Umu: AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Isaac: Zzzzimzalabim
Umu: so now you're reacting to the 5 member girl group
Red Velvet, in the 2019 released Zimbalabim.
The songwriting duo Caesar and Loui originally wrote the song after hearing Girls Generation's
'I got a boy'. Do you remember that song?
Henry: No.
Umu: You looking up 'I got a boy'?
Henry: Yes, I do remember this.
it was like a meme
Umu: Lee Soo Man, which is SM's CEO, brought the song out of the vault for red velvet
saying he felt that they were ready to conquer this arrangement.
Daniel: Interesting
Umu: Through the lyrics the group is encouraging people to follow their dreams.
Zimbalabim is an incantation to help those dreams come true
Fiona: Oh
Umu: This song is composed by Olof Lindskog, Daniel Caesar, Ludwig Lindell and Hayley Aitken.
Melissa: Beep beep! beeeeew
James: OoOooO Melissa: That drum though
Melissa: I'm not ready for this
Melissa: Oh that-that's the ascending chromatic line that you are like 'we never hear ascending chromatic lines' we just heard it!
Elizabeth: Ooh, I like the snare very marching band
Aaron: I love the- like- this is gonna sound weird but like the texture of the sound like
Like that, like it's very like I feel like all right here that I can almost feel that, if that make sense.
Isaac: Oh my goodness
Kevin: Jesus-
James: That's so cool
Melissa: Wow
Kevin: Okay now the bubbly section appears out of order
Cloud: Do you kind of hear that one like... It's like almost like I don't know how to describe it
Other than like very draggy like they were like, it's like you're pulling it to each note.
Henry: Yeah
Nick: I just think it's interesting to look at songs like this in terms of
the harmony because they're so clearly meant to be
Listened to and you think about the drums, but there's more that goes into it
Henry: It's cool they- they're playing with their registers, too
Because like everything in the verses and the pre-chorus is super super high
Talking and singing and then they drop to like their lowest notes for this.
What's that saxophone about? I haven't heard a single saxophone.
Cloud: He's like I haven't heard a saxophone yet what's this about *laughing*! Henry: You're Lying to my soul
Kevin: And then this Isaac: what the heck
Isaac: what is going on Kevin: why
Henry: Whoa, Melissa: oh, what a bridge what a change
James: Okay, go off
Melissa: the contrast between her voice, the soloist voice, and like the background singers be all floaty and like
James: it's so
forward Melissa: yeah
James: That's amazing.
Elizabeth: Oh
This is so interesting it's not like like they're not like low register like
like
Grunting it out. It's very like preppy again like a no higher register and like all of them shouting it meanwhile
Kevin: Why are we here what is the meaning of this? What is the what is my purpose?
'Don't wander aimlessly so far away'. Well this song is
Isaac: Well-
Kevin: AHHHHH
Kevin: HeLP
Isaac: Aw, she didn't go up- Kevin: What's with the slap bass?!
Kevin: *voice hitches* Where's this- What does the slap bass-
Isaac: Where's this going??
Cloud: Nyyyyer nyyyyyyyyurhhhh
Henry: Oh, this time I just I somehow my monkey brain it's just notice now
the zimzalabim is now in their high register
Daniel: yeah, I think the intensity like keeps rising and rising rising after every repetition of
Fiona: represented in their hand motions Daniel: that chromatic oscillation
Fiona: Aahh, well that was exciting
(E: Okay) Henry: that was a fever dream Melissa: so what does zim zala bim mean?
Umu: It's like abracadabra
Henry: Okay cool, Umu: magical word
Elizabeth: That was interesting cause they were playing with like different percussion instruments
cuz you had like this sort of (H: I love that) like big bass drum
kind of drumming at the beginning and then they did the snare drum and then they did like
The sort of like hot gong thing in the chorus and then you know, they did like the wood block in the bridge
So they really like covered a lot of ground with the percussion, but then they changed it for every section of the song
Henry: I also appreciate that Zimzalabim like abracadabra is just kind of like one of those
it's because it doesn't have like a specific definition
This just sort of like a nonsense word
It is used in like a really percussive way that matched up very well with the percussive elements that they used
That that was really clever
I struggle sometimes with these because like I don't know if I should react to it from a songwriting
Perspective or like from a production perspective because from a songwriting perspective...
like I wouldn't listen to it
I wouldn't I wouldn't be like oh, this is a good song but sitting here watching it listening to it thinking about its construction. Holy
oh my mother of- that's sick
Nick: They used so much range in terms of like highs and lows that it was hard to really pay attention to anything else
I think that's a song that would be unsafe to drive to
Aron: Yeah I know exactly (N: yeah it's like) and so it's like
(N: You can't even pay attention) Aron: it's like your surrounding is like-
Nick: It's like it's like your eyes are closed when you're listening to that kind of music like that
It just puts you in a trance and I don't know there's something to be said for that certainly
Henry: So that was cool. I guess no, I didn't really like it
But I mean that's what a react channel is about right like it or not. I did like-
Cloud: why did you not like it?
Henry: Maybe it's cuz you were in my ear the whole time but like 'did you hear-
did you hear that dragging sound?' I'm like 'yeah I guess so yeah I hear that'.
Henry: It was um.... Cloud: I'm sorry
Henry: It was a bit much I think it stood out and then it happened a lot after it stood out.
Isaac: Oh my goodness, you just go up and down and then you have this this chant
Isaac: *impression of instrumental*
Kevin: It's the ReveFestival indeed, how do you pronounce that? Yeah ReVe
Umu: Yeah ReVe
Kevin: ReVe?
Umu: It's like red velvet but-
Kevin: Yes
Also Rev means dream in French. So it's the dream festival.
Isaac: What the- What am I supposed to say about this? Oh my goodness
I was-it felt very weird. I've never been so alienated from just the chorus
But I do have to say there's a lot of great stuff going on in there verses are very nice
There's a lot of good instruments a very good snare is just wow.
I like good snares
But everything else was so weird. (K: *sigh) This actually happened.
Kevin: I like a song that feels like whiplash I really do but I think
I don't know about the read flavoresc bubbly section. I think it appears a little too frequently. So it makes the song
more grounded in tonality and that type of you know
Girl group vibe and yet less ground at the same time because of everything else that's happening.
It's in this really weird limbo state
I don't know what I would switch it with but something less bubbly, but all but gives us that comfort
I think I do like everything else that's going on and I like how in the final chorus the
Kevin: *Instrumental* The
yeah, the zipper bass and the zimzalabim come together and it like how they chanted higher it doesn't feel like
They're chanting it over and over again because they're just slapping it on
It does feel like the song is more powerful because of the way it repeats
It doesn't ever- I never never during the zimzalabim sections do I feel like 'oh, I'm getting tired of this' I do
Commend them for doing that what would they do? But the bubbly section doesn't sit with me as well weirdly enough
Melissa: I think the minor third that was playing in the like what was it like a cowbell or something?
You know that like instrument while the zimbalabim was happening like I feel like it was just a little bit out of tune
So that you like listen and you're like, excuse me.
James: Well and (M: exCUse Me) especially you know that.... like
Weird kind of sound effect that they were using that was like sliding between pitches. I couldn't figure out what the pitches were
until the major section at the end and I think the autotune is part of the reason because
It before you know
it it was like something weird harmonically and it was singing like
Flat-six string like something weird and then at the end
It was all major and it was just one five one
Like it was just like super simple and easy
but I think that like out of tune-ness that we heard in the beginning sort of like
You know even people who aren't musically trained can hear that and they're like (M: yeah) huh?
Melissa: I want to add that like the out of tune. We're not just being asholes like it's intentional. It's a choice
and like that because even like people who aren't musically trained like they know when something's out of tune even if they don't have the
word to say out of tone and they'll be like that's
weird
Yeah, I was getting very witchy vibes. Yeah, because we Halloween benches
I think it's really cool that they just came up with like Zimzalabim. It's so absurd but it's so catchy
It's just like abracadabra. It's like who came up with that?, you know.
Umu: It's actually saying in Europe
James: Oh really?
Melissa: Oh That's cute. James: I didn't know that
Spongebob Narrator: a few moments later
James: So I just went like I listened back to it and I figured out what it is in the beginning
Wah wah, so the pitches are it's one and then they sort of go up to a five but not really it's like one
And then they go to the octave and then they come down
to the flat two, one
Umu: Oh!
James: And I think that's like really smart because it's not usually something you hear all of those like half step like neighbor
to establish musical tension and dissonance tones would be like
Four, you know, or flat six, you know, we hear that a lot flat six to five four three, but flat two to one
That's like really interesting. And I think that's part of the reason that it's jarring and then with the ambient noise of the bells
It's just like oh (M: Yeah) what's happening?
Melissa: yeah, you know, it's so hard like when there's like ambient noise to establish like tonality in your brain
J: Yeah, Melissa: because you're like oh there's a stuff going on. James: It's really good
Umu: Zimzalabim zim zimzalabim zim zimzalabim James: *cling clang cling*- Umu: zim zim, Zimzalabim zim zimzalabim zim zimzalabim zim zim.
James: Ambient noise (Slay Umu)