XG fight QR enemies in “Howling” video
Fans saw in it references to the cartoon “Princess Mononoke”.
Still from the video “Howling”
XG released a video for “Howling” in which they find themselves in a dystopian future world and fight people with QR codes on their faces. The track is included in XG’s new mini-album “Awe”, also released on November 8th.
In just six hours, the video received 600 thousand views. XG fans really liked the clip – both the story and the high-quality, high-budget visuals. Some even saw in it references to the cult anime film by Hayao Miyazaki “Princess Mononoke” (1997).
In addition to “Howling,” the tracklist for the “Awe” EP includes seven more songs. Eight artists took part in the recording of the remix of the song “Woke Up”: Jay Park, Japanese rappers OZWorld, Verbal and Awich, South Korean rappers Paloalto, Tak and Dok2, as well as Japanese-Mexican hip-hop artist AKLO.
“Awe” is the second mini-album in XG’s discography; in September 2023, the group released their debut EP “New DNA”. It entered the top 10 of the South Korean chart and reached number two on the Japanese chart. The most successful single was “New Dance,” which entered the top 20 of the Billboard Japan Hot 100. The release itself received gold certification in Japan for 100 thousand copies sold in the country. In May 2024, XG embarked on their first tour: the group has already performed in Japan, South Korea, China and the USA. There are concerts ahead in the UK, Germany and France – they will take place in mid and late November.
XG is a rather unusual group. It consists of Japanese singers, but the project is based in South Korea. So XG can be called both a Japanese and a Korean group. Probably still more than the first: their label Avex Inc. is located in Minato, one of the special districts of Tokyo. XG has already won the MTV Video Music Awards Japan and K-Star MVA awards for rising stars.
