Scala / Kolacny is a women’s choir from Belgium. They’re fabulous, I have a couple of their albums. You probably remember their creepy cover of Radiohead’s “Creep,” featured in the first trailer for Social Network.
While Scala / Kolacny don’t only do covers, their covers are so startling, so different than the originals that they tiptoe into a new landscape entirely. There are vast possibilities in the original that you didn’t even know was there until you hear these scary girls sing it. (I mean, the girls aren’t scary people, but there’s something about a women’s choir that can turn a song into a whispered prophecy of sudden violent death. I don’t know why that is.) When they whisper, in unison, “I wish I was special” in the clip above? It’s so effective.
My favorite cover that they do is Marilyn Manson’s “Beautiful People,” which seems, frankly, un-cover-able. The original is so distinct, the form of the song feels so set in stone, it’s so much a personal expression of HIM. It’s meant to be blasted so loud that your ear-drums recoil. I love the song, and him, very much.
But now listen to how Scala / Kolacny do it. (The videographer takes a while to settle down in the clip below. But it’s the sound that matters.)
And suddenly … the song becomes an entirely new thing. I bet Marilyn Manson loved it.
