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boysplanetrecaps · 3 months

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Build Up Episode 0: Getting to Know the Boys Part 2: Team Soul

Hey friends! Continuing my introductory posts about the guys on MNET's Build Up before I can dive into proper recaps, here's the low down on Team Soul -- their background, basic info, and my opinion on their teaser performance (and other performances). (I did Team Allround last time.) Let's go!

Same disclaimers apply -- 1) these are all excellent vocalists and I am just splitting hairs here 2) this is taking forever and screencaps with my video source are tricky, so please forgive my awkward screencaps and occasional typos. Thank you!!

Ma Jaekyung

Jaekyung is 27 and from a group called Romeo, where he was the main vocalist and performed under the name of Kyle. He also appeared on Mixnine, that blighted show that produced a group that never debuted. It was such a fiasco, ugh, and so many trainees went through hell for nothing. Bitsaeon from M.O.N.T. , Jeong Inseong from KNK, and Donghun from A.C.E. all went on that as well, so they all might have gotten friendly then.

Jaekyung (and the other members of Romeo) also went on Peaktime, a show for idol groups that had already debuted but weren’t super successful, including Vanner (who won!), M.O.N.T, and BDC, so he may have met Taehwan, Bitsaeon (again), and Hong Seongjun. When Romeo was on Peaktime, they performed the SHINee song Juliette, which is a cute choice since that’s the name of their fandom. And then MNET didn’t bother airing that performance. Thanks, MNET! Themnet.

So, as for his group itself. Romeo was a 7 member group that debuted in May of 2015, when he would have been 18 years old. The group did slightly better in Japan than they did in Korea, but none of their Korean singles charted at all and most of their MVs have fewer than 200,000 views. Their biggest hit appears to be Lovesick. When the guys from Romeo went on Peaktime, they revealed that Romeo had disbanded at some point in the past.

In Jaekyung’s k-profiles listing, it says he’s” a 4D” kind of guy, so I guess we should watch out for his personality, if MNET will show it. It’s hard to picture a guy in a tan blazer as wacky, but we’ll see!

His teaser song was V25, Passing by Kim Bum Soo. For me, he has a really nasal tone to his singing that isn’t my favorite, and I am not a huge fan of his kind of wobbly vibrato, but like everyone on this show, he’s essentially a very good vocalist, with what seems like a very good sense of pitch. Again, it’s a ballad and my ears sort of turn off, so I’ll keep an open mind.

Seokhwa

Here is Kang Seokhwa, who is in WEi. He also went on YG Treasure Box, where he would have met CIX’s Seunghwan, and Produce X 101, where he ranked 35th and would have met two of the all rounders on this show, Choi Suhwan and BDC’s Hong Seongjun.

WEi, pronounced something like “we-eye”, is a six member group that debuted in 2020. WEi is almost entirely made up of contestants from Produce 101, Produce X 101, and Under 19, including some who won their seasons. Seokhwa is their main vocal. The WEi song Spray spent some time on my playlists recently, but I don’t know many of their other songs. WEi’s most popular member, Johan, is significantly more popular than the others; he came in first place in Produce X 101. Their videos get around 10-15 million views each, putting them slightly lower in the popularity ranking than CIX and AB6IX, but leagues ahead of IMFACT and Romeo.

I checked out an MR removed video of Spray and Seokhwa was really stable, so I can see why he’d come on the show. He’s V37, and it’s a ballad and you know me by now so it’s hard for me to give this a chance but he has a sweet voice that sounds best when he’s singing more softly, which can’t be said of everyone on this show. We’ve got a lot of belters here! He strains a bit on the higher notes, and I feel like he closes his throat a bit when he belts, but doesn’t get too nasal, which is good. He’s young yet -- he’s only 23, one of the younger people on the show -- and I hope he keeps working on his voice, because he has a lot of potential.

Donghun

Donghun will turning 31 at the end of February of this year (2024), and he’s already done his military service.

He is the main vocal of A.C.E., a five member group under Beat Interactive/Swing Entertainment that debuted in 2017 with the song Cactus. Their songs don’t chart in Korea, but they get into the top twenty on the US World Chart, because USA has taste, yo.

If there’s one song of theirs that I think you’d know it would be Goblin (Favorite Boys). But there’s also Under Cover, which is also a banger. Whoever did the subtitles on their older videos puts the names of the singers in, so you can easily find Donghun in their videos. Some of their older songs have 15-20 million views, but their newest comeback, an English language mid-tempo ballad called Effortless, has less than a million views, maybe because it’s in English? Or because it’s a mid-tempo ballad? I don’t know, if you like Who Do You Love by Monsta X, songs like that, you might like Effortless. Really, their songs are good. I feel like it’s a weird situation where everyone likes A.C.E. but somehow they’re still kind of nugu. I know, that doesn’t make sense.

Donghun went on Mixnine (he won 8th place and should have debuted), so he probably knows the other Mixnine contestants on this show: Bitsaeon from M.O.N.T., Ma Jaekhyung from Romeo, and Jeong Inseong from KNK. He may also know Park Jeup from when they both went on I Can See Your Voice 4.

He set himself up for a tough time by singing an EXO song for his teaser song (V20, Miracles in December). Literally no one can sing it like they can. Still, he does pretty well. He has an appealing warm vocal color and he really goes for that long held note, holding it with good breath support. I just worry because I can almost feel his throat straining on the higher notes. He hits them, but it’s got to hurt. He also relies on some pretty loud background vocals so it’s harder to tell how much of it is live. Despite that, he’s an excellent idol singer and I’ll always support A.C.E. and him.

Lee Minwook

Minwook is 23 and is in a group called Newkidd. I guess he likes vests? What, oh what, what on earth is up with the styling for these guys? Most of them are dressed like they’re going to a college interview. I don’t get it!

As far as I know, Minwook hasn’t been on any other survival type shows, making him one of the 15 members of the cast who haven’t (and 4 of those are musical actors).

Newkidd is a 7 member group under J-FLO Entertainment, an agency that manages only them, and the debuted in 2019. Most of their MVs get a million views or fewer. From what I can tell, their most popular song is Tu Eres, featuring the Spanish refrain “tu eres, tu eres, tu eres bonita” (you are, you are, you are pretty). The comments on the video are mostly in Spanish and show a lot of excitement about hearing Spanish in a Kpop song, and I can’t blame them! Representation! So maybe Newkidd is more popular in Spanish speaking countries and is courting that market. That’s smart -- it’s a huge market!

In his teaser, Minwook was V09, The Manuel by Eddy Kim, an example of a ballad I actually like -- it has some interesting chord progressions and isn’t sappy at all. I also like his performance. He seems to just be singing live while accompanied by just one guitar, which gives me faith in his vocals. I think his voice might be more “unique” than “soul” but these categories are pretty reductive anyway. He puts a lot of warmth into his lower notes and makes you almost feel like you understand what he’s singing. He doesn’t display his higher register or belt as much here, so I’ll be waiting to see more of what he can do.

Lim Sanghyun

Sanghyun is listed as a singer-songwriter, and he’s 27. He’s considered a ballad artist specifically, and is signed to MNH entertainment, where he releases mostly digital singles. I know the ballad market in Korea is really big, even if it’s not my favorite, so go for it, Sanghyun!

His teaser was V14, one of those kinds of ballads I hate so much that it’s hard for me to be fair. He sings in that classic K-ballad style, that kind of gruff whisper-sing, which can go either way for me depending on the song.I don’t think he ever really lets go and belts in his teaser, so I’ll be curious to hear what that would sound like.

Bain

This is Bain, age 22, and I adore his voice. (His name is pronounced “bane”, if you’re wondering, based on the hangul.)

Let me talk about him for a moment.

No, wait. Instead of me talking, you should just listen to this. It’s just a straight forward, earnest cover of Oliva Rodrigo’s Driver’s License, with no winky “ha ha I’m a boy singing this,” no sarcasm. Just a pure performance. His vibrato is so sweet. He exhibits barely a trace of nasality, and when it’s present, it’s for the emotion of the song. The notes he hits in his full chest voice? I can’t believe it. And his mixed register is like, chef’s kiss. I can’t. I just can’t. I’d never heard of him before this show, but I heard this performance and I was good. Even my fella was like, “wow, this guy has technique.” So you’re going to have to accept that I’m a Bain fan and will be cheering for him.

I had to look into Just B. They’re a 6 member group under Bluedot Entertainment, a subdivision of Kakao that manages only them. They debuted into 2021, and their members were contestants on Under 19, I-land, and a few other survival shows. (Side note: I watched a lot of I-land, but never saw any of Under 19. Starting to think I should add it to the list.) JustB has a few title tracks out at this point and they usually get about 10 millions views each. I listened to a few of them over the last few days (it’s taking me a while to write this recap) and I’ve come to like a few of their songs. Their most recent comeback is called Medusa, and though the lyrics make negative amounts of sense, it’s pretty catchy. I also liked Damage quite a bit. The group doesn’t seem to have set positions, but it seems that Bain and Geonu are more or less the main vocals.

Jay

Jay Chang, V02, age 22, famous for almost making it into Zerobase1, landing in 10th place. He’s American, with a white-Filipino-Chinese ethnic background, and on Boys Planet, he was extremely popular among the “Global” voters, but not very popular among the Korean voters. He also went on another show called Under 19 at some point, if you watched that -- I didn’t, but maybe I should. In case you didn’t watch Boys Planet, here is his initial audition to Rush Hour,and here is his performance of Exo’s Love Me Right (he was main vocal).

I know that most of my 3 or 4 readers are Jay fans, and that is cool by me. I’ve always thought he has a really really lovely, clean vocal color, he has good stage presence, and I think he’s basically a nice guy, though he sorta gives me fuckboi vibes sometimes. I also think -- and don’t get mad at me, ok? -- I also think that he needs to work on his pitchiness and nasality. That’s true in both the opening notes of his Rush Hour audition, and at points in his Baby Baby teaser song. He was one of the top 3 or 4 vocalists among the Boys Planet boys, but he’s in a different setting now and might just be outsung by the other vocalists here. I hope that you’re ok with that. I’m not saying that he’s a bad singer. Everyone on this show is a very good singer, and Jay is also a very good singer! I’m just looking for a voice that can compete with D.O.’s voice, and my standards are up in the sky. (Hanuel wilo fly fly!)

Jung Soomin

Jung Soo-min loves slightly goofy, informal outfits that scream “Hi, I’m American!” Which he is -- born in Chicago. That's about all I know about his background.

Check out his performance, V30, a really sweet cover of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You,” in which he accompanies himself on the guitar. I think it speaks for itself, but I’ll say a few words anyway. I really like his voice -- sweet, light, a little textured. Great agility, and good performance of the emotion/feeling of the words. Just delightful. I’ll forgive your hat.

Here he is on tiktok talking bout his experience on the show (in English). He says that his attitude toward competition is to just do the best he can, that the competition is really with himself. He seems like a nice guy.

Kim Seongjeong

Seongjeong is a musical actor, and his performance in V16 shows that. It’s not a style of singing that I tend to respond to, but I respect its natural quality and hard-earned technique. Vocally, he wouldn’t at all be out of place on Broadway. Considering his rich timbre and excellent breath support, I’d be interested to hear him sing something more in the pop or r&b style to see what it would sound like. My sleuthing tells me that he’s 25 (born in 1999) and acted in Hadestown and West Side Story. And look at that smile! Totally transforms his face.

Park Joohee

Joohee is another one of the contestants I just can’t find much info on. His teaser song was V15, Stand by Me by SHINee, and it was perfectly nice. Not mind blowing, but easy to listen to. He has good agility and a nice vocal color, but seems to lack breath support -- either that, or he was just really nervous, which seems likely. Also, the camera hardly ever shows him, so it was really hard to get a screencap of him.

Ok, that's team Soul! Feel free to go on to the next post, Team Power.

And thanks for your amazing response to my first post -- I was really worried you all would murder me for saying slightly negative things and thus far that hasn't happened, so thanks! You're all peaches. Have a beautiful day.