Battle of the B-Sides:: AMPERS&ONE: I Know You

 As promised, if you weren't vibing super hard with HyunA's post, here's a boy group that turned two last year and I haven't heard of any issues with them. Also, for the person who submitted this song, it took me a bit because I wanted it to have a good spot where the song could be highlighted well and the group could get the attention it deserved. Coming off the second gen soloist wave and ahead of the soloist for next time, this is a really good spot for them, especially since this song sounds unlike anything around it. I want the submissions especially to be highlighted. If the submission is for a specific date, then I might not have the room and flexible to lead into it well, but if it doesn't, then I get to slowly plant and nurture the area around the submission. And other than the Stray Kids submission that's coming at the end of the month for their anniversary and the three EXID songs I have left to cover (but want to space out because I did three last year), I'm fully caught up on the submissions now.

AMPERS&ONE is the latest boy group to come out of FNC Entertainment (home to one of the higher concentrations of the idol bands as well as SF9 and P1Harmony) and who debuted in 2023. They're a seven member group with quite a high number of foreigners, which should make their dorm conversations fun, and over half of the members coming from survival shows. 

I Know You is the fourth track of their second mini album, Wild & Free, released in 2025. Composers are Nathan Cunningham (Stray Kids, Gashi, Fifty Fifty, Loosemble, P1Harmony, Enhypen, VCHA, NMIXX, UNIS, Monsta X, Kai,CNBLUE, Kep1er, AtHeart, Red Velvet, Taeyeon, Key, J.Y. Park, CLASS:y, Cravity, SF9, AxMxP, Tempoest, Apink, Ren, and weirdly on the Western artist side, Donny Osmond), Marc Sibley (almost entirely the same list as Nathan Cunningham), Anthony Watts (LE SSERAFIM, Enhypen, Tablo, RM, Cortis, P1Harmony, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, NCT, HITGS, Epik High, SHINee, TNX, LUN8, SF9, POW, and Jun. K), and Patrick "J. Que" Smith (XG, NCT, P1Harmony, Jackson Wang, Enhypen, EXO, SHINee, Red Velvet, IVE, Chuu, Soojin, Jay B, Rainz, Yoon Mirae, SF9, BoA, AxMxP, and Super Junior D&E). For the lyricists, we had two members of AMPERS&ONE: Kamden and Mackiah. The only person who is on both lists is the company CEO: Han Seong Ho (P1Harmony, Eclipse, CNBLUE, FT Island, SF9, AOA, N. Flying, Cherry Bullet, Lyn, Chuei Li Yu, VROMANCE, Super Junior, AxMxP, Rolling Quartz, T-ARA, SG Wannabe, and Hi-Fi Un!corn). Whoo, that was a lot. But it's an interesting list that this song connects to with the writing lineage. Everything from first gen soloists to bands that debuted a few weeks ago.

No music video and no performances yet. Alas. Oh, well. It's not the first and it won't be the last, but I do have some comments from the submitter to fold into this post, which is helpful, but since they focused on the vocals, I'm going to start with the instrumental, because they're right. There's something very satisfying about this song.

The song starts off with almost a synthy violin, the kind of sound I associate that I associate with haunted dolls and music boxes, and then we move into something that is filled with delicious 80s synth. If it wasn't forty years in the wrong time, the instrumental would fit perfectly in Stranger Things. And, submitter, I'm pretty sure that this is synthwave. 

The beat feels deliberate and driving without being overpowering, the kind that makes you start moving to it automatically even if you're not really paying attention, and that automatically means that this is not background music and cannot be construed as such. But it's also not something that demands your attention in the way a "hungry" cat at three in the morning would. As a b-side, especially not one that has been performed yet, that's perfect for it. 

Can I imagine some choreography for it? Yes. Yes, I can. But the choreography that I can picture for this song is a lot of big but slow movements, very deliberately weighted to highlight and match the instrumental. I can see both synchronized parts and also a lot of the cascading ripples to give the group little flutters to match the higher notes here in the instrumental. I don't see this song as necessarily having hummingbird fast choreography, although if there was going to be a faster part, that last chorus with the ad-libs would be the perfect spot for it, especially since that would specifically highlight the member doing the ad-libs really well.

I hope that they perform this soon. I'd like to see how close the vibes I'm picking up match what they eventually do.

And then I'll have a performance to analyze and coo over! Win-win!

Now for the vocals! The submitter loves so much of the vocals, especially that end chorus. I also love that end chorus. For the record.

The fun thing is that I'm having to write this part in a different location than the rest of this post, so I'm listening to it in a different way. Imagine my surprise when I can hear a very distinctive and very fun use of a stereo system. Layered over that wonderful violin at the beginning, the "I know you" whispering takes advantage of stereo audio. That is quality sound engineering right there. It's fantastic. I'm so glad I heard it.

Okay. In lieu of having a performance stage, let's get some time stamps for some really cool moments. For the record, I am using this video to know who is singing which part because I don't know this group, which I'm sharing for dual purposes: first, citing my sources in a way I can do because I control how I cite my sources here, and second, because as far as I can tell this is the only one of these I can find, and I'd like to support the fan effort. 

Now, I'd also like to say that technically the things I'm about to talk about, I don't need to know who sings what part. But I like to give credit where credit is due, and this way I can be more specific. 

You know how normally the main vocalist is the one who gets all the fun ad-libs? And you also know how in most K-Pop songs those ad-libs show up pretty much only in the last chorus? We get some ad-libs right at the start from Kamden and Mackaiah. Why is that impressive? They're also the two who rap in this song. 

Don't get me wrong, who I'm assuming is the main vocalist does in fact get a lot of ad-lib time, but ad-libs went to the rappers? Do you know how often that doesn't happen?

Also, I'm kind of in love with both of their actual rapping parts. Kamden hits the beat well with his, but has a little bit of an unexpected rhythm, which I'm here for. And Mackiah right before the second chorus has a little bit of a rap where his lines are apparently doubled up on each other and that's just fascinating. Again, this is one of those things that I'd love to see the song performed for to know how that's going to be practically achieved on stage. 

I'll also agree that the chorus's Korean is something that should be fairly easy to learn, even if you don't know much if any Korean yourself. This way, at a concert, you don't have the mumble problem where the group calls the audience out because you only know the English parts and then mumble your way through the Korean.

Siyun, who I'm assuming is the main vocalist, starts his ad-libs halfway through the song. Halfway! Aural complexity and layers! Oh, it's so satisfying to hear the harmony unfolding because of it, but,  wonderfully, it's not stuck to the final chorus. I'm very much here for this. 

And speaking of things I adore, do you hear how much vibrato is going on from multiple members? Don't mind me; I'm just kicking my feet in absolute glee.

Thanks for reading, everyone! I hope you enjoyed the song! I'm glad I got introduced to this, because I did not listen to this whole album when I did the review on the title track when it was released. So this submission was a correction to that that the submitter probably didn't realize. So you get double thanks.

(If we do get a live performance, someone please let me know so I can add in live stages.)

If you have a song you want me to do, feel free to drop it in a comment or via The Form! I'd love to see what songs you have for me!

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