Discovering Xikers: A Tricky Experience

②⓪②⑤ ~ 𝙱𝙻𝙾𝙶 #1

𝙿𝚁𝙴𝚅𝙸𝙾𝚄𝚂 - [𝚂𝚄𝙲𝙲𝙴𝚂𝚂𝙸𝚅𝙴|]

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Hello KA! For those of you who do not know me,

my name is Vittoria. I originally became a K-Pop

stan back in early 2020, where I quickly came to

discover   the   discography   of various groups,

succinctly becoming a fan of each. Since then,

I have not had the opportunity or will to really

dive into any groups of the 5th generation, so

now that my interest in K-Pop has once again

increased, I am ready to begin the journey and

discover some new groups. It’s for these reasons

that I put out a request asking for suggestions,

and thanks to the suggestions of Ziafana and

Cloud I will be checking out Xikers!

Going into Xikers, I do not know much more about

them then what was included in the comments

below ↓ Although, I have seen some of Yechan

as I watched a little bit of 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘕𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯 due to

having been a fan of Jay Chang and Ji Jin Seok for

a little while.

           

After reading both of these comments I’m

thoroughly excited to check them out. I am

an Atiny, so I’m excited to see how their

sound is similar to ATEEZ, but also how it

differs. Than I’m also interested to see how

their concept functions. I ult A.C.E. (and am

very outspoken about this fact), and one of

my favorite title tracks from them has to be

“Goblin (Favorite Boys)” which also has the

Goblin concept!

           

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To begin with my music reactions I am initially

going to be reacting to the group’s debut:

”Tricky House”.   To    write    down    my    first

impressions in the most organic way possible,

I will be writing as I react to the MV, but for

each video I may stop to pull up lyrics or do a

search for cultural clarity on references. I will

try to connect what I’m talking about musically

with names but I’m going to be reliant on web-

sites for that information as I do not know them.

           

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”Tricky House” ☾

As the MV begins I am excited to see my first

peak of one of the . I always enjoy it

when they start off videos in a quiet manner

as it provides a way to introduce the sound in

ab unexpected way, and by placing the head-

phones on the businessman and having him

act out his mind being blown from their sound

sets up some high expectations for how their

music will be delivered and whether or not it

will reach those preconceived expectations.

The concept is truthfully very cute from them…

Going into them I definitely had   a   different

impression in mind. I was expecting dark and

gritty, just from the descriptions of the concept,

(think VIXX, Dreamcatcher, PIXY or my favorite

Golden Child era), but I do   not   hate   a   faux

spooky concept like this.

The first verse ed by extremely quickly, and

it’s   a little bit difficult to get a sense of the

or their individuality, but two of the

vocalists did stick out to me a little at ~1:00, I

believe that they are Yujun and Hunter. But I

pretty equally enjoyed the tones of their voices,

and their technique in how they phrased the

lyrics and how they placed their breaths.

I think that the rap from the pre-chorus heading

into the chorus was pretty effective. I enjoyed

how   it was able to build up a lot of tension that

was able to be alleviated by the mellowed out

chorus. The visual effects of the chorus, are in

my personal opinion, very cute also. I do not

know much about visual or video editing so I can

not    contribute    any    specific    criticisms    or

commentary as to the actual production quality,

but from a viewership perspective, I like how it

continues to contribute to their concept despite

not being fully fleshed out.

After listening to even more of the song, I have

started to pick out some more voices I enjoy

the   tone   of during my initial listen. I really

enjoyed hearing   Seeun’s part in the   refrain

and   then   Sumin   in   the    next    pre-chorus.

However, I will say that I LOVE Junghoon’s little

“Yeah,” he has the bright tone which I think is

the most common among my favorite vocalists,

and the one I’m drawn to, so I hope to pick it up

more amongst the rest of the harmonies in the

song.

Not sure what to think of the car scene, it’s mighty silly…

Overall, I did enjoy the song. I personally do

not think it is the most memorable vocally, or

with the dance, but I think it’s a solid debut

that provides them with a lot of room to grow

and expand their skills. I’m a little hesitant to

give it a rating since it seems like the type of

song to grow on you the more you listen to it.

Final rating is 5/5 :ghost: for the fact that they are really cute and have a lot of potential for success.

           

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”Witch” ☾

The next song I’m reacting to is “Witch” which

Ziafana and Cloud both recommend in their

comments (“‘Bittersweet’ Performance Video”

is staring at me from the corner of my eye and

I am obsessed with the thumbnail). I am really

excited to see how their sound grew from their

debut to this comeback!

I LOVE CLOWN CONCEPTS. Please… just the

first couple of seconds and based off of the

music sampling in the instrumental I am hoping

for clowns. I do not exactly how KQ

is running so I might not be completely accurate

but wasn’t Seven Seasons (Block B’s company)

purchased and   running as a subsidiary to KQ?

Give me the clown concept now…

Around ~50 seconds in and so far I do love this

a lot more than “Tricky House,” it definitely plays

into a darker theme and the music feels more

thematic, and I want to say it feels/sounds more

organized in its production.

To begin the video itself is really well designed

visually with the way it plays into the optical

illusions, and I am a quite literal person so I like

when the imagery connects to the lyrics. So

talking about being lost in a maze and having a

hall of doors reflect that visually is something I

thoroughly enjoy more than most people.

I also like Yechan’s rap significantly more in this

song. I can see where he was able to tweak his

style so it fits more comfortably into his allotted

bars. Then overall his confidence is increased in

this MV, along with his style and tone just being

a better fit for a song of this concept.

In the pre-chorus I will once again say that I loved

Hunter’s tone. He was the first one to catch my

attention in the previous song but his vocal

capabilities did not let up in this song.

Now for the ending part of this pre-chorus and

chorus itself I was making goo-goo eyes at my

screen. One of the last lines of the pre-chorus

is, “guess what is coming,” and I was shocked

by how clear and lovely the harmony was on

this    part.    I   believe   it   was   performed   by

Hyunwoo and Jinsik, and I may be wrong but

it sounds like Jinsik has a much lighter voice

color, but it was such an amazing supplement

on that line. I swear I did not come into this

knowing him, since I   already   mentioned   his

visuals to others on KA as I was looking through

their Instagram, but it is in my strong opinion

that his part in the chorus is extremely well

delivered.

However, the true MVP’s of the chorus are both

Hunter and Seeun. Their vocal tones play really

nicely off of each other despite being separated

in their parts by other . They both know

how to utilize word stress to their benefit and I

love how they work to stress the first syllable of

“riot”. I also like how Seeun   is not scared to

perform his part. He has an extra confidence

about him and I’m not sure whether or not that

came from consistent confidence growth through

performing    or   whether   it   was   informed   by

another reason. I gleefully wish for him not to

lose that attitude.

I am also in love with the musical production

aspects of this song. Unfortunately, it is not

a subject I am as well-versed in as I would

like, but I love the auto tune/reverb effect on

Jinsik’s voice before the second chorus. It’s

another excellent attribute that adds to the

formation of the concept.

To end off I would be amiss to not mention more

about some of the other who helped

carry this song. Their rap-line is developing well

and overall they have great control. Than Junmin

really provided such a stable mood overall for

this song, I can imagine how many people fell for

him in this era!

The dance breakdown at the very end is interesting

but not my favorite aspect overall. I will say though

that it gives a good moment for a last reflection of

their styling which is really cute in this era (I adore

the leaders’ (Minjae’s) hat.

Final thoughts are that I enjoyed “Witch” a lot more

than “Tricky House”. This is most likely an unfair

analysis   to make, but to be fully transparent, I

do    think   that   “Tricky   House”   sounded   more

manufactured for the purpose of getting as many

people as possible to like the sound (but that had

the outcome of making it so it wasn’t extremely

memorable), and in general not as confident for the

. But I just thought “Witch” was a more

enjoyable listen and definitely thought it was more

mindfully      constructed      with     the     member’s

capabilities in mind so that they could provide extra

cover for their weaknesses as they continue   to

improve.

5/5 🧭 for being the Witch’s with all of our locations!

           

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In this section I want to focus in on the a

little. I listened to their debut and a title track, so

now I’m going to watch two videos from variety

shows. As this is a harder topic to write about, I will

only briefly provide   commentary on my favorite

parts of the episodes and whether or not specific

and their mannerisms stick out to me! I’m

excited to begin getting to know them and possibly

stanning them!

           

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”Tricky House: EP 09” ☾

The first episode I will be including commentary of

is this episode from their Tricky House series, it was

recommended by Ziafana!

To begin I think it’s quite cute how they play along

so well with their concept and I’m excited to get to

know them. In particular I’m interested in some of

the who I weren’t particularly drawn to in

their MV’s, and I want this to happen so that they

can capture my attention for the future.

First fun fact I’m learning in this video is that they

have who play into the Tom-Jerry roles,

and that their leader, Minjae, is kind of adorable

despite his rapping (Fun Fact: His MBTI, as listed

by K-Profiles, is the most similar to my own. As a

former ISFP and current ENFP his current INFP

identity/former ENFP status basically makes us

identical).

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group win the Face-

Guessing game, but here, they lost so quickly…

Minjae again was a cutie, but Yujun is also so cute,

and I love how the group immediately

agreed upon voting him as the new leader after

their loss.

Sumin is VERY loud in this next segment but I’m

glad I got to know his name after seeing how

comfy he looked in his beige and brown sweater.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a line play this game

as well as them, their ‘04 line really carried. I love

how you can see their personalities come out a

little more in this segment,   but they all seem

quite extroverted! I love how Minjae leans into

Hunter to hear him after Hunter grabs his arms

and shoulders, but Minjae otherwise just yells at

Jumin and does the motions. Body language is

always very telling so I’m interested to see their

future interactions and seeing how the

interact with one another further. The last line

was really adorable also as they too had great

synchronicity. Junghoon was definitely the MVP

though!

The last game segment was definitely the silliest

but it was nice seeing their teamwork (and silly

aggression) when they faced the challenges. It

was also interesting to see their team dynamics

as Seeun worked to delegate some of their tasks!

Last observations from the episode, but the

cunning visual vocalist who is an expert at

cheating at games catching my   attention

initially    is   so   truthfully   me-coded   (and

another J-name, hello Jinsik). Then hopefully

they can get on some amazing variety shows

and have a longer segment, they seem super

excited about the idea   and   their   positive

energy seems as if it would be contagious!

           

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”Tricky House: EP 35” ☾

This second episode that I will be reacting to was recommended by Cloud!

Their X-University concept is adorable. Jumping in

on the 35th episode of their reality show I am not

quite   sure   how   many   concepts   they’ve   gone

through, but this one is quite cute and it’s so funny

seeing their upperclassman (hyung line) and under-

classman dynamics (maknae line).

Seeun is adorable and their reactions to him having

the warmest coat are so silly and definitely remind

me of how I play around with my friends where they

normally end up giving me their coats.

I love Minjae’s little raspy tone when he talks and

gets overly excited.

Actually getting to the content portion of the

episode and it is so silly how they tease each

other about the actual process of going through

with bungee-jumping, but their check-in’s with

all of their are equally heart-warming.

Yujun and Yechan are both a little older than me but

they, and especially their mannerisms, are adorable.

I love a scaredy rap-line and especially the older

being cute. I’m such a softie for group

leaders. He’s the opposite of me though, I love

anything that’s similar to an extreme sport. I’ve

never personally gone bungee-jumping   but   I

love   roller-coasters,    zip-lines,    water/bumper

boats and anything   in   that   category.   Sumin,

Hyunwoo, and Hunter are more similar to me in

that aspect as they tried their hardest to have

fun with it.

Jinsik and Jumin: Playing Rock, Paper, Scissors

to decide who jumps first.

Jumin: “Winner goes first,”

Also Jumin: Wins.

It seems like he’s another scaredy cat but he’s so

cute. Aww he’s so bby coded and they’re teasing.

Jinsik making a heart and saying I love you to all of

the was really a special sight.

Seeun being the biggest winner and loser for being

the only one to not have to jump.

Final thoughts after watching both episodes and I’m

not sure who I’m going to end up biasing. I think

with them it’s going to take more time to decide

since I haven’t seen much of them at all, not even in

other show appearances. I   think   my   top   three

who have caught my eyes so far though

are   Jinsik,   Minjae,   and   Sumin; with Seeun and

Jumin in a strong second place. But I really want to

see and listen to them more. I’m extremely glad I

got to discover them in this way via KA!

           

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Thank you so much for reading this blog and going

through my journey of discovering Xikers for the

first time with me!

           

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