Review: FreezyBone - FreezyVogue (with UU Milan)

With so much focus on the A-List artists of K-Pop, it is becoming increasingly hard to focus on the many indie and underground artists, who have to actually take artistic risks to garner success. Thankfully, there are several indie K-Pop seekers ready to reveal the hidden gems of this world. Haruko @Quicknfiery, at her Twitter profile, has revealed several indie gems, including this one, so thanks Haruko!

Just a quick note though. FreezyVogue was released in July and thus is ineligible for the end-of-month list.

FreezyVogue rips from its first moments with its traditional Korean instrumentation. It never lets up, that is the song's greatest strength. The Gayageum absolutely rips with an aggressive and front-faced melody. It, however, takes just enough diversions for it to diversify the song's portfolio.

With the Gayageum plucking its way through the song, the rest of the song has room to build on. The song then opens with a female singer whispering. Afterwards, the female singer sings a muted melody. This muted tune acts as a counter-melody. Then, a drumbeat hits, and the track speeds up, riding a conveyor belt set by the Gayageum.

But just as quickly, the song pauses for a Gayageum instrumental segment. It is brilliant but short, completely destroying an assumed status quo. Then, instead of building to a pre-chorus or chorus, we are thrown into a rap break by a male rapper. He contrasts excellently with the singer, with a more poppy and gritty tune than the muted singer.

After that excellent and tense verse, the Gayageum instantly goes on building, with the female singer singing mutedly before the rapper appears once again to destroy the song's structure. This segment is also where dancer UU Milan gets to show off a bit of her skill, hence the feature mention. During the rap, a gritty bass appears once again for the support.

We then get another Gayageum, with the rapper ad-libbing. Afterwards, a string is played on the Gayageum, while the singer ad-libs, before the song ends.

Reading this review, one would quickly realize this song does not follow the classic AABA structure of most pop music. Instead, this song is astructural, with almost no repeating melodies throughout the piece.

This turns out to be both a boon and a curse. The song is different, but it lacks a sense of familiarity to grab onto. Nonetheless, it is enticing, and works excellently with what it is trying. This is the sort of weird music that appeals to me. It also leads a strong album, which was just released this month. Check the album out too!

Rating: 9/10

Image Source: Mania DB