Renzo, “Qara” (Қара), and Black Dial, “Soile” (Сойле), both released as singles April 2017
(Warning: the “Soile” video features a number of flashes, quick cuts, and lens flares. Here’s a static lyrics video as an alternative.)
Here we go with the competition: these two both topped the Gakku TV weekly charts in the month before Qarangy Zharyq started dropping. Renzo had actually debuted the year before, with a sound closer to EDM-pop than Korean idol pop, but the trappings were there: the dance-practice videos, the reliance on Off-White (which, can’t lie, gives me warm feelings by association). And now “Qara,” which features Renzo’s collective dancing skills. To me it comes off as a lower-energy version of BTS’s “Fire”, but if you’re a Kazakh fan for whom the hard work of dance is part of the appeal, Renzo is doing you more favors than is Ninety One.
And then there’s Black Dial, whose main concept in “Soile” seems to be, let’s take every cliché about Korean idol pop and turn it up to 11. Guys in dyed hair and makeup and military-esque uniforms and random religious jewelry and, what the hey, fur pelts! Y’all like your idols with a dash of bondage imagery? We’re going to send in Teddy showing off a collar and gleefully calling himself a “BD boy!” (“They mean BD for Black Dial!” Okay. Sure.) Are you used to raps that stop the song dead? How about a rap that stops the song dead and sends it in a completely different direction--twice!
By the way: remember Yesbolat Bedelkhan, a.k.a. Brother Boss? He’s the credited producer on “Soile.” Black Dial is his group. I have not been able to pick up enough translated gossip to see how things stand between him and Boss Yerbolat, or between Black Dial and Ninety One, for that matter. (Judging from Ninety One’s enthusiastic reception of Renzo’s Gakku Melodies performance, that rivalry is pretty friendly.) I have my suspicions that Boss Yerbolat had some input into the timing of Black Dial’s debut--four months after “Kalay Karaisyn?” but a month before Ninety One’s comeback; enough time on each end to establish Black Dial and give both groups some space.
I didn’t realize that Brother Boss was the YB of YB Entertainment back in April, but even if I had, it wouldn’t have left me feeling any less apprehensive about Ninety One’s sophomore release. The bar had been raised: “Soile” offers a more interesting prechorus-to-drop-to-rap-break transition than “Kalay Karaisyn?” does. At the same time, Ninety One had commercial turf to defend. If Boss Yerbolat wanted to play it safer this time around, it would be hard to fault his logic.
Besides, Ninety One wasn’t supposed to have had to release its second album in direct competition with Renzo and Black Dial; it had originally been planned for the fall of 2016. But at that time the group had a lot more problems than a couple promising rivals.
introductory post / all Ninety One posts
