*Raffi crying noises*
[Rossini's Semiramide Overture playing]
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Now let's get a listening and start this reaction already.
You are now reacting to the brother-sister duo AKMU
and their 2021- (Henry: OOH, WITH IU!)
Sam: With IU?!
Holy moly!
Rachel: Oh, IU, oh my god, this is about to be good.
Cloud: Wow, what a combo! U: This is their...
Umu: ...2021 release 'Nakka'.
So Nakka's meaning was actually originally inspired
by a moment in The Greatest Showman.
*Raffi Surprised Pikachu*
Umu: So Chanhyuk was watching 'The Greatest Showman'
and there is a moment where the main character lost his place in society
but the rest of his crew came to him to say:
"We'll stay by your side, even when you fall."
Kevin: ~From now on~
~These eyes will not be blinded by the lights~
Umu: So Chanhyuk, the brother of AKMU,
wanted to express the message: (Jason: I'll be there for you.)
"If you're falling, everlasting love will fall with you."
The film director also took inspiration from this meaning
and tried to paint out the meaning
to not be afraid of falling because
if you imagine you're starting to fall on one side of the world,
depending on how you're looking at it
you're actually rising on the other side. (Stephanie: Oh true, I like that!)
Jason: That's true, but you will hit the floor and die.
Umu: What if you don't?
. . .
Cloud: There was a thing in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse -
if you haven't watched the movie, go watch the movie, it's really great,
but one of the key scenes was when he was falling in his Spider-Man suit
and they shift the perspective and they're like: He's rising.
I'm like: Oh, that's so good!
Jory: Sick.
Umu: Yeah, the song is composed by Chanhyuk from AKMU
and the producer Millennium.
3 2 1!
Jason: I like them!
Oh, see, that's a mood, I've totally felt that before.
Everybody - oh?
Cloud: I love it already, it's been about ten seconds.
Cloud: Those are some cool sounds!
Liam: That sounds like a Mbira.
Will: I love how it pans slightly.
Jory: That's right.
Sam: The percussion is really interesting.
OoH, that bass!
Raffi: Ah, everything they do is so gooood!
Sam: Mm~
Kevin: That's great...
Oh, I like the overtones, I guess. Yeah.
Cloud: Oh my god!
Raffi: There is like a great *mimics swell* Sam: Wow!
Sam: Wow, that-
Raffi: "Oooo~", I like that.
Kevin: I like that they use a fourth
but it sounds both like the dominant and the resolution.
It's where they slide into it.
Rachel: Like the 80s...? Liam: Yeah, the drum machine toms and then that synth.
Owen: Wow, I like that, having them doubled like that.
Liam: I really like the syncopation that they're using with these like
"Ba ba ba ba"
Sam: MMH~
Liam: Oh, soften up a little bit, that's a nice texture change.
Raffi: That voice...
Sam: Yeah...
*Raffi crying noises*
Sam: Wow, the intonation is crazy.
Cloud: I love that breakdown, into the heavy bass.
Henry: I hear you, IU! Cloud: And the falling in the background.
Liam: They just keep those quarter notes pumpin' along in the bass
and it moves it forward. (Rachel: Keep going)
Henry: Yeah, that's so stanky, I love it!
Kevin: I think she's supposed to be some like...
divine being who can just watch people fall and stuff.
Owen: Hm.
Kevin: There's something almighty about the way she's spectating.
Henry: Nice echo.
And they combine.
Yeah, I like that.
Stephanie: Wow.
Huh...
Leon: Uh! Stephanie: Ahh~
Liam: Ah, the warped bass is kind of like-
he's going back up?!
That's kind of fun, that rewind effect.
Sam: That bass is crazy!
Raffi: That staccati are so effective.
Jason: I really like the message.
It's like: Go ahead and fall, everybody falls.
You'll rise from the fall.
Jory: That's a sick shot.
*imitating*
Sam: Wow.
Henry: Yeah, those retro wave sound - is there more? Cloud: Blessed, we are blessed!
Stephanie: Huhhh
Leon: Amazing.
Stephanie: Oh my god.
I was just kinda speechless the whole time
because I was trying to absorb everything
Jory: Word. I liked that one a lot. Will: Yeah, that's cool.
Liam: This is a really cool idea for a music video.
Rachel: Yeah, I didn't realize the rewind effect,
I was trying to figure out what was going on
cuz it like modulates up
and I guess that's supposed to mimic things going backwards?
Liam: Oh yeah. It was really creative.
Stephanie: It's so unique, like visually it's really abstract
and the music really matches too, especially that metallic sound,
yeah, in the beginning there was like
shattered glass on the floor too,
and that matched the sound effects so perfectly too,
and then in the chorus it's- I realized there is a pattern,
the first time they're falling, the second time they're ascending,
and then just that music, it matches like *mimics sounds*
that thing, it sounds like you're diving into the water
or you're kind of just being sucked up or something?
Umu: Do you think there was any specific aspect
about the music, about the mix, about the textures,
that helped represent what they were talking about?
Jory: Well definitely the panning back and forth,
like a sense of non-balanced,
because you're never sure what your footing is,
never sure if you're on solid ground,
and I kinda like that, how it's just kind of always shifting around you.
Cloud: I love the little chimes, bells, whatever you want to call them,
and the white noise in the background was cool!
*doing white noise*
Henry: As far as vocals go it just feels like
it's a good balance to the chorus,
to need to peel back and be a little acoustic before...
*mimics chorus bursts*
and like... yeah.
Rachel: The sister, Suhyun, her voice is like-
I really like really clear voices
and she has a very clear, very in tune voice, if that makes sense?
I don't know if she has perfect pitch
but she sings like she does, if that makes sense,
cuz every- sometimes when singers sing
you can tell that they know exactly where they are, tuning-wise,
and she is one of those people
and I love that because it just like, it makes me happy.
Raffi: Okay, well this is a general comment, but his timbre... (Umu: Chanhyuk)
...can stop a room.
It's just like a showstopper timbre.
It's really soothing, he controls it to be breathier or more core,
like when he wants to, it's really good but
oh, they've such good use of repetition too,
it's not minimalism at all, I'm not saying it's minimalism
but it's like they are able - you hear one phrase and then I'm like:
Okay, I'm gonna hear it again, it's gonna be a little different.
And then it launches into a chorus or something...
yeah, I can follow it really well and I love it.
Cloud: I love the staccato doubling with the bass, that was so cool!
Henry: It gives so - especially at the start of the chorus, *vocalizes*
that space feels so big, even though it's just like a beat.
Kevin: You can tell the bass and whatever is going on in the treble region,
there's a lot of distance, but yet it doesn't feel like...
sometimes you hear a song like that and it feels like hollow, almost,
where it's just like, there's nothing in between
but I never felt like there was anything missing in this song.
Owen: I think the bass had some counterpoint too,
like it had multiple voices going on, *mimics*,
I mean that outlines a chord even though it's not technically
*vocalizes triad* all together.
Sam: I think one of the biggest strengths about it is that
it's very hook driven, like the bass is
the entire time it's kind of like the glue of this entire song,
which I think is...
That's one of the biggest strengths of this song
because I think sort of vertically speaking there isn't a lot happening
but how he fills the space is so brilliant
because there is bass lines that are just absolutely captivating
and then with the sub basses, everything like that,
it's almost like it's swelling into it,
it's never a stagnant bass, it's either swelling or it's fading away
or it's panning from one to the other and there's always movement
but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's dense, densely compact,
and I think how he uses the space is so, so well done.
Jory: Oh, the bass was sick, that was like all I could hear. (Will: Oh yeah, *mimics*)
Jory: Yeah, it was like filtered but then it was like a sub bass
but then it was like an acid, like *imitates*.
Umu: So you said it's your favorite bass sound,
Umu: those aspects that you just described, that's what you like? Jory: Yeah, I really like it.
Jory: Usually when I'm...
No, that's...
Umu: You can talk about your production!
Jory: No...
I don't want to.
I listen to a lot of bass tone when I'm listening to music
because that's what I'm always trying to replicate,
and like get a really good squelchy sound,
but sometimes I want a harder sound,
but I want like a tight compressed sound
and what I was hearing was not a whole lot of sub
so that it wasn't muddy and like *demonstrates*,
but it was cutting through and it sounded really good.
Cloud: My heart is racing right now
cuz it feels like they don't even let you rest
cuz it's just like *vocalizes*, you can just hear everything.
*Figuring out harmony*
Henry: So we're mostly in C minor, the whole song.
Ju Young: F - D♯ or E♭ - C [t/n: E♭ for C minor]
B♭ - A - F
*playing chords*
[t/n: Probably confused by the A♮, C minor has A♭]
Excuse me?
*Henry playing and singing chorus*
i - iv - VII ?
Will: Yeah, I think the progression on the whole chorus is just like:
*plays iv-v-i* [Fm-Gm-Cm]
and then it goes to (♭)VI and then (♭)VII to i [A♭-B♭-Cm]
so I mean that's kind of the classic EDM, you know...
*plays VI-VII-i* yeah.
Jory: what's fun cuz we were talking about being unbalanced
but that's like a very balanced - oh god.
Will: Yeah.
Umu: You don't wanna be seen? Jory: No, I forgot about that.
Jory: But it's a very balanced chord progression, I think.
Will: But I feel like it does kinda support the vibe of falling,
it's kind of a dark sound:
*VI-VII-i*
and then also *iv-v7-i*, I like that too, cuz it's kinda,
it sounds almost the same, but the bass note is different.
So the first time in the chorus: *iv-v-i*
and the second time through: *VI-VII-i*
so it's like kinda the same...
Will: inner voice motion, over different bass notes. Jory: Yeah it's like a really melancholic underpinning...
Will: It is pretty melancholic, yeah.
Cloud: Man, I wasn't even listening to the chords.
Umu: What were you listening to? Cloud: I love their...
Cloud: I love their voices, I love the sounds that they were using,
I love how many sounds they were using,
Henry: Especially the percussion instruments. Cloud: there was so- there's different percussion instruments,
Cloud: there's the bass that was so good
and their voices and how they gave each person their space
to sing their own section, but also mixed really well...
So good.
Umu: Yeah, did you have a favorite section of the song?
Kevin: The whole thing.
It's one of those whole thing type of songs.
I mean the experience of it was a very subtle one,
it wasn't like a blow my brains, blow my mind experience.
Owen: But that's how AKMU does it.
(Kevin: Right, exactly.) Owen: It's very- they build it up super well,
like 'Whale' too, especially how it just kind of like-
I do this all the time I've realized.
I don't know why I do that, but like,
it does feel like that, it feels like on sort of thing
that's stretched out for the entire song.
Owen: Exactly. That's how the song feels.
Kevin: Sort of. Owen: It's perfect.
Owen: Oh, when we're watching her she's going like this, but if you just...
view like this, then look at that!
She's rising up, she's doing great!