Don't wake me from this illusion

September 29, 2018 5:38 PM

Kotringo is an alumna of the Berklee College of Music who is best known for composing the music to the 2016 animated film In This Corner of the World. She is also known for recording piano-and-vocal covers of pop songs. There are basically two kinds of Kotringo cover: the super melancholy ones and the super cute ones. See what I mean below the fold.

She's a Rainbow (Original by The Rolling Stones, video NSFW)
~AXIA~ Kanashii Kotori (Original by Yuki Saito)
Nagisa (video NSFW) (Original by Spitz)
I Want You Back (Original by The Jackson 5)
Ishin Denshin (Original by Yellow Magic Orchestra)
No Side (Original by Reimy)
Video Killed the Radio Star (Original by The Buggles)
Hallelujah (Original by Jeff Buckley)
Kiss Me (Original by Sixpence None the Richer)

posted by J.K. Seazer (8 comments total)

Thanks for sharing! The cover of ~AXIA~ Kanashii Kotori in particular I think is just wonderful.
posted by LeviQayin at 7:38 PM on September 29, 2018

I enjoyed the Stones cover, from an unfortunately maligned album. I'm not sure the versions of Video Killed the Radio Star and, especially, the Leonard Cohen song cover, accurately reflected the North American contexts of these songs. Still, fun.
posted by kozad at 8:16 PM on September 29, 2018

Can someone comment on what’s going on musically with the Hallelujah cover? It sounds like the Cale version, but the arpeggios are somehow abbreviated, and it feels more tense? Is she playing with the key here?
posted by mr_roboto at 10:42 PM on September 29, 2018

Somehow she's managed to make "Kiss Me" sound even more twee than the original, which I hadn't thought was possible.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:49 PM on September 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

So long as we're mentioning "Video Killed the Radio Star" covers by Japanese artists, I hope you don't mind me throwing this older Haruko Momoi version here. https://youtu.be/uJsLpRXgApc
posted by xigxag at 5:45 AM on September 30, 2018

More on topic, I came across Kotringo's cover of Sleigh Bells, as well as an appealing live performance of her singing a song called "Kon'nichi wa, Mata ashita," which translates, I guess, as "Hello, See Ya Later."
posted by xigxag at 6:09 AM on September 30, 2018

"Can someone comment on what’s going on musically with the Hallelujah cover?"
More of a jazz (or maybe Japanese) chord progression that doesn't resolve the way the original does. Japanese music I've heard doesn't seem to care about those resolutions the way Western music does. Kind of like going to a noodle shop and finding that there's nothing sweet on the menu, and sweetness is a flavour that shows up here and there but is generally frowned upon.
posted by sneebler at 2:03 PM on September 30, 2018

wow. that's the freshest hallelujah in ages. how lovely, open and affecting. also delightful vocal harmony.

"...going on musically..." i think she's pretty much just not playing the familiar chord roots with seconds and fourths thrown in liberally instead; i'm hearing the chord resolutions, the familiar chord progressions, but mostly lacking those chords' signature tones. the keying, though gentle & steady, is agitated, or agitating, throughout, down there in the lower hand.
posted by 20 year lurk at 8:59 PM on September 30, 2018