Isaac: It sounds like a beluga whale!
Kevin: *whale noise #1*
Stephen: *whale noise #2*
Henry: *whale noise #3*
Umu: Okay, now you're acting to the brother and sister duo AKMU and after two years of hiatus,
with Chanhyuk serving time in the military, the brother-sister duo are back!
First you'll be reacting to their B-side called 'Freedom.'
'Freedom' is about wanting to live life with no rules or
consequences, like walking around with no clothes on as if you were a little kid.
AKMU say that they want to breathe, sing, and dance freedom including
dreaming freedom, sleeping freedom, donating free,
voting freedom, and expressing freedom.
The song is composed by—and written by— Chanhyuk.
Okay, go ahead!
Gwen: All right Hugo: One, two, seven!
Gwen: Ah!
Hugo: Ooh, alright.
Gwen: Okay, weird way to open a song, I gotta admit. (Hugo: Yes, yes I am so down!)
Gwen: I know you already primed me for that, but weird way to open a song.
Stephen: Man, her voice is really pretty. Seiji: Yeah.
Elizabeth: I like the harmony very faintly above what she's singing.
Owen: I think it's the same plagal key as I IV
Kevin: Whoa... Isaac: Whaaaat?
Kevin: Wow, they're doing the Billie Eilish thing.
Where they don't—they never project the low, sort of like whispering, ASMR volume.
Isaac: Ooh whoo!
Kevin: But they just put it really close to the mic, and the production here supports that it's very well-balanced.
Seiji: That bass. Stephen: Also their blend is so good!
Their blend is sooo good!
I just love the timbre of both of their voices together.
Emiel: I do like the song though, it's a nice piece.
Owen: It just feels like a hug.
It's just, I love plagal.
I love going on the circles in fifths in the right direction.
It just feels so nice!
Seiji: It almost sounds like Christian rock, too.
Umu: There we are (every react pair made this comment)
Seiji: I don't know.
Stephen: It's too light sounding (Seiji: Like the guitar.) in orchestration to sound like Christian rock.
If it was Christian rock there would be some, like,
heavy duty bass drum action going on right now. (Seiji: True, that's true.)
Hugo: Oh, a little bit of rock going on here, alright!
Gwen: Oh yeah, with some distorted guitar in the back? Yeah.
Henry: I think this is really good.
Kevin: Their songwriting, yeah their composition is so good!
It's the magic. It's the AKMU magic that I can't pinpoint.
Or I can just enjoy listening to it...
Without having to think, "This is boring," or "This is repetitive."
Cloud: I find a lot of the words very, kind of like short little like sort of just like kind of brushing off them.
Henry: It's so cute!
I can't, it's just like so cuddly, you know?
Almost to the point where it's like disgusting. It's so cuddly, just like... (Cloud: I feel like I'm wearing a blanket!)
Free, free!
Gwen: Ah, I love the distorted guitar.
(Gwen: there's somethin about it) Hugo: Coldplay called, they're mad that AKMU perfected what
they've been trying to do for the past 20 years.
Gwen: Honestly, you're not wrong.
Hugo: Oh! Yes! Love that ending.
Fiona: I love endings like that.
Hugo: Always down for a *clap* ending. (Fiona: Is that the end?)
Fiona: Okay.
Isaac: I think, just, their voice complements the guitar really well.
Or vice versa.
(Isaac: So...) Kevin: Both guitars! Because it starts off with the acoustic and then by the time it ends it's full electronic.
Isaac: Yeah...
Kevin: But it's not like...a linear pass to that there's a lot of
variation in between that gets us to that point which I really enjoy.
Isaac: Yes. It's like they can stretch their boundaries of their vocal...
timbre or musical decisions, but then even the guitar.
These two when they move and..
Expanding an idea or expanding their palette.
It just complements each other, regardless.
Kevin: And there are only two chord progression in the piece, and both of them are pretty
common, like very typical chord progressions.
But the way they assemble it together
and even the way they choose to sing over some of it and not sing over some of it.
There's so...it feels so alive!
You know? It feels like there's a lot of soul in it.
Again, I've always blown away by what AKMU can do with something so simple.
It shows that, I think when...
When you spend effort into doing something and
when you truly believe in the art that you create,
I think people can sense it.
There's something...
Mystical and invisible and something that can't be pinpointed with musical theory or whatever (Isaac: Mhm.)
that kind of gets infused inside it.
Henry: It had like a, you know, constant sort of driving feeling with the...
you know, eighth notes.
And the guitar, and then the halftime in the chorus or whatever.
And then each time they did the chorus they like added a layer, you know?
Terracing, sort of.
So that's really cool.
It's well constructed and I want to know more about
this freedom concept and sort of how deep they want to take that.
Because they could have just mentioned like, running free!
Doing what you want to do!
But they mentioned like, "Yeah there shouldn't be money."
And so like, you know? That's sort of an intense stance to take.
So, I want to know more about that.
Stephen: So like, I like the song overall, it's cute.
Like it definitely has a very carefree, happy-go-lucky, kind of airy vibe to it, you know?
Which is also what they intended.
It just—a lot of the patches and sounds that they use,
and orchestration things like the way the arpeggiating chords and some of the instrumentation.
You just hear that a lot in commercials or certain other styles of music,
which is why it's draws that, you know, so strongly.
Cloud: It is very light and fluffy and like kind of like, I don't want to say like skippy, but it was like ---
That wasn't the right rhythm but it felt like I wasn't like sinking into any one
particular note like I was just kind of like...
jumping from one note to the next and I kind of like that!
Like if I was going to do that with my bow it would literally be like, a very—kind of brushstroke kind of like--
Henry: But then the vocals were so gentle and so cute and so soft and...
(Henry: They evoked that because it was—) Cloud: And then they had the direct echo above them.
Henry: It was already softer like just in volume, but then also like you said how it was kind of short.
Everything was not, I wouldn't say staccato. (Cloud: Yeah.)
But it wasn't... nothing had a lot of weight to it.
It was very lofty in the length that which they sing in all their vowels and consonants
(Henry: and it seemed to zoom by...yeah.) Cloud: It was like acrobatic almost it was like
Cloud: You could flip to any note that you wanted to because you're just like light and you can just jump.
Gwen: I liked it. We especially liked the the bass line and the the beat it had to it. (Hugo: Yes.)
It was very much like a slow jam and I liked it.
Hugo: And like we said it was unique because AKMU usually focuses heavily on the voice,
(Gwen: There was more instrumentals happening.) but the voice was just more of a contributing line
to the overarching song which I thought was really good and their voices fit really well with it. (Gwen: Oh yeah.)
Hugo: Um...
Yeah, it was awesome.
Umu: Cool. Well, you'll be comparing 'Freedom' to the seventh track on the 'Sailing' album called 'Whale'.
In the song, AKMU sing about their admiration for whales and
hope that they'll forever be able to leisurely swim in the ocean as they always have before.
Emiel: Gosh.
Henry: They're really out here being like anarchist-environmentalists. (Emiel: Yeah x7)
[Henry laughing] Emiel: Yo, I was about to—
The song is composed and written by Chanhyuk,
Henry: Alright.
Emiel: Three, two, one, bam
Henry: *whale noise*
That's a whale, that's my imitation of a whale.
Emiel: Oh, there's no video with this one, we're just gonna listen.
Like it already!
Yes!
Hugo: Ooh!
Hugo: Oh! (Both: The bass!)
Hugo: Oooh!
Isaac: Okay.
Henry: Blues!
Fiona: Honestly, save the whales.
Hugo: Ooh a little jazz organ in there? Is that what I heard there on that downbeat?
Henry: Ah!
So cute.
Henry: Their voices are so nice.
Cloud: And they fit so well together!
Henry: Oh, they do!
Cloud: Oh, dude!
Cloud: What?!
I like it!
Elizabeth: There's your whistling!
Owen: There's my whistling, I love whistling.
Owen: If they do the first one again, I'll do it again.
Owen: [starts to whistle]—Nope.
Isaac: It sounds like a beluga whale!
Kevin: Whoa...
Stephen: Ooh.
Henry: Whoaw!
Hugo: This would make it onto the ____ playlist.
Umu: Oh my god, do not bring AKMU into this Hugo.
Hugo: But it would! But it's a song about whales
but it's so like ----
Hugo: To all the people who out there who do know, they know.
Seiji: It's the mammalian...
Solidarity, it's a real thing.
Emiel: See, this tune has something very memorable about it
which automatically (Henry: See that piano?) puts that on another level
than a lot of other songs that we've been listening to.
Henry: It's such a nice balance between their voices (Cloud: I love that bass on the bottom just doing---)
Cloud: And then you have like little --
Henry: That's a really sick riff.
Elizabeth: It's almost like imitating whale song a little bit.
Owen: Ooooh yeah!
You know? Like I feel like (Owen: Oh definitely!) the ascending line like that or the like ---
*mimics whale song*
Like I feel like that's...similar-ish.
Both: Hmm.
Cloud: That little like...
Sprechstimme.
Henry: That was like a whale noise!
Cloud: You can do what they call it a whale sound on a bass.
If you take the bottom tailpiece and you put your bow on it
and you pull, you get this nice little *mimics whale sound*.
I should play it for you guys some time, we call it whale noises.
Emiel: Yeah.
Henry: I like how much the instrumental they include at the end.
Henry: Yeah! Emiel: Hell yeah!
Henry: That was really good, that was really easy to listen to.
Emiel: Yeah, that was sick. That was good.
Henry: Yeah.
Sometimes it's confrontational, you know?
Sometimes you have to—sometimes it feels like you're trying to listen to something.
When especially when you're reacting, because you are trying to listen to something
But I always love it more when it's easy to listen to.
And there are even things that I like, and I find that it's sometimes not always easy to listen to.
But one thing with AKMU is that it's good to analyze
but it's also just easy on the ears, which I really appreciate.
Henry: It is really cool, especially because it's like their trading-
*whistles to song*
Henry: And then like just shredding on the bass.
And then back to *whistling*
Cloud: And it was also those nice little like, slaps.
Henry: Yeah Cloud: Where like it's not like in your face
It's just a nice little (Henry: Maybe)
Henry: I was really impressed by how balanced their sound was.
Cloud: They like layered things like very gradually, very nicely.
Because you start with like just guitar voices and then in the refrain and
you add in the bass.
And then like you added the strings later.
It was pizz(icato) first and then the bowing came up and the strings got more present.
(Cloud: It was all very gradual.) Henry: It was like a big violin it, or a string—
an orchestral hit that was really cool.
And then like they did a
They they walked up to it and strings. It was really, really cool.
Isaac: I just kept listening to her [Suhyun] and just how she reacts to all these...
Just things that are just popping here and there. There's a percussion that's just ---
Just all this up and down motifs that just color or just complement but
they're singing and this
it's marvelous to see how they react to it because there's an
aspect of music where you do react to the surroundings that you're working with because you are painting on
silence as a musician. So seeing them go for it, it was just ...
It was nice.
Kevin: I felt like by the time the song ended
they said everything they wanted to say, regarding the whale and to the whale,
without needing to repeat too much or add too much or make it too wordy and then
when I think about the spacing of when they do the whale
sounds and when they do the instrumentals
it suddenly it just comes together very nicely
and I feel like maybe it's something that when you get a whole team of
composers and lyricists that you can't really create.
I mean, I've heard songs written by teams of people that do sound cohesive.
But I think something that makes AKMU so special is their
partnership and the way they write their own music and it really feels like
the lyrics and the music sort of meet at that same point.
Hugo: I would definitely love driving home to this song.
That is a great driving song. (Gwen: That's true. That's a good road trip sound.)
Gwen: I will say that it could be in a road trip playlist; however
Hugo: —Hardcore.
It's not going on a _____ playlist.
Umu: So, (Hugo: It could be on both.) Which one do you prefer more, 'Freedom' or 'Whale'?
Both: Whale! Hugo: Oh yeah. (Umu: Why?)
Hugo: 'Freedom' was going for...for example, like a wall of sound effect,
where there are different voices that were contributing to this overall
(Gwen: The overall sound, and this was like...) sound.
Where this had more moments, as Gwen said during it
like there are moments in this that are like
you know, you hear a guitar riff (Gwen: Like ooh bass!)
or the bass goes all the way up the octave and slides down. (Gwen: Ooh the brass hit!)
Gwen: Ooh the whistling! Like yeah.
Hugo: Exactly! There are moments in this that make it really cool.
And for me at least, those complexities in songs make them...
last longer for me wanting to listen to them. (Gwen: Right.)
Because I want to be able to find all this moments (Gwen: Yeah.) and then I start looking
forward to those moments (Gwen: Right.) and that makes it like really interesting and a really cool song to listen to.
Also, whales! Like, come on. (Gwen: Yeah.)
Stephen: I loved...
after the chorus the little hook that they had with their whistling.
The way they made it, like the reverb and
(Seiji: Yeah!) they slid it it made it kind of sound like whale songs (Seiji: Maybe that's what it was.)
So that was pretty dope! But I thought that was really cool.
That was just like really, really clever. It was really nice ear candy.
And it was like, really cool melody.
Seiji: Yeah, I'm trying to—I mean it definitely evoked water,
and the color blue and the color green, but I'm not quite sure why it did.
I think maybe the reverb is part of it.
I think the bass being kind of reverbed too is part of it.
Stephen: Yeah, this also coming from a guy wearing
multiple shades of blue in his outfit, so...
Seiji: Yeah, and I play jazz so everything is kind of blue.
Umu: Ay heyyyy!
Isaac: Whale done!
Umu: Oh my freaking god...