[subtitles by the youtube SKZ dance tutorials guy]
SAM: Ohh that's awesome!
[Rossini's Semiramide Overture plays]
UMU: You are now reacting to the 8-member boy group Stray Kids!!!
*screams of excitement*
UMU: And their title track "소리꾼" off of their 2021 NOEASY album.
(JASON: Hype.) UMU: Say "NOEASY" quickly.
JU YOUNG: NOEASY NOEASY NOEASY. JASON: NOEASY NOEASY NOEASY.
JU YOUNG: Noisy! Jason: Noisy noisy noisy.
HENRY: Noisy. Ho ho, wow memes!
STEPHANIE/LEON: Ahhh. STEPHANIE: ah HA ha.
STEPHANIE: *laughs* Okay.
HENRY: They're on that "next level"... UMU: So the English title for this track is
actually "Thunderous",
UMU: While its Korean title, "소리꾼", is a title for traditional pansori singers.
LEON: Ohh! (CLOUD: Mmm.)
CLOUD: You do love that pansori stuff. HENRY: Ah I remember pansori.
UMU: So pansori is a genre of musical storytelling performed by a vocalist and a drummer.
In this song, Stray Kids proclaim themselves as sorikkun and the thunderous ones.
So some context behind this,
antis have tried to criticize Stray Kids' music by calling it noisy and loud.
UMU: So in this song, they're embracing their role of being noisemakers,
(KEVIN: *does "Back Door" dance*)
UMU: and they're saying that there's no way their ego can be lowered
by people trying to bring them down with those kind of comments.
This song is composed by 3 of the Stray Kids members, Bang Chan, Han, and Changbin,
also known as 3RACHA, and the producer HotSauce.
RAFFI: Mmm. SAM: 3 2 1.
RAFFI: Click.
STEPHANIE: Ooh. LEON: Wow, I love the animation!
STEPHANIE: I like it.
SAM: It's like a widescreen video. (RAFFI: Yeah.)
SAM: Woahh! RAFFI: Oh!
SAM: Oh that's awesome! *intense head bobbing*
SAM: Oh my gosh. RAFFI: Oh he has a very light timbre!
SAM: Wow.
LEON: *laughs* That is really pansori.
STEPHANIE: Hoahhh.
WILL: That was cool!
LIAM: I like that little descending line there.
HENRY: Some traditional instrument in the back.
SAM: What is that woodwind instrument? That's crazy!
JU YOUNG: Mm!
HENRY: Oh that's a nice upper harmony.
HENRY: Oh ho ho, what in the world, this is great!
CLOUD: Oh man, I really like this!
KEVIN: Horn?
OWEN: Is it a horn? It's a French horn?
HENRY: Oh my god the drums!
JASON: These- they love triplet stuff, like they love quarter note triplets.
And that shit slaps!
JASON: He's crazy!
RACHEL Oh triplet.
SAM: Wow.
HENRY: Thanks, Felix. I like that.
CLOUD: Mm! Where did their hands go?
CLOUD: How did they do that? (HENRY: Yeah, that's so cool.)
WILL: The panning on that hi-hat is pretty cool.
KEVIN: Oh there's some really low bass, really low frequency.
CLOUD: *INHALES* HENRY: Ahhh!
JASON: I like the drums going on, it's like a very free sound.
HENRY: BASS.
SAM: That bass is crazy!
That bass is so raucous, oh my gosh!
RACHEL: This is like rock, rock drumset.
Just like, super loud in the cymbal.
*grooving intensifies*
JORY: Mm! WILL: Yeah.
RAFFI: Woooow.
It's like a grand finale. *laughs*
STEPHANIE: Mmmm.
STEPHANIE: Ohh. LEON: WOW. :)
HENRY: That was radical. That's amazing.
UMU: What musical elements stand out as the most radical?
HENRY: *ptew ptew, claps*
Oh my gosh!
I love how rhythmic they use the spitting motif and thunder to create like big rhythmic
hits.
You kinda hear it in other Stray Kids songs when they bring in like gunfire,
um but this time it's just all natural,
like either nature, or "nature" *ptew*
LEON: 1 million respect to the producer.
His creativity is off the chart!
This is basically based off from trap beats, trap kind of genre,
but then he didn't add a lot of hi-hat, which is like probably the one of the most significant-
Yeah, that characteristic thing. He just kinda like back off a little bit
so that it doesn't sound that kind of trap beat.
But instead they replace it using like that kind of cymbal,
Korean I dunno traditional cymbal sounds, to replace with, with the high frequency.
And that's such a brilliant idea.
So I can still hear the full frequency and it still sounds good,
but then I can hear some of the traditional characteristic from it.
SAM: It almost feels like a celebration of like Korean culture.
SAM: Even the animation style is very Korean webcomic, (RAFFI: That's what I thought.)
it's very Korean superhero webcomic.
SAM: I dunno, I just- I was like dang this is really cool.
RAFFI: Also the rapping, like w-what? Very fast. Very impressive.
Very clear. I'm a fan. :)
SAM: Going off what Raffi's saying, you could-
You only like go as fast as people can understand it.
With that comes a lot of like diction, like your consonants have to be super clear.
You have to like, know like the registers so that you know when to like vowel modu-
vow, modify your vowels, and stuff like that. You have to know like all that good stuff.
And also you have to know when to breathe.
So, there's a lot of thought that goes into speaking fast, or rapping fast.
They were very clear with it, which is really cool.
RACHEL: Oh my gosh, like the- the rap verse at the beginning?
LIAM: Yeah he was doing like the *makes rhythm* (RACHEL: There, there was this one where he-)
RACHEL: Yeah I have no idea what was going on, but I wanna go back to it.
LIAM: Dude he was going real fast, yeah. (RACHEL: Just going off, yeah.)
RACHEL: Like there was like *sings rhythm*
But then there was also like, like almost fivelets or something?
RACHEL: It sounded like not, I don't really know.
(LIAM: Yeah, I gotta hear that again.)
(LIAM: Yeah that was great.) RACHEL: It sounded like he was speaking but
it was, it was definitely like in time.
LIAM: Yeah that right there is a fivelet.
LIAM: Like at the end of that first part? RACHEL: Yeah yeah yeah.
UMU: What does a fivelet sound like?
LIAM: So like if this is like triplet, *makes rhythm*
RACHEL: And it's REALLY hard to line up,
(LIAM: Oh yeah, going-) RACHEL: So it's, it's pretty impressive that
like it lines up so well.
LIAM: It's like a seamless transition between the, the triplet meter and the...
the, uh what's it called?
RACHEL: Five, fivelet meter. (LIAM: FIvelet meter?)
RACHEL: *laughs* No that's, that's not a thing!
RACHEL: Yeah. I, the beginning just like really struck me.
RACHEL: I was like how did he do that? (LIAM: Yeah it was so aggressive, yeah.)
LIAM: In your face, like super like percussive spoken rhythm stuff.
HENRY: Yeah. I, I also agree, I love how Stray Kids likes to differentiate their um,
like they create variety not just like different melodies and, and pitch,
but even just in the pitch of their, where they rap.
Like they might rap a little higher into, in their registers or lower,
depending on the verse or the energy they're giving off.
And their fl- their rhythmic flow changes for each section too, to give that sense of
variety.
And I didn't, nothing really earwormed in this for me as far as melody goes,
'cause the prechorus was more of like a build-up and like,
it almost like improvised riffs building up to the, the chorus,
but it's just the drop with like the electronic-sounding brass and the *ptew ptew ptew*
which is just so bad-ass, that really sticks out, sticks with me.
HENRY: And it's successful. (CLOUD: Very much.)
CLOUD: You mentioned the electronic brass, and I don't know if it was intentional or
not,
but I like how that's something that I feel like I could connect to like their other songs
too,
'cause I feel like they use brass a lot.
I think what I really like is that it's,
it's really not melody-heavy in terms of the back instrumentals
and yet there's still substantial melody in there.
Like they focus a lot on the rhythm, but they don't forget about the melody.
Like it's a great balance to have for a song that's very reliant on rap.
Like the verses are mostly like, sprechstimme or like speak-singing, or like rapping-
HENRY: Sprechstimme?!?!
No I just haven't heard that word in such a long time
and that's totally like a Classical Musicians React™ thing to say.
CLOUD: Yeah. I just think the balance is great,
'cause like if you wanna have a song that's so heavy on rapping like,
it should still have melody to it. And it absolutely does.
SAM: They know exactly when to add silence.
SAM: And I think that is so- (RAFFI: That's what I was going to say...)
SAM: That is so effective, even the part where like it was like the *pta pta pta*
and then they were like "ha ha ha",
just like the anticipation and the excitement that they build is so, is so thrilling.
KEVIN: Yeah I like the *twe twe twe* so much, but this drop beat,
this drop line I don't think it's the best one that they've done.
They're refraining from certain EDM tropes and making it a bit more like about the horn
line,
but I think I like their just straight-up in your face songs a bit more.
OWEN: I think it just needs, it needs one more thing.
It has the beat, it has like the thriller in the voice, it has the-
That what's the, what's the plant thing? There's like, when you're trying to arrange topiary,
you have a thriller, a filler, and a spiller.
I feel like they had the thriller *sings*
and they need like something to, to fill it in the middle,
(KEVIN: There must be a board game about that.) OWEN: inbetween the, the drums and the vocal.
OWEN: If they had something that was like right in the middle there,
then it would feel full and it would feel, it feels it'd be good to me.
KEVIN: Yeah I don't think this like a downgraded Stray Kids song quality,
I still think they're maintaining the, the high standard that their songs have.
But I think they do have a style and they're really really holding onto it,
and they're making these songs that feel compact and they're a little shorter,
but they, they do- they do pack a punch.
OWEN: I feel like it has, it has so much character.
Like they're all full of their own unique way of expressing themselves.
And, like they all have their own interesting like life to them,
that I think gives Stray Kids such an interesting,
like that's why they're so interesting to watch, is their, they have so much character.
KEVIN: Oh yeah, this part.
Oh yeah, they do the Phrygian. No that's really cool.
And then they do the "why you mad, why you sad", there's just a lot of-
Ah, each- each section feels like a rap verse with iconic moments, you know.
And I think as a rap hip-hop song, this succeeds the best.
WILL: I, one of the things that I noticed first off was how, how different each section
is of this song.
It goes through like I dunno, 3 or 4 like totally different feels in the first like
minute.
I, I kinda would expect a song like this that's just kind of groove-based,
to be I don't wanna say stagnant, 'cause it's not necessarily stagnant,
but a little bit more, more similar and just like groove-focused.
You know, like a lot of hip-hop music is kinda like that,
and this is totally like kind of coming out of that hip-hop style.
But they kind of take it a totally different direction,
every I dunno, it's like 16 bars go by and then it's like we're in this spacey like section,
and then it just goes into you know, the trap like build up,
and then it's like the drop, and then it you know, it just kinda keeps switching.
Which is cool, I mean as a listener it's like "Woah! Woah!"
And they throw in all these cool little sounds and you know,
little like chops and stuff, like I like that where the,
I dunno, at the end of the chorus section or something, it kinda goes like "wa wa wa"
There it kinda does the same thing, it's like chopped up.
CLOUD: I love how the bridge, instead of doing like
"Let's switch to like something pretty and melodic now!"
CLOUD: they just kinda laid it back a little. HENRY: Yeah.
STEPHANIE: I feel like there was this like, kind of like swing kind of a feel?
It's like, the meter was like a bit faster, quicker than the very end.
And I was just thinking like, "Oh this is like kinda swingin'!"
So I started like, like trying to listen to like what the beats are doing,
and I think like what's cool is that there's that like,
really stable, like really like fat bass drum sound, like *makes sound*
STEPHANIE: Oh eighth note, I guess? (LEON: Yeah.) Yeah.
STEPHANIE: And then um, but on top of that you have that like triplet feel.
And then just like, the combination of those two, it's just like, feels good!
UMU: What were the ear candy moments to you?
JORY: There were lots of little- okay.
WILL: There was one, the one at the beginning that really caught my attention was like the,
WILL: There was like a car horn? (JORY: Yeah yeah.) Where it was like *makes sound*
WILL: And it was just like panned all the way hard like tremolo. Pretty crazy.
JORY: That was it. WILL: There we go, that's it! *sings*
WILL: Like that's, that's really sick.
JORY: Oh, it was this instrument! I f***ing loved this.
You know, it sounded like um, what I know as a hammered dulcimer,
you know it's like a very Americana instrument but it's like played with little drums, it's
like *sings*
JORY: I'm sure it's a traditional instrument, yeah.
(UMU: Percussive string sorts of, yeah.)
JORY: Yeah but that's what, I was digging that.
I heard it a couple times, I was like "oh!"
HENRY: But there was definitely a lot of different sounds
and explorative like timbres that did sound noisy,
HENRY: But it was organized really well. Yeah yeah.
(CLOUD: They had so many different samples of sounds, too.)
(HENRY: There was a lot of different ones.) CLOUD: Like there was like the car horn in
the beginning,
CLOUD: By the end like you had a whole like frickin'-
HENRY: There wasn't that anymore, I was like grateful for that.
I was like, if there's too much car horn I'm not gonna listen to this when I drive.
(HENRY: 'Cause I freaked out.) CLOUD: But that's the thing, 'cause it's,
it's fun because it's like,
CLOUD: They just use different samples and didn't overuse any of them.
CLOUD: I don't know if the car horn ever even comes back.
HENRY: I didn't hear it come back, yeah. (CLOUD: It just might be the one time, yeah.)
(CLOUD: I didn't hear it again.) HENRY: I like that though.
HENRY: Alright, let's go through again, I wanna try and unpack the...
HENRY: Like this first beat, *makes beat*
HENRY: It's SO laidback. CLOUD: And the melody, like you literally
just have like-
HENRY: And so swung, yeah, the rap.
And this part is super speak-y rap, I love that about it!
JU YOUNG: It kinda reminds me of like panso- you said something about pansori before,
like the way that he's rapping, what's his name?
(UMU: Changbin.) JU YOUNG: Changbin, like the way he was rapping
was,
JU YOUNG: it reminded me a lot of like pansori and stuff.
HENRY: No, they're almost vocal frying. Like *does vocal fry*
CLOUD: It sounds like an instrument, it sounds like one of those like...
(HENRY: Yeah like the,)
HENRY: Like the frog, a g- it sounds like a guiro, a guiro! Yeah.
(CLOUD: Yeah, when you're like, yeah.)
HENRY: It's more of a cultural question than I think a musician question.
Vocally what it sounds like is vocal fry, almost imitating a guiro,
when you like just barely send air through- past your vocal folds
so they're not vibrating like I'm talking now, but like if I slow it down enough.
*demonstrates*
And if I raise the pitch a little, it'd sound kinda like that, like-
But that, I don't think they were doing that
'cause you can do that without this whole mess.
So that's make- what leads me to think it's maybe, 'cause you mentioned like
it has- plays on some pansori, I dunno, culture technique.
(CLOUD: Yeah maybe that's where their technique does?)
HENRY: That maybe it comes from that? I dunno.
(CLOUD: I dunno.) HENRY: Like a sound that they play with in
their vocal culture. I have no idea.
JASON: This shit, it just BUMPED.
That's the thing that I like about it, and about Stray Kids in general.
It's like a thing, it's not like, sure technically you could break it down but it's just like...
This song bumps. It bumps!
UMU: Can we break it down technically now? *laughs*
Why does it bump, Jason?
JASON: Well the use of percussion is just like so, so great. And, and just rhythm.
Okay yeah, slowly it's gonna start bumping.
JU YOUNG: It's just so epic. JASON: Like it just, it's-
JASON: Triplets! NOW it bumped. JU YOUNG: The way they play with space there
too.
JASON: NOW it bumps. *sings* That thing?
JASON: Now it bumps. I gotta figure out why it doesn't bump before, but then it bumps
there.
It's because it goes from *does rhythm* to *does other rhythm*
Oh wait but I have to define that in actual terms.
Not "boom gang gang ging gang gang"-
JU YOUNG: Isn't that like a pattern on the, what the fuck is it called?
JU YOUNG: Janggu?
Spongebob Narrator Voice: Five minutes later...
JASON: The first one is this, it goes *claps rhythm* right?
1 2 3 and 4. And then it goes *claps other rhythm*
JASON: Something like that. And it, 'cause that last hit is like in the cymbal,
THAT MAKES IT FIRE!
It's almost like a triplet but it's being like filled out, ~fire~,
by the cymbal! The cymbal, whoever was playing the drums on this,
that's the thing that I think is so tight about this,
is that the drum programming like it's a set, like it's like free,
but it's like in the pocket. So like the rhythm is like just...
IT BUMPS!
UMU: It bumps! JASON: It bumps!
[subtitles by @angelade17 whooo another amazing RTTK SKZ reaction! ~~ ]
UMU: So the English title for this track is "Thunderous",
while its Korean title, "소리꾼", is the title for traditional pansori singers.
Pansori is a genre of musical storytelling,
performed by a vocalist and a drum-ber.
...
*literal spit-take*