[review] kotringo - nemurugirl
kotringo - nemurugirl
official site
mini-album
01.23.2008
RZCM-45785
Track Listing:
01 runaway girl
02 chocolate
03 snowman
04 itsumo
05 jump jump
06 Fuwafuwa song
Amazon.jp | HMV | Yesasia
I discovered kotringo simply because I liked how the cover looked. While cruising uploading sites I saw it and decided to give a try. Time and time again I've been told by my friends that this not a good thing to do because most of the time the music is bad even if the cover is pretty.
But I usually go for it when downloading as it's served me well. So instead of downloading and forgetting about it, I unzipped it right away and listened to it. I was greeted by a piano and a soft but strong female voice. It took only the first song for me to fall absolutely in love with the sound of this talented songerwriter. So much so that I've already purchased her debut single and are planning to buy the rest of her discography which consists of two singles, an album, and now this mini-album.
Debuting last year, kotringo starting playing piano when she was five and began composing when she was seven. Hailing from Osaka she spent a few years in New York composing and performing. In 2005 she sent in demo tapes to Ryuichi Sakamoto's radio auditions and would later be signed for debut in 2006.
The album starts out with Runaway Girl which simply is one of the reasons I was blown away. The melody is simple with piano and strings and in retrospect it sounds like many other piano pop songs but doesn't really "copy" any of them. Light and gentle with the strings creating a beautiful background kotringo's voice then comes in soft but strong. The melody moves forward and seems to be pulled into a beautiful round phrase with the strings before returning to the piano. Kotringo's voices will probably sound somewhat weak and maybe a bit breathy to some people but I personally can here the gentle strength underneath. The song simply ends with the strings.
Next is Chocolate which kotringo takes a different use of the piano. With light drums the song starts out with almost a jazzy flavor before encompassing the piano and kotringo's voice. She shows off her English a bit which, compared to other jpop singers, is pretty good. Chocolate is certainly more upbeat then Runaway Girl with a cute interlude of drums and piano. All the while the piano continues to fluxuate from hard to soft and kotringo's voice follows the same pattern. We get a very full sound towards the end which then tapers down into a softer sound while still keeping the previous beat and eventually fades out.
Snowman seems to move the direction of the album with a cute piano intro and more electronic background with the piano then the previous two tracks. It is as uptempo as Chocolate though and still heavily ingrained with her piano sound. But by this track kotringo is able to combine her piano and the electronic hip-ness of pop together and the formula seems to work really well. We then get a slight strange little interlude and then the song picks up again. The piano though seems to have taken a more backseat to the electronic sounds instead of being the focal point however it's the piano that ends the song.
Itsumo which means "always" in Japanese is the ballad. It seems the normal blend of piano and voice which makes up the normal jpop ballad. There is also a beautiful melancholic sound to kotringo's voice that aids the song from being just a generic ballad though. There is some background electronic sounds that fades in and out ever so often which helps gives a more fuller sound to the song.
Jump Jump brings us right back to an upbeat tempo but once again the electronic sounds seemed to have over-powered the piano which instead of being the focal point is the backbone of the song until the chrous when it switches to just the piano and kotringo's voice. But the song has a very light happy sound all the while kotringo sounds happy and light. Then another moment of voice and piano that is just lovely and very light sounding. Then all of a sudden an artful piano break for the tempo jumps back in. (I couldn't resist.) We end with electronic and piano together and fading.
Fuwafuwa Song is a sort interlude of piano and electronic sounds including sounds of bubbles? But all the while kotringo is singing "fuwafuwa" which I'm not sure what it means but it's cute before the piano takes over. Threre is a sound which is somewhat lounge-like and the song ends with that ever present "fuwa".
All together I think that nemurugirl has a consistant and cohesive sound accompanied beautifully with kotringo's voice and her piano. There is no doubt to her composing skills and I hope she has a nice long career ahead of her.
MU // download (192kbps)