K-Pop Double Take is a weekly review column highlighting recent releases that have yet to receive the attention we feel they deserve.
The South Korean girl group EXID have returned with a new single and a positive party attitude.
Released Nov. 18 on record label Wellmade Yedang, "Hot Pink" is an uptempo party anthem indebted to the pantheon of modern party sounds from Missy Elliot to Funkadelic to The Backstreet Boys.
EXID (an acronym for Exceed In Dreaming) is comprised of five members, Solji, LE, Hani, Hyerin and Junghwa. Initially debuting in 2012, the group scored a number one hit with 2014's "Up & Down," after a video of Hani dancing to the track went viral.
The aforementioned Missy Elliot's footprints are all over "Hot Pink," which opens with turntable scratches and a callback to Elliot's own classic "Work It," not-so-subtly tweaked to be "I like the way you pink it."
The track then moves into a fresh groove and a heavyweight bassline.
"Hot Pink" has a feel that seems to recall the way legendary boy band producer Max Martin filtered banging American R&B through a refined Nordic songwriting sensibility. Well, that glossed over take on urban American music gets transmuted once again with "Hot Pink," which sends that very late '90s aesthetic into a contemporary K-pop context.
The song's chanted chorus runs in tandem with a deeply funky synth line that, when paired with some chicken scratch guitar, brings to mind everything from Zapp and Roger to Funkadelic.
A call-and-response section includes male voices shouting "push, push work it out," in a classic cadence that recalls everything from The Ohio Players to Trouble Funk, who are known as legends in the regional Washington D.C. scene known as go-go. "Hot Pink" is clearly indebted to the funk rhythms of the past.
Speaking of funk, I can't help but think that in some ways the song is influenced by the Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars smash "Uptown Funk," a piece of nuclear groove atemporality insanity that floated in the high registers of the pop ether around this time last year and has loomed large among Hallyu producers ever since.
In the short memory of the K-pop scene, "Hot Pink" has been seen as a comeback single of sorts for EXID and they are coming back strong! This one would make a powerful sound on a club PA system.
So put on your party clothes and hit the dancefloor, but don't forget to request "Hot Pink." It will make your night one you will never forget.
Watch the video for "Hot Pink" RIGHT HERE
John Chiaverina is a musician and journalist living in New York City. He has performed in over 18 countries, including two tours of South Korea, under the name "Juiceboxxx."
