''First Impact'' is the debut

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

(EP) by South Korean

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...

Kep1er Kep1er (; ) is a South Korean girl group formed through the Mnet reality survival competition show ''Girls Planet 999'' in 2021 and managed by Swing Entertainment and Wake One Entertainment. The group is composed of nine members: Kim Chae-hyun, ...

, a project group formed through the 2021

Mnet M-Net (an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network) is a South African pay television channel established by Naspers in 1986. The channel broadcasts both local and international programming, including general entertainment, children's series, ...

reality competition show ''

Girls Planet 999 ''Girls Planet 999: The Girls Saga''; zh, s=少女星球999：少女們的盛典, p=Shàonǚ Xīngqiú 999: Shàonǚmen de Shèngdiǎn; ja, ガールズプラネット999：少女祭典, translit=Gāruzu Puranetto 999: Shōjo Saiten (simply ...

''. The album was released on January 3, 2022, by Wake One Entertainment. It is available in three versions: "Connect 0", "Connect -" and "Connect 1", and contains six tracks with "

Wa Da Da "Wa Da Da" is a song recorded by South Korean girl group Kep1er for their debut extended play (EP) ''First Impact''. It was released as the title track on January 3, 2022, by Wake One Entertainment. Background and release Kep1er was originally sc ...

" as its lead single.

Background and release

Kep1er was formed through the

reality survival show ''

'', which aired from August 6 to October 22, 2021. The show brought 99 contestants from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

to compete to debut in a multinational girl group. Out of initially 99 contestants, only the top nine would be in the final debut lineup. Kep1er was originally scheduled to debut on December 14, 2021, with their first EP ''First Impact'', with pre-orders beginning on November 29. However, it was announced that the group's scheduled debut had been delayed to January 3, 2022, due to one of their staff members having tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On December 14, it was revealed that group members Mashiro and Xiaoting tested positive for COVID-19. On December 26, Kep1er's agency announced that Xiaoting and Mashiro have fully recovered from COVID-19. On January 3, 2022, Kep1er released their debut EP ''First Impact'' with "Wa Da Da" serving as the lead single.

Critical reception

Gladys Yeo from ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' gave extended play three out of five stars, calling the EP an energetic six-track project record that makes for an enjoyable listen but falls short in fleshing out Kep1er's identity as an act. She commented how individually, the songs on the EP can be enjoyable and how this allows the group members to show off their vocal abilities, but falters when it comes to cohesion and establishing the group's identity.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Monthly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:First Impact Kep1er albums 2022 debut EPs Korean-language EPs Genie Music EPs Wake One Entertainment EPs