. That was my favorite part.
I don't know what it was some kind of sample of something that was re-pitched?
U: Kinds sounds like a sax? W: Like maybe that was it?
Maybe that's what it started with. I don't know...
You can kind of take anything and just like totally destroy it and like just re-pitch it.
And it'll just sound like a crazy synth or something so like I don't know what that was, but it was pretty cool.
U: Yeah I really do like that repeated motif because it's very staccato.
It just adds some extra groove to it.
J: They have like...
...like on three in the and and after that they have like I mean it's kind of like a synth brassy type of thing...
But it's like it's got like an ambience to it that that made it...it's like a delay on it.
So it kind of just like stays and that's something that's really important in layering.
The instruments and the voices and the vocal production and stuff, but there needs to be something filling that background.
It can't just be...sometimes it can be silence it could be great if it's silence...
But some somebody like Quincy Jones would do like an electric clavichord thing.
But it would be so well produced that it was just like this background sonority.
Like it was just a tone, it was just pitch, and it was chords that were just happening. So it kind of had a foundation.
So they were doing that, which that's something I did notice I liked a lot.
It was like on the 3 + and stuff in the beginning they had a nice pocket of sound in the back.
Very subtle, but it was good.
U: Why did you like the section where they added the electric guitar and changed up the rhythm?
A: You don't really expect it coming. I thought it was going to be a very straightforward song.
So it's in 4 right? And then it's like 3 over 2 beats so it goes like:
...with the guitar.
J: I was trying to:
O: That was good. That was good. It was really solid in terms of how it builds anticipation.
I mean that was what it was for, and it was also motivational in its own way. That was nice.
U: I agree.
R: I really liked the kick bass in the chorus. It was like a lot and I liked it.
I don't know like something like...
I don't play drum set. I'm sorry don't judge me.
L: The instrumentation is not like super heavy so like...
R: It was just surprising because like there is a lot going on.
I think that it doesn't sound like it's too much, you know?
L: Yeah, it doesn't sound bass boosted. R: Yeah.
W: I liked the extra dubstep final...dance break. U: Dance break?
W: I was down for it. J: But there was context for it.
U: They had already like kind of they've had those little frills before.
S: Right from the beginning there are those sort of dubstep growls.
I'm guessing that's Yoo Young Jin because I feel like that's normally Yoo Young Jin doing those.
I'd like to hear him and SM get into more modern dubstep.
I like the sounds. Right? I think they're still a good sound.
I feel like when they were first doing these in "MAXSTEP" and "Everybody" about a decade ago they probably sounded really futuristic.
And now they sound like kind of familiar and like I've heard that sort of dubstep growl.
I'd like to hear things more influenced by like Riddim, Future Riddim, Color Base, Jazz Step...
Like more modern branches of dubstep that have developed since then,
And that I think could bring the sort of futuristic edge that aespa also NCT generally have.
And make it new without abandoning...but like I like dubstep I think there's a lot of good happening in there.
Maybe it's also the expectation of aespa before.
There was the day when we reacted to B sides, and they were all either super weird...
But they always hit in this sort of loud almost abrasive type of quality. U: "Yeppi Yeppi" and "I'll Make You Cry".
K: Yeah, and then this one didn't really have that. And I like that they're trying different things.
But I wonder if there were there were other listeners who were like me,
who were expecting that type of sound and then maybe a little let down by it.
But again this is only through one listen. Maybe the song will grow on me after further listens.
R: I was expecting like hella key changes like normal aespa. It did not happen.
L: Yeah it was very...just the dance break. R: Yeah. Just the dance break.
S: Yeah I thought the dance break was the best part.
B: Especially because right before it like there wasn't really a lot happening.
It was like really sparse.
It was just some like some drum set and some unison or maybe just one person singing.
I don't remember. It was just like very sparse and then they just go:
Baddie. It's giving baddie.
R: That's an interesting choice. They're like we're gonna change do a key change but no one's gonna sing.
It's just gonna be a dance break, and then we'll go back!
U: Is it a whole step up?
S: Yeah it goes up to F.
U: So before were we in...E? S: We were in Eb.
U: Eb? Okay. S: Eb, yeah.
U: That was such a smooth transition.
S: Yeah there's a little Neapolitan and then 5 and then...
U: Nice!
S: Using the sliding to kind of to get around.
Can we go back further? I forgot to think about how they got back.
That's interesting, because she's just:
...like that. Which is like, we've been...
That sort of Eb minor pentatonic but it's happening in...
so it's happening over F. 1 3 5 7 in Eb.
It's like 2 3 4 6 and 7 in F.
U: And that's how we get back. S: It's like it's not...Yes.
S: It's moved. It's not hitting the tonic and dominant in F now where it was very much tonic and dominant Eb.
But it's still within the Phrygian scale or the Phrygian mode that the bass is in.
So yeah we still get a little bit of the aespa modulations like we had in "Savage".
B: Okay! See I like this part! U: Oh you like the dance break?
See like what's not to love about that?
U: So this music video takes place in the Kwangya,
and Ali you may be wondering "What the heck is a Kwangya?"
A: Yeah what's what the hell is a Kwangya? U: So Ali...