Phoebe Bridgers has released three new remixes of Punisher standout “Kyoto” courtesy of Glitch Gum, Bartees Strange, and The Marias. Check out the Bartees rework — which sounds more like a straight-up cover — above.
“I wanted to find a way to make this song hit in a completely different way, but still retain some of the big and small moments that make the song special to me,” Bartees said. “At first I was thinking through how I could use the stems, but the more I got into it the more I wanted to take it somewhere else entirely. Crushing tune, glad I could mess around with it.”
Meanwhile, Glitch Gum morphed “Kyoto” into a wild, hyperpop ride, complete with Auto-Tuned vocals and crashing choruses. “All I know is one day, when I was in between Zoom classes last fall, I thought, ‘Man, what if Phoebe Bridgers did hyperpop?’ That idea turned into a 30-second snippet of ‘Kyoto,’ which turned into a full song, which turned into working with Phoebe and her team to make this little quarantine project come full circle in ways I could never even fathom,” Glitch Gum said. “It was so fun deconstructing the musical realms of both Phoebe and I and combining them into something that filled the hyperpop-indie-crossover-shaped hole in my brain. I am just really happy with how it turned out and forever thankful for Phoebe, her friends, and their continuous support.”
Things calm down somewhat on The Marias’ version, which presents as more of a mid-tempo chillwave affair. “I remember seeing Phoebe years ago at an open mic here in Los Angeles, and I knew right off the bat that she was really special,” The Marias said in a statement. “Working on this remix was a sort of full circle moment for us. ‘Kyoto’ is an amazing song as-is, so with the remix we were just curious to see what it would sound like with the vocal slowed down and adding some of our favorite synth sounds behind it.”
Listen to all three “Kyoto” remixes above.
Punisher is out now via Dead Oceans. Get it here.