The Universe platform continues to blast youtube with half-videos, saving its full pleasures for those who download the app. So far, I haven’t found a song worth treading those waters, but CIX’s Tesseract arrives with some serious name recognition behind it. Pentagon’s Hui co-produced the track, and his name is featured prominently in the promotion. This guy seems to be racking up just as many credits during his military enlistment as before!
CIX have promised us a comeback later this month, with Tesseract playing like an appetizer. And though the song succumbs to an overplayed beat drop, chant-along chorus, I think it’s actually stronger than many of the group’s title tracks. Hui may not have found a dynamite melody here, but he’s certainly crafted an explosive instrumental.
Tesseract’s verses groove along just fine, offering little hookiness but gliding comfortably over the rhythmic production. When we reach the pre-chorus, Tesseract reveals itself as an engaging rock/dance hybrid. The instrumental fills out, becoming quite dense and overpowering. I love the use of guitar and percussion here. Every instrument is turned up to eleven, which gives Tesseract plenty of stadium appeal. I’m less convinced by the riff that underlines the chorus. It’s not an unenjoyable sound, but it threatens to overpower everything else. This song would have been absolutely epic with a fleshed-out refrain to match its gargantuan production. Even so, Tesseract stands as the most satisfying Universe release so far. That may not be saying much, but it’s still a welcome surprise.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8.25 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
I liked the minute+half that I did hear, but not well enough to find that app, still, yet again.
It reminds me of Hui’s “Basquiat”, as in intoning a word that sounds cool, but is it right? What does he mean by that. You’re my tesseract? Oooh, sounds dangerous. Its a little obscure outside of the superhero movies. My google search history is such that googling tesseract leads me to an open source software first, then general sci fi fiction (eg “Wrinkle in Time”, which is an awesome book), and then Marvel comics. And then it makes more sense, although I still don’t know why he was intoning Basquiat! loud and often.
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It’s definitely Marvel inspired!
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Youth is wasted on the young.
I’m going to stick with it being a reference to “A Wrinkle in Time” which is a mighty fine book. A cultural anthropology of an imaginary world, with a perilolus ice crossing journey of the mind in the middle.
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Now when I see the word Tesseract I always think of the djent metal band lmaooo. I know nothing of Marvel so I have no idea what the reference is, funny how everyone runs in different circles.
I think Hui likes to make the song title some BIG SOUNDING moment. Even in Dr Bebe it’s heavily empathised in the chorus imo.
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I was so distracted with dongkiz’s release today that I first only heard a deep house beat in it and that’s it. Then, I realized it was a rock hybrid and then I thought, oooh a fine instrumental. A pity they couldn’t find a melody strong enough.
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As someone who loves it when Hui goes rock, this is right up my alley. It is not perfect, but certainly one of C9 Entertainment’s best releases yet… and it is a CF for a controversial and oft-hated app.
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I hate all these Universe releases, no I will not get the app of whatever it is. It just makes me less likely to check out the song.
This is nice sounding, but something about how artificial and high pitched the guitar lines sound in the chorus puts me off. A lower pitch would have been perfect.
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“You’re my tesseract.” Nope. I can’t listen to that phrase more than never.
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Ha! It is SUPER cringy… but still better than that cheeseburger crap AleXa was peddling.
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Eh, I actually found the bootlegged video on YT before I even knew they did these Johnny’s-style MV cuts (looks like they took it down already though. Bummer), but even my love for CIX, rock-inspired K-pop, Hui’s songs and Yoon Hyunsuk won’t get me to go download 2GB of glitchy open-beta app again, no thanks. Oh, and when you get there you gotta pay real cash to actually unlock the content; else it’s only teasers for you, sweetie. I wish I could read more Korean to find out just how much money NCSOFT is pouring on propping up that app. ‘far as I know, it’s been a flop from day 1, both im Westen and in Korea.
On the other hand, I hope they actually do something like this in their comeback. After Jungle, I was like one of Pavlov’s dogs and…
And then they dropped Cinema.
Ok, no Cinema slander here. It’s catchy as hell. Just *too* goddamn cute.
Also, this year’s helipad seems to be a sand mine. But I don’t think it’s the same place as last year, is it? 🤔
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