Stephen: oOoooOOo
Umu: So
Now you're reacting to the 12-member girl group Loona!!!
and a b-side off their repackage debut album 'X X.'
the song explores how a passing attraction for someone can turn into curiosity and eventually become more
Umu: It is composed by (Seiji: Or it won't) G-High from MonoTree and Ashley Alisha (Seiji: or it won't!) from 153/Joombas.
Stephen: Don't be like that Seiji! Umu: Hey! what are you saying?
Umu: how dare! Stephen: How you dare Seiji: Okay sorry
Stephen: that's really cool
Elizabeth: I like having that sort of... it feels sort of like
Random like bass beats... like I really like that where it's like the synth hits and it's like it feels very
aleatoric almost but it's like in rhythm.
Kevin: It's like planing... planing dom(inant) minor sevenths
Yeah... G minor seventh to A minor seven
Fiona: The chords just hit and disappear
Fiona: It keeps it like fresh and exciting. Daniel: Yeah, it adds a lot of space in its suspense
Fiona: And there's a reverb on it too. It feels like so
take what you will
Stephen: That's cool *boobaa* like
Stephen: OOooooo
James: OH HO HO Melissa: That's cool
James: F*ck!
Seiji: That's like a contemporary gospel trick, Stephen: OH that's dope tho
cuz it's like it's not coming in on like the downbeat like it
1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a like- like on the 'e'.
Seiji: It's a delay, man Stephen: The 2nd 16th note. That's so sick.
James: I'm thinking so hard. It's not making any more sense, but I'm trying I'm trying to understand what these chords are
Kevin: Wow, there's an F over an A minor seven.
What's that all about? Huh?
Kevin: oh
Melissa: *blanking out* sorry James: Oh
James: That's really...
I want to know what that is
this makes me curious!
it makes me curious
I want to know what the heck that was. I want to know!
I want to know.
Daniel: I really like this! I just want to like fall asleep to this and like
Fiona: it feels like warm
Daniel: I think the bass really does it for me
It just feels like it's very secure
Even if there is like a rhythmic motion
That propels it
And like the beats that are like above the bass
But that reverb is just so strong
Fiona: True,,,
Stephen: Usually
usually they're with the voices and supporting it but
Actually, like even a better way to support like with the vocal line is doing because instead of covering up
It's just it's like embellishing it a little bit, you know, like adding a little something-something
It's like adding sprinkles
on ice cream Seiji: except they're just MASSIVE sprinkles.
Stephen: I really like that moment when you got to the chorus and it was like
Stephen: *Da DU dA du da* and everything was off Seiji: Yeah
Stephen: That was cool. no one-no I haven't heard anybody really do that
Seiji: like any time to get like those good chords that are like changing within the beat but within the measure like that's like
Really cool. (St: Yeah,) and it's just because usually like it's like, oh, we're gonna be baaaaa
But there's like... you know...it's like- you know. It's like... I dunno. It's definitely a gospel thing; it's definitely a jazz thing
Stephen: it was really cool Seiji: Yeah
Melissa: Okay, so like rhythmically
it was like cool how at the beginning like they had like the pshuuuu like that thing like bshhh or whatever happening like on every
every downbeat or every other convey I think is every downbeat and then
It was like kind of on the like off beats, but like not unlike the eighth note offbeat. Unlike the sixteenth note offbeat
So be like duh, duh, like you know what I mean? James: Yeah. Yeah. I was just about to say their use of like
Syncopation was really cool, especially in like the harmonic like just the chords like they did this thing where one two, three four one
Wow, wow. Wow
Wow
I would like the wah on that on the- [off beats] which is like a really cool effect, and it
Highlights the chords whatever they are and for this particular group the chords happen to be really harmonically interesting
So I think that's a cool way to kind of highlight that if usually music doesn't intentionally strive to evoke
Imagery that's literally the title of the song but for me that like really weird
like chromatic descending chord thing
It reminded me of like someone like, you know
when you're curious or like when dogs are curious to know like
They're like they'll tilt their heads. Like that's what it reminded me of I was like
Melissa: text painting!
James: Yeah, literally I was like, that's really kind of cool. Maybe it's just me. I don't know
But that's what it reminded me of
Elizabeth: we've listened to some other in Loona songs, and this is very different than the other stuff
That I've heard I think Henry: Yeah, this is definitely different than what I've heard
Elizabeth: yeah, it's just like a very different I think vibe that they're going for like there's a lot of like
Synth sounds that kind of like flow so I mean like their whole thing is kind of like, you know
Like they're wearing butterfly wings like it's kind of flighty. So I feel like this sort of like like psy
Aesthetic with the synth wear it like fades in and out. I think that like gives that sort of like wispy effect
(H: Yeah) but other than that like it just doesn't... I wouldn't hear that and think Loona immediately
Although I am I am about to disagree with you like (H: do it)
*FLASHBACK* Henry: I like that. It's
harmonically
daring
but if it doesn't serve a technical purpose in terms of like
Going anywhere. It's just kind of self-indulgent. I don't really like it
Elizabeth: If we look at like when modernist music started like Debussy wrote, whatever he wanted
(H: It's true) whenever he wanted so like he wrote just seven chords for no reason and they didn't resolve anywhere and they didn't do
anything but like
he just loved how it sounded so much and he thought that it was so beautiful on its own and like the point is not
to like keep music in the box of
Always having to have the same structure and the same harmony and always having to resolve in the same ways
You know, we're sticking the same key
like I think the point of music is to make something that
sounds like what you want to listen to and so I think they achieved that
Henry: I just felt like I mean and maybe it's just
personally, I was just that it just didn't make my ears feel nice, you know like
There are people who can listen to
Middle period Schoenberg and be like oh, that's sick
And I'm just like that makes my ears hurt like I like- E: I love middle period Schoenberg
Henry: I like early stuff because it sounds like spicy Brahms, but
Elizabeth: Yeah music is subjective (H: yeah) and it's okay
Henry: Yeah
The thing actually that I dislike the most about this
Everything about the sounds that the electronic sounds that they used they have. They're so smart
I don't know why they stuck with such traditional like right at the end
The hi-hat was just like I mean, you could lift it from any number of trapped songs. Like it just was like
what it just was really frustrating to hear
a group, that's that can be and then I know is really ambitious be limited by the
Textures that they used in that way because your ideas can be good. But if they don't make the ear happy then they don't work
And it's it's hard to say that because I don't really know what would be the right choice. I'm
I Don't produce electronic music but like I felt they felt for like it, but it's still pretty basic
Elizabeth: Well, I also think like they compensated for maybe having the more like generic
Like pads and stuff by like experimenting with harmony experimenting with vocal texture.
Henry: That's true It could have been that it was a control variable. (E: Yeah) that's fair
Elizabeth: Like especially with pop music when you're trying to reach like a really broad audience, you know
Like there's ways in which you want to branch out and play with something
But then there's also ways in which you want it to still be something that's recognizable to the audience
(H: Yeah) so I think like, you know, if you're gonna have some really interesting
Harmonies and tonality like I think yeah
You should probably stick with things that are more familiar so that it's not like really disorienting cuz you know
Hentry: No that's a good point Elizabeth: not everybody wants to listen to Schoenberg, you know?
Henry: No yeah. (E: so) to my point. Yeah
I don't know. You're right about that.
Isaac: You have a wash of synthetic sounds they're just coming back and forth. What does that mean?
if you listen to it with the melody line floating on top, it's very
Relaxed and then you have you have the contrast of the beats. It creates a little bit of a tension within it
well in the terms of
Curiosity, I feel that when you're curious about something. Sometimes you hinder yourself with
Maybe potential fears or worries
of
Continuing on this strain- of this idea of curiosity
So I felt that the parts where the chords were pressing downward style
Da-da-da-dah it that's more of that. Maybe that's the hesitancy that is
experienced when you venture into something of the unknown perhaps
Kevin: because the melody and the accompaniment
were the instrumentals kind of
vary sometimes
Harmonically, there would be like a really weird note in the melody
But because the line is so well conceived it works on its own while the Harmony kind of does its own thing as well
So it reminds me of someone like Hindemith in the classical music world who just kind of planes chords
And then he doesn't really care about what the melodies are and the Harmony is doing at every moment
He doesn't micromanage it but he has them meet at the same time. So I admire that but
still by the end of the song there was a part of me that felt like it feels a little
Barren still at the end
it feels like it kind of gave away everything a little too early and that by the then by the last
Chorus, there wasn't enough to keep me fully onboard and sailing and floating until the end
Fiona: I noticed like the chromaticism made me think of like uncertainty
Like they're uncertain like oh I do like them what's gonna happen. It was just like yeah, uh,
Kind of the whole time and then it would end after three I was like where does it go then?
It just jumps to the next thing.
Daniel: Yeah that harmonic instability kind of gives us illusion that
We're like sliding
Fiona: Yeah it's like ~I don't know and it's kind of uncomfortable
And it's kind of squirmy it's like having a crush it's like
Daniel: Yeah, I thought that (F: It 's a secret ya know) the way that they captured that sensation was really effective
I- (F: Weird) you know cuz it's like they talkabout you know
People talk about like music having like effective qualities and like making you feel like certain
sensations
That remind you of like you know this
things that happen in everyday life, but then this I think that chromaticism that you mentioned is really captures that
the connect sensation of like
uncertain-ness
Think with like that kind of energy. "Are you like....like are you?"
"Wut what's that? ;)"
*laughs* you know like X2
Henry: *laughing* Elizabeth: *excited, happy and in love*
Elizabeth: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH