C.NU's 'I.B.L' and a first 30 seconds that skips every other step

When you wait for an elevator and watch the floor numbers count down one by one, you end up catching your breath a little in each short gap as the number changes, and C.NU's 'I.B.L' begins as if someone had turned that gap into music.

A first solo mini album, fifteen years in

C.NU, who debuted with B1A4 in 2011, released a first solo mini album 'REAL' at 6 p.m. on Saturday, September 19. It has five songs, 'CHOOM,' 'I.B.L,' 'NOTHING,' 'TELEPATHY' and 'HIT THE GROOVE,' and on the title track 'I.B.L,' C.NU wrote the lyrics and music with RWAM, who also arranged it. Until now, the only recordings under C.NU's name had been drama soundtracks, live recordings and featured tracks, so it really is, as the singer wrote in the video description, the '1st solo album.' B1A4 is still going as a trio of C.NU, Sandeul and Gongchan.

C.NU opened the door little by little before release: a music video trailer on September 11, a highlight medley at midnight on the 14th, a lyric video for 'TELEPATHY' at midnight on the 17th, and then the music video for 'I.B.L' at 6 p.m. on the 19th.

A floor that skips every other step

In the music video, the sound starts in under a second but stops once for two seconds from 4.5 seconds, and from 11 seconds, for five and a half seconds, the low end, meaning the bass and kick drum below 150 Hz, is almost empty. Hz (hertz) is how many times the air vibrates per second, so the smaller the number, the lower the sound. Then at 17 seconds the sound nearly switches off for a quarter of a second and comes back, and that brief blackout is about 56 dB deep. dB (decibels) is the unit for measuring loudness, and a 10 dB difference sounds roughly twice as loud, so it's as if all the sound in the room vanished and came back.

From there, the fun of this song begins. The bass arrives at 18 seconds, but if you listen second by second it's there and then gone, skipping every other step. In at 18 seconds, out at 19, in at 21, out at 22: the floor is laid down and pulled up, over and over, until at 32.75 seconds the low-end share drops in all at once from 1% to 55% and finally settles into place.

The loudest spot in a bright song

Across the whole song there's a generous amount of high end, where cymbal hiss and breath live, so it sounds bright and light, and the loudest sound arrives at 1:51. The audio track runs 3:16 and the music video 3:28, so their lengths differ.

When the elevator doors open

So tomorrow morning, while you wait for the elevator, listen to just the first 33 seconds. If the moment the skipping floor drops in all at once at 32.75 seconds lines up with the doors opening, you'll take the first step of your day a little more lightly, carried by 'I.B.L'.