Umu: AAaAaAaAAHhHH!!!
[Rossini - Semiramide Overture]
Umu: You guys remember Kep1er, right?
Liam: Frickin' of course! Rachel: We Go! De da dada DA da DA~
Umu: So you are now reacting to the 9 member girl group Kep1er
and their 2022 comeback called 'We Fresh',
This was literally released this morning.
Ju Young: Oh!
Ali: Wow, that's super fresh!
Umu: Which is exactly why I don't have a script and that's funny.
Ali: Thanks.
Umu: Through the song they say that they want to create a different vibe on a whole 'nother level.
Kevin: No, they're already ON the next level!
Kevin: Hi...
How did we get here?
Oh jeez!
Kevin: And it was already too much! Umu: Haha, it's already too much, so...
Umu: They tell their listeners to get up, go, start flying, start clapping your hands, and move as fast as you can.
They sing: "Jump, trust us like that, Fly, my two arms are skyway,
Make a fist, boom, You run for tomorrow, pronto,
I'll protect you."
And in the music video you will see them like gearing up for a fight,
they're gonna get like some guns, they're gonna get like their swords,
and they're basically trying to say that they are superheroes ready to protect their fans,
so their fans can, like, just do whatever they want.
Jason: I am a very big fan of how the K-pop groups-
It's like a thing that they do, where they have such a connection with their fans, where it's like:
"I got you, let's do this together, listen to my song and let's conquer something!"
I think that's so sick, there is nobody who does stuff like that.
Umu: While Kep1er is prepared to fight to protect their fans from whatever threat they are about to face,
our sponsor Nord VPN is ready to protect you from threats to your cyber security.
Nord VPN is a virtual private network that is armed to the teeth with features that keep you safe online.
Not only does it keep your personal data safe by masking your online presence,
but it also shields you from web trackers and intrusive ads,
scans your files for malware and warns you about potentially dangerous websites.
But keeping you safe isn't all it can do.
If you are tired of the stale, limited selection available on streaming services,
refresh your options using Nord VPN.
By connecting to one of their servers all over the world
you can access content available in other countries,
bringing your streaming experience to a whole other level.
If you are interested in getting Nord VPN
you can click on the link in the description
or go to nordvpn.com and use the promo code reacttothek
to get 4 months for free on a two year plan.
If you are on a tight budged,
it's seriously worth the sacrifice of a singular boba tea a month to purchase it,
and it's completely risk free with Nord's 30 day money back guarantee.
Thanks again to Nord VPN for sponsoring this video.
Umu: The people who composed this are the same producers who did 'Wing Wing',
Umu: Which, I very much enjoyed that comeback. Sean: Yes.
Sean: KZ, Nthonius, B.O and Meisobo.
Brian: 3! 2! 1!
Jason: Hgn! Hng!
Ju Young: Here we go.
It's starting.
Both: Oh, I want pizza.
Umu: Is this just instrumental or this is actual song?
Sean: This feels like instrumental introduction.
Jason: WHAT!? It's already over? - Oh, hahaha.
Kevin: Okayy?
Owen: It's the Green Day guitar, that's what it is.
Rachel: He, there's a marching snare. Liam: The rimshot.
Liam: Nice.
Sean: Over to mixolydian. Umu: The percussion is crazy.
Liam: A little bit of hemiola, I love it.
Owen: It's hard to hear this guitar without also thinking of...
TV theme songs to mid 2000s, that like, teen shows.
Leon: Mm~
Sean: Yeah, that's where this crew's production really kicks in.
Kevin: I like the instrumental for this.
Umu: Is that a saxophone?
Ali: Damn! Liam & Kevin: Oh my gosh!
Umu: Oooooooooh! Rachel: Okay.
Umu: My god.
Sean: I like that it's like articulating it as its sliding,
so it's like landing on microtones.
Jory: That's cool. I like that. Will: Yeah.
Ju Young: They...
They...
they...
I really like her hat!
Rachel: I'm very confused about what's happening in this video
but I'm just gonna ignore it.
Liam: Is she making a bomb? Wait, I just like clocked that.
What is going on here?
Ali: I'm here for the beat changes.
Ju Young: It's getting more chaotic as we go. Ali: Yeah, I mean it was chaotic earlier...
Kevin: Yeah, what?
They always feel kind of fragmented,
everything is so fragmented in a Kep1er song.
Brian: ~Da dada dada~ Jason: There's a lot of - yeah, there is a lot of rhythm.
Sean: I like the visual pairing of her shooting the gun with the sort of distorted...
Like, it almost feels like it's fully for it.
*Kayla Rae imitating guitar*
Liam: It's just rocking out now, what the f#%k. Rachel: Go off man!
Jason: This girl is crazy.
She's... a warrior.
Kevin: Oh, this section is cool.
Oh it's, I like that.
Ali: It has like a flavor of so many different genres that
if you are into anyone of those scenes
you would probably like this song.
Jason: That was a successful bridge. That was f#%king good.
Brian: "Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go!"
Sean: All the entrances of things are so clean.
Umu: AAaaAAaaAAAhHHH!!!
Liam: Oh this makes me scrunch my eyebrows,
something about that synth sound is like...
Jory: It's so wack. Will: It's just crazy, like what?
Brian: They have weapons!
They have weapons, oh my gosh.
Jacob: Uh? We fresh! Kayla Rae: We fresh~
Kayla Rae: That was fun.
Umu: It was fun? Jacob: It was fun. // Kayla Rae: Yeah.
Umu: Okay. Although you kind of stopped grooving through half of that
so I can't help but wonder if you have mixed feelings about this.
Jacob: Oh, it was focus. I was like, Umu: Okay.
Jacob: "Oh my god this is fire" and then I could hear something change on me.
Kevin: This has some admirable qualities.
I very much like the rock stuff, although,
you know, once they started of course they did jump around a lot
and I kind of whish it was a bit more consistent.
Liam: Yeah, just like each section of the...
Like, you get one 8 bar chorus, basically, to start off with,
and then you get 4 bars of like dance break with wacky synth
and then this really lush thing to end it.
Umu: Do you feel like that's a benefit or is it very jarring?
Liam: I- It didn't like throw me off. Rachel: It's fine.
Liam: They are very distinct sections.
Ju Young: The sounds change and you're just kind of like...
"Wow, what is this?"
It's just so hype, like the beat changes,
like rhythmically, the rhythm changes.
Ali: It was just like the flavor of what kind of beat.
Like, you have rock beats, you have rap beats, you have EDM beats.
Ju Young: Like you said before,
if you like any of those genres, that's the part you like.
It's like when you're given a cheese plate, and like,
you can pick which cheese you want
and you can pick which cracker you want
and then you can eat it.
Sean: Like the beginning where it's just like,
it sounds kind of rock, it's like: "Okay..."
And then it starts really going places,
like, it kind of fakes you out for a while,
sounding like it's not gonna stand out,
and then the chorus hits and the production is super clean
and the kicks are really, like, have some heft to them,
I really appreciated how forceful the kicks were when it was time for that.
Jason: But I really liked how it started immediately with groove.
Like, you jump right into it and it's just like literally 3, 2, 1, go,
and it's like *dum-ka dum-ka*, and I was like, "YEAH!"
Brian: Their use of silence along with their grooves
really gets you listening, I feel like,
because once they like stop all of the sudden you're like:
"Wait a second-"
"What's happening? We gotta go, gotta go!"
Jason: I think it was a lot of orientation stuff in here
cuz when there's like little moments of stopping you're like:
"Okay, now this direction. Okay, now THIS direction.
OkaY now here!
NOW EVERYTHING!"
So it was a lot.
Kevin: Yeah, the thing with Kep1er is,
it's mostly their melodic, some of their melodic innovation,
the way they do their big, jagged, big, loud, crazy melodies
and then it's like, "Oh, now we're doing this. Now we're doing that."
This song had that, it's like,
We're gonna sing in major when, you know,
we just went in minor a little bit ago,
and the we add the 7th -
wow, I wasn't in key.
They almost deconstruct and stretch a normal sort of K-pop melody into new places.
Umu: Can you explain, break down a section in which you're like,
"Okay, this is what I mean by a jagged melody"?
Kevin: Great.
It's just their timing, the way of where they land all their ideas.
Well that wasn't much.
But see, that's the other thing!
There are also sections where they just stay at the same three notes forever.
Oh, we're not in the same key-
Oh no, my perfect pitch is gone!
I thought we were in E!
Owen: I thought we were in E, too.
Umu: What's wrong?
Kevin: I think this E♭ just sounds very E.
*Plays G - A♭ - B♭*
Right? And then they just don't stop!
They keep on singing that, that's part of-
I don't know if jagged is the right word,
it's the Kep1eriness.
Umu: There is no word to describe it other than this sounding like Kep1er.
Kevin: It's like, yeah, some parts of it, they just insist on the same thing,
and then on parts where I am not ready for a different thing
they always whack me with a different thing.
Rachel: I don't know.
I think that they have a really distinct sound,
which I think is cool, especially for a group like this who is not gonna...
Umu: Where it's like two years.
Rachel: It's like a two year long group, whatever,
this is a Produce 101 group, right?
Umu: Um... Rachel: Or,
Umu & Rachel: Girl's Planet 999.
Liam: A lot of their stuff is just like really rhythmically interesting.
There is like a drive to a lot of their songs, (Rachel: That too, yeah)
it's like an energy, or like, you feel like there's a destination at the end.
Umu: Were you getting a certain amount of energy?
(Leon: Yeah) Like, what did you feel like doing when you listened to this.
Stephanie: Oooh, fighting.
Leon: Mm, it reminds me of Kingsman. Stephanie: Yeah, like fight mode.
Leon: Especially the rock part,
when the guitar came, like, man,
this sounds like Kingsman soundtrack.
Umu: Yeah...
Kevin: But also, yeah, the production is very much in your face,
especially a lot of their vocals,
and no matter whether rapping, or they're singing in unison, or they're singing in some sort of harmony,
there is always like a forefront nature with it
and overall I think it's a little overt, it's a lot,
and this is, yeah, this is one that I actually kind of enjoyed.
Yeah.
Umu: When listening to music like this, when you have a lot of different textures,
how did you feel like the mixing engineer approached it
and what could they have done better?
Leon: Yeah, I think the guy who did the... (Umu: Mastering?)
Leon: Yeah. Umu: Oh okay.
Leon: Mastering, like really... Umu: He just like saw everything and turned it way up?
Leon: Yeah, and then just put a limiter, *bwah*
and everything just like compressed so hard.
Owen: There was no subtlety
or anything that was like underneath the surface,
there weren't two levels.
Listening to it, I just hear someone going *Eeehhhh* in my head the entire time,
Owen: and I just want that noise to stop. Kevin: That's how I feel with every other Kep1er song!
Owen: I feel like there is not shape to it, that's what it feels like,
I love things being loud and things being chaotic
and like, it's great that it's exciting,
but it feels like it's this level, except up here, the entire time,
and that's okay to have certain times
but there's got to be like flow,
something that I can go into and out of.
I want processions of silence sometimes,
instead of it just being all like the "ng" sound the entire time.
It just, it didn't, there wasn't this, and I need this, personally.
Umu: Okay, so overall, like, the sound was fun to listen to?
Cuz some of the reactors have been critiquing that it was too loud.
Jacob: Oh... Kayla Rae: Mm, it didn't really come down at all
but like, sometimes for-
especially because they have like the EDM aspect,
I don't feel like there really needs to be a more intimate like,
like one voice and the piano and the violin or so, you know, like they-
it's supposed to be a high energy song.
Jacob: And I think it makes sense for the story they are trying to communicate.
I mean it's about, like galvanizing yourself for like a battle
and like high energy and power, and so like...
(Jacob: I don't know.) Kayla Rae: And I feel like if they came down at all,
it would have been a moment of like self doubt,
like that's probably where the music would have taken it,
and they don't doubt themselves.
They shouldn't.
Brian: You know, this was a very "you go girl, you can fly, Jason: They're queen, they're boss,
Brian: jump off the building... Jason: What is it, what is it, boss girl?
Brian: Boss girl, girl boss - wait -
Brian: you always make me forget. Jason: I always mess him up.
Brian: Gatekeep - wait...
Brian: Girl boss- Jason: Gatekeep girl-
Brian: Gatekeep- Gaslight gatekeep girl- wait, which one is it? Jason: Gatekeep girl boss gaslight queen.
Brian: No, I forget, gaslight...
gaslight gatekeep girlboss - girlboss -
Wait, what's the order? Gatekeep...
Jason: He's having a mental breakdown. Brian: YES, I'm glitching.
Gaslight gatekeep girlboss, that's what it is,
that's my final answer, I'm locking it in.
Jason: I like that "wra baba bababa bababa!"
It's the musical representation of what they're talking about the whole song
because they're saying like
"Oh, get up and go and then let's move, let's fly, let's do things"
and like literally, first of all,
it's a bit of an alarming sound and it's kind of got a very high end to it,
so it's like *mimics*
but it also, rhythmically, is going into a place and then pushing,
it's like when you press on a treadmill like, you're like,
"I'm going 3 miles an hour, I can go 7"
and then you're like "oh sh*t", like it goes so fast,
it goes *mimics sound* into the triplet and so it's kind of like,
"go, go, go, gotta go!"
So it's very aurally representative of like the words and what they're saying and stuff, so...
That was cool. I thought it was great, I mean it worked, like,
and it got me grooving.
Umu: That is the best first half of a post-chorus I think I have ever heard.
*Ba ba ba ba ba ba!!!* (Sean: Yeah)
So my experience of this song,
it was just like a whole different amount of energies,
a whole different amount of liking a section and not liking a section and really loving a section
and just like that entire build up to that post-chorus
makes that the best post-chorus I have ever experienced
in my opinion, because I just slowly started liking things more and more and more...
...more and more, and they amped up, (Sean: I do agree with that)
with just the amount of new things,
they like let the instrumental take over
where the vocals took the back seat in that post-chorus,
and I thought that was just such a smart technique
in making someone want to like absolutely frickin' loose it, like,
we're gonna have like a great mosh pit to that part of the song,
I'm like, I can picture it.
Jory: That was intense, like I don't know what they did there Will: That was wild, yeah.
Jory: but it was like "Oh mY gOd!"
Jory: It was like how the kick and bass interacted, Will: It was the drums?
Jory: It was a lot of kind of like shaking you Will: Oh yeah.
Will: It was like super distorted, it's just crazy how they did that. Jory: Yeah, I don't know how they did that.
Umu: Was it the chorus also that was the highlight of the song for you?
Will: Yeah I think so.
Because I mean every time that came around I was just like "what?"
It almost sounded like a, just a really f#%ked up saxophone.
Leon: No, it's- Stephanie: It's like micro[tonal]
Leon: But it's only to a G♭.
Leon: It's microtonal.
Leon: Yeah!
Microtone microtone microtone microtone....
Stephanie: Oh man, that's some extended technique stuff.
Leon: Yeah.
Stephanie: Oh that's kind of cool. Umu: That's so fun.
Umu: Through the song they say that they want to-
"b*tch what the f#%k?!" [sfx]
Umu: -create a different vibe on a whole other level... Brian: That's not fresh.
Brian: I'm sorry, can you start over, Jason was,
Jason was trying to get me to sniff his foot!