Review: "FIRSTS" by Key Elements

Hi all,

The review below's done by Ching Mei from A Cappella SOUNDS.

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Upon stepping in the Esplanade Recital studio, it was pretty much a full house last night, a concert attended by friends and fans alike. I came as a supporter of local a cappella with my friend in delightful expectation of what repertoire jazz-infused a cappella group Key Elements [KE] could come up with.

As expected , KE opened with their signature jazz-tinged arranged of I'm Beginning To See The Light. However, the audience truly warmed up to KE when they mentioned their stint and the song which they could not reach pass the 1st stanza at the Hokkien Huay Kuan with a cutesy choreography. In fact, I was rather impressed with the simplistic jazz take of a familiar Hokkien classic 一人一半 Jit Lang Jit Pua as sang by Jason Ong, the songwriter-arranger of the group. Yes, that song had the audience hooting in laughter.

Not only that, the audience were amusingly prompted by the KE "girls" [ Susanna and Hui Lian] to be screaming fans when the "boys" of KE [ Vaughn, Kim Beng, Jason and Benedict] sang a classic but simple barbershop arrangement of Come Go with Me and the guys proved to be able to sound effortlessly, harmonically tight in this piece. Benedict [KE's baritone] even attempted a familiar Korean ballad I Believe from the Korean movie "My Sassy Girl", after which Jason jokingly said a greeting in Korean. The audience even had the chance to "support" KE by waving their handphone lights along with the disco ball light with the feeling of a travel back in time.

Despite the members having bouts of flu as KE mentioned during the concert, KE did their utmost best.Especially so for tenor lead Kim Beng who gave quite an impressionable lead on a pop song [ title unknown?] where he had to challenge the mezzo-soprano register of Susanna [ KE's mezzo-soprano]. I admit it was a brave feat for KE to attempt pop-rock genre and even imitating the string ensemble as they seem more comfortable and at ease singing the jazz genre. After all, they are more jazz- influenced.

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