Henry: Oh?
[Rossini's Semiramide Overture playing]
Umu: You are now reacting to the new 7 member boy group Kingdom
and their debut song 'Excalibur'.
The concept of their debut album is of King Arthur and the Round Table
while the other members each represent a different historic king from across the world
like Emperor Chiyou in their music video 'Karma'
and King Ivan IV in their most recent music video 'Black Crown'.
The music video for 'Excalibur' shows the members engaging in battle against unknown forces
while Arthur seeks to fulfill his destiny by pulling out the sword 'Excalibur' from the ground.
The song's lyrics are about the knight's journey of fulfilling your destiny.
The song is composed by Rohan and D-d-dank [Ddank]
Owen: What?
Umu: D-d-a-n-k
Henry: Ddank? Umu: I'm sure I'm butchering that
Umu: it might be like D-dank... Henry: Is it supposed to be Korean like 단ㄱ?
Umu: Dank? Maybe Dank... Henry: Or is it like 단ㄱ? But I like D-d-dank instead.
Charlotte: Either way, cool name.
Kevin: Also the font for "2021.01.29" looks very old, Arthurian... (Owen: ...is very old and medieval, yeah. It's pretty cool.)
Umu: Success!
Owen: They already did...
Kevin: Next to the very modern "M Net", let's go. Owen: ...successfully. Yeah, for sure.
Liam: 3 2 1!
Oho, the boys are rolling out!
Stephanie: Woooow.
Leon: Woahhh
Jason: Gregorian chant?
Mmmmm, plainchant.
Cloud: This is so, like...
film score-esque to start.
Liam: Them soaring vocals.
Hm, that was a bit more subdued that I was expecting.
With all that build up.
Owen: It's very evocative of medieval-
whether or not it was real or just in the consciousness as medieval.
Kevin: Oh, the Japanese folklore combine!
This actually feels more like a Chinese 武俠 [wǔxiá].
Henry: Oh!
Rachel: Oohh, wowww... Liam: Ooooooh~
Rachel: Oooh, they're doing the work!
Kevin: The major and then the minor that's an octave higher?!
Owen: Mm
Charlotte: Oh, I though we were gonna go to chorus.
Was that the chorus, did I just miss it-?
No!
Henry: Strings!
Sam: Oh wowowowowowow! Brianna: Oh my god!
Cloud: These harmonies are insane.
Ju Young: Chromatic, let's go!
Very exciting!
Brianna: Ahaha, the tonality is just like fun.
She's cute, she's energy.
Leon: Mmmmmm~
Sam: Is that an eyebrow piercing that's like the shape of like a-
what is that shape, that's crazy.
Jason: I like the harmonies in the back along with the synth.
Liam: Mm, I like his voice.
Like it goes well with this kind of subdued verse.
Raffi: Ohh *weird noises*
Sam: I really like those chords.
They're just very like... gooey~
Henry: That's an interesting vocal quality.
Kevin: What were those 4 beats for?
ORGAN!
Stephanie: That chromatic, half steps. Leon: Yeah, that's so cool!
Kevin: Ah, it's the aspect ratio - oh, the door is the frame -
Cool.
Stephanie: *sings along* Leon: *satisfied*
Liam: And what they do with the sustain in the bass in the synth,
just to create that space, it's super effective.
Stephanie: That 2 and 4 is so heavy!
Leon: Mm.
Rachel: I like that sound, it's kind of like,
it sounds like it's underwater, you know?
Henry: Oh, there's like a modulation there, when he pulls the sword out.
It goes major, it's a parallel major.
Kevin: WhAT?
Owen: That's cool - oh, I like that,
Owen: doing ab workouts in a music video. Kevin: Wow, whoever sang that line really really went for the...
Stephanie: Mm~
Liam: Oooooh yeah, yeah, I like that, I like that. (Rachel: God...)
Leon: Aah~
Rachel: I really like the space.
Kevin: Oh, the A minor 7 chord, I feel it.
Owen: It's especially powerful when they have those 5ths against each other,
the A and the E; and the C and the G.
Kevin: Mm.
*finds on piano*
Rachel: Did you hear that, that was so f%#ing high!
Brianna: He's giving me superhero. Cloud: Is this like my preview for what comes next?
Umu: Teaser time!
Liam: Oh baby...
Kevin: Foreshadowing...
-kay.
Umu: Yeah.
Owen: I'm sure it means something to someone (Kevin: Cool.)
Owen: Maybe it's an Avatar reference.
Leon: Oh, the Chinese words says like "the clouds embrace us".
Something like that.
Umu: So that ending is kinda like a teaser for their next thing to come.
Raffi: Oh I feel so teased!
Umu: Let's talk more about the royal feeling you got.
Raffi: When I think of royal I think of brass, triumphant sounds,
which I guess maybe I'm just saying because there was organ.
Umu: That's kinda- yeah. Like a grand, almost-
I feel like organ is almost like an expensive sound
if that makes any sense. (Raffi: Right)
Raffi: Well there were a lot of ascending moments,
so that's why I thought like: Royal, Persevering, Climbing.
Sam: Yeah, I kinda want to talk about royalty but more in the sense of how
I kind of view it as vertically moving.
The piece that everyone thinks of
when they think of sort of the villain stuff
is the Bach *sings Toccata in D minor*
and sort of because of those baroque textures
I guess I naturally assign those sort of like chorale-esque pieces
or those pieces that have that kind of identity,
just like anything that moves kind of vertically,
and in the chorus every, all of the movements,
or all of the chord changes where on those kind of strong beats,
like the *imitates*
and so I was like: "Oh okay, this is very regal sounding"
cuz it's almost like a march,
so when it came to that part where it was those descending chromatic harmonized tones, the *mimics*
that really caught me by surprise,
I think I moved back like a couple inches...
"Oh wowowowowow"
...because that was just something that jumped out of the tex-
not just out of the texture, but out of sort of that march setting.
Leon: I think the pre-chorus stands out the most to me,
not the chorus, the chorus is amazing for sure,
like I love how, the powerful bass and all, I think that's a saw wave?
Saw synth probably,
with the bass, that's really powerful,
but I love the chromaticism, like *sings*, like that B♭ is really bold!
Leon: And it sounds wrong at first! Yeah... Stephanie: Yeah, it's like "what?"
Umu: But then like your ear adjusts to it.
Leon: Yeah, and then the second time I listened to it
I realized that in the pre-chorus there is like a *vocalizes*,
the really like church organ sound, like *demonstrates*,
that sounds like Interstellar motif-
not motif, but like Interstellar sound, and then it really suits with the scene.
Because the scene is all about really, I don't know, fantasy stuff.
Rachel: That's pretty freaking cool! Liam: Dude, that was a cinematic experience, holy sh*t!
Rachel: Where did the organ happen, I just thought it was pretty-
I was like: "Man, we just heard organ and then synth immediately after",
but it worked, it did work, it was just like ~woah~
Liam: But it added to the character of the song for sure. Rachel: Yeah, it was definitely in character, and then the plainchant...
Liam: The opening, yeah, sort of... Umu: What is this plainchant you're talking of?
Rachel: It is a... Liam, you explain, you're in the class right now. Liam: Oh god, I don't want to.
Liam: Yeah, it's monophonic medieval singing,
Rachel: yes, it is a- Liam: like before notated music.
Rachel: What was my favorite part?
Umu: The many different descending chromatic moments? (Liam: Yeah!)
Liam: And I like how they did kind of a call back of that in the bridge.
Umu: Yeah.
Ju Young: I mean musically it was- they like their chromaticism.
Umu: What emotions does the chromaticism, or like colors, evoke for you?
Jason: In this setting kind of like a haunting quality.
The filming of it too is, I think, supposed to evoke kind of like a spooky,
a haunting quality to this story of King Arthur
so I think that sonically they did a good job of like the pulsating rhythm
where it's like, I don't exactly-
it's kind of like a sub bass kind of thing they're doing
where it's like in and out, it's like pulling in silence in a way,
it's like a wave, it's kind of interesting,
and that juxtaposed with like this,
it almost sounds like when someone gets a violin string on a marimba.
Umu: Oh!
Jason: And I think too with, they brought back the strings that like build up,
so it was just like a very uncomfortable texture
but then his vocal kinda going the harmonic minor type flavor,
Umu: Modal mixture?
Ju Young: Yeah, he might have jumped back from A major, A minor. Jason: Yeah, with mixture, and it's just interesting.
Umu: You talked a lot about how
there is even space within the mix when there is a lot of stuff going on. (Rachel: Yeah, yeah!)
Rachel: There's a lot of space in- yeah, in the chorus, with the bass. Liam: In the chorus,
Liam: The bass and like that sound they got going on, like the *mimics*
I kinda wanna listen to this again.
They add in that kind of bass drum sound,
that deep concert bass drum, it...
adds a bunch of ambiance to it. (Rachel: Like right here!)
Rachel: There is like almost nothing there,
Rachel: it's just them - yeah, I know! Liam: But it doesn't feel empty.
Kevin: There was so much about the production I wanted to talk about!!!
(Umu: I told you!) Kevin: The whole song I'm like what? I'm not...
Umu: Let's do music first, and then production. (Kevin: Okay)
Owen: I think a good song, any good piece of music, has give and take,
has places where it sets up tension and places where it releases the tension.
What I noticed specifically in this song
with reference to the fake drop,
where they sort of build it up with these textures,
there might have even been a scream in there somewhere,
and they brought you up and then they did this...
really halfhearted drop, (Kevin: Just the 4 beats of...)
it did, it's stuff that you might have heard before, (Kevin: Just mwaa...)
like lifts you up, rhythmic crescendo, what have you,
to get to the actual drop to feel very powerful,
and it didn't feel as though they snapped the rubber band far enough back
to have a satisfying release, or whatever metaphor...
Kevin: It's true, there was no, there wasn't much tension.
Umu: Which I think is because of the production.
Owen: Yeah, huh, how so?
Umu: Because of the levels. I think almost everything was too quiet.
Owen: Hm.
Kevin: Umu we are on the same page!!!
Yes, exactly!
It's very quiet.
When it's not being too quiet-
I think the whole song was mixed pretty decently
but when it was being okay somehow it felt hollow,
none of it felt filled up, even though there was a lot going on.
I still like the part, the *wubwubwub*, yeah that was pretty good,
still quiet though!
And the vocalists do do some really interesting things,
I like the way they *slide*,
and then there was one part, I think near the latter half,
where somebody just used like the really high, like,
he's like refusing to go into his head voice and his falsetto,
just doing the highest, highest part of his real register,
and it was something I hadn't heard, and I think that...
I think it was effective.
But it was also really quiet.
Liam: Dude, this, ah...
Rachel: Just the drop into that, right? Just like...
Rachel: ...nothing and then huge drop! Liam: It's just relying on the power of their voices entirely
for that first bar of that last chorus.
Rachel: And just a snare drum really, that's it.
Liam: It's got like an anthem quality to it, right? Rachel: No bass at all.
Liam: It's just... Rachel: Yeah, this is a great- you said this is their debut?
Rachel: Yeah, like what a statement. Liam: They made a- yeah, exactly,
Liam: they frickin' said something with this.
Henry: This felt like a power piece to me, where it's just *mpf*, let it all out,
but I needed something more to hook me in,
either something funky and wanna make me dance
or like massively impressive emotional feels.
But this was more atmospheric, storytelling.
Cloud: I feel like I just watched K-pop à la Dungeons and Dragons,
Cloud: like it's got that like fantasy-esque influence... Brianna: Yeah, that's what I was singing- I was like: Superhero!
Brianna: This could be like one of the next theme songs
for the new like Marvel movie...
Cloud: It's so like fantasy-esque because
it plays to everything that we expect a fantasy soundtrack to kinda sound like at the beginning,
or not even fantasy but like your little medieval feel.
Brianna: Yeah, medieval... Cloud: Like it literally started with horns
Cloud: and that drum doing that *imitates*,
and then like the, you have the kind of droning horn sound,
and then it goes into like a little bit of chanting
with the "King! Arthur! King! Arthur!"
And then it goes into the ethereal voices where it's like people singing,
and then the organ later, I was like: "Oh, I see you..."
Okay.
Umu: (*Laughing*) The music video for 'Excalibur' shows the members engaging in battle against unknown forces
(*speaking up*) WHILE ARTHUR SEEKS TO FULFILL HIS DESTINY!
Charlotte: Sorry mom!