Cornelius: Classic or Dud?

It did inspire me to give another listen to Point again...forgot how amazing the stretch of music in the middle - "Point of View Point", "Tone Twilight Zone", "Bird Watching At Inner Forest", "I Hate Hate", and "Brazil". "Bird" in particular has been my favorite track off any of his albums.

Fantasma is one of the best records of the 1990s IMO, featuring the best song called 'God Only Knows' ever written FACT

I don't have 'Point'! Need to give it a spin or two. Love 'Sensuous' even if it is a bit more 'mature' than Fantasma; it's also big and bold and beautiful. 'Music' is the chillest shit.

For whatever reason Sensuous never really clicked with me until I saw it live. I'm still not sold on every track but "Like a Rolling Stone" had this weird video with like toy people who were like spinning themselves into rocks and back again; really weird and creepy but I wouldn't like the tune otherwise. I think the title track was the last song he played and it actually worked really well. Just wish the guy would hurry up and release something new!!!

Classic.

Fantasma - Point - Sensuous is an insane run of perfection to my ears.

Just broke out "Point" again, wow that album still sounds great. It's fairly unique in how much of it feels electronic while using a bunch of acoustic instruments. Some songs sound like they have two or three drummers even though they don't have complex drum parts. Just sounds like a bunch of robotic musicians plugging away at their one chord or percussion instrument. I love how it "loosens up" in the middle then goes back to being utterly gorgeous. Maaan I wish he'd come back :(

i always loved that album, but found the one before it a bit too cheeky. What was the follow up like?

not as good, and really the only Cornelius album that wasn't a huge step forward from the previous one. it still had a lot of gorgeous moments and some cool abstract parts, worth a listen if you liked Point

Sensuous(the follow up) is really wonderful. I like it better than Point, personally.

I don't know about this "not a huge step forward" thing. how is Point a "huge step forward" from fantasma as opposed to just a lateral shift to more abstract compositions? I guess you mean that the style of Sensuous is not a big break from that of Point, and yeah I would agree.

im really just talking like in the evolution of his own sound. i dont want to imply that it's necessarily better or more 'evolved' than his past stuff (though i do think it is)

heads up, the new salyu record "s(o)un(d)beams" is produced by Cornelius and very clearly sounds like his last two records but with a better vocalist

find it so hard to process cornelius as anything other than 'music people on message boards were listening to when i started using the internet'

not familiar w/any of the older salyu records but I've been enjoying this one too. great voice for this type of project, definitely, and I esp like when cornelius cuts loose and gets a little crazy cutting-up or layering her vox.

thought this was a standout track:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C1xB3Ybw2o

like the way different loops spill onto each other. p hypnotic.

I esp like when cornelius cuts loose and gets a little crazy cutting-up or layering her vox

I like this too. I feel like Cornelius either has a very strict comfort zone or is intentionally limiting himself, so whenever he breaks out the result is often great. A good example is his "Super Bad" James Brown remix which starts as typical Cornelius fare (*bwoomp* *slap* *bwommpslap* x100) but actually comes together beautifully and grooves in the second half.

listening to the salyu x salyu again this morning. really like the レインブーツで踊りましょう/ s(o)un(d)beams / Mirror Neurotic stretch. feel like it neatly summarizes all the styles salyu and cornelius are working on w/this album.

first track is working in a fairly traditional shibuya-kei/jpop mode w/strings and 'live' instrumentation, etc. coda is quite nice too and bleeds well into the more ambient (and gorgeous) title track. the gentle 4/4 kick drum and other techno flourishes are cool too. then 'mirror neurotic kicks' in w/maybe the most active arrangement on the album. love this track.

I definitely like this album a lot but I do wish there were a couple more upbeat tracks like 'mirror neurotic.' a remix lp could be v cool, I think.

also, I had never heard that james brown remix before. it's good!

his remixes of Sketch Show (Yukihiro Takahashi and Haruomi Hosono) are both excellent too, like incredibly beautiful and kinda the summation of everything he goes for in this mixes.

i'd love to see him do an album with those guys but I don't know if he's capable of putting out anything that doesn't sound like Point outtakes right now!

He's back!!!

http://www.theautojubilator.com/cornelius-ah-song/

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/dezaina/id591881199

I haven't heard any of this yet but i just saw the links and am squee-ing right now.

A design
CORNELIUS
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To preview a song, please click the play button to move the mouse over the title. Please Open iTunes to buy music, and to download.
Title Artist Time Price
One
See CORNELIUS 1:28 ¥ 250 iTunes (Chocolat song) A design theme
Two
Look at 2:04 ¥ 250 iTunes CORNELIUS observation of design
Three
Look at 1:47 ¥ 250 iTunes CORNELIUS design counting rhymes
Four
Look at 0:32 ¥ 200 iTunes Long clutch A CORNELIUS
Five
Look at 0:54 ¥ 200 iTunes! CORNELIUS dissolution
Six
A look at 2:04 ¥ 250 iTunes CORNELIUS Drawing
Seven
See CORNELIUS 1:51 ¥ 250 iTunes (Takako River Mine song) and visual round
Eight
0:34 ¥ 200 iTunes CORNELIUS see an expression of the form
Nine
2:41 ¥ 250 iTunes prominence seen in CORNELIUS
Ten
Look at 0:58 ¥ 200 iTunes Sound Of Composition CORNELIUS
Eleven
3:01 ¥ 250 iTunes CORNELIUS see a world without
Twelve
See CORNELIUS 2:19 ¥ 250 iTunes (Etsuko Yakushimaru song) Song arrow
13
Look at 0:44 ¥ 200 iTunes CORNELIUS shape of the body
14
Look at 1:03 ¥ 200 iTunes 1 DAY CORNELIUS
Fifteen
3:19 ¥ 250 iTunes CORNELIUS seen people design
Sixteen
Look at 0:57 ¥ 200 iTunes Long clutch B CORNELIUS
17
See CORNELIUS 2:08 ¥ 250 iTunes (Yumiko Ono song) sound and music
Eighteen
CORNELIUS 1:02 ¥ 200 iTunes see messages that only
19
See! (Reverse) CORNELIUS 0:51 ¥ 200 iTunes dissolution
Twenty
Look at 1:09 ¥ 200 iTunes CORNELIUS Looking mono
21
0:41 ¥ 200 iTunes CORNELIUS see part
22
I see that unlike CORNELIUS 1:36 ¥ 250 iTunes was I thinking
23
See CORNELIUS 1:47 ¥ 250 iTunes (salyu × salyu song) Color Magic
24
Look at 1:04 ¥ 200 iTunes Long clutch C CORNELIUS
25
View Ending Theme 0:50 ¥ 200 iTunes CORNELIUS

See CORNELIUS 1:51 ¥ 250 iTunes (Takako River Mine song) and visual round

Hell yes! Takako Minekawa collab!

so, what exactly is this? it's not really a new album is it?

Yep new Cornelius album. Japan-only release at the moment it seems like. The samples sound nice!

Many of these tracks seem to be a minute or less. I'm really hoping it's heavy on the ambient sound collage type stuff.

but it's a soundtrack to something isnt it?

Soundtracks are people too.

I'd like to hear this. I've never totally like anything he's done, but I think he could eventually do something I like, or I could eventually like something he does. Point was really close.

Can't wait.

that said I'll take anything new from the guy - I'm reviewing his old stuff now, kind of shocked how damn good Doctor's Head World Tower and 69/96 really are

okay, just heard it for the first time - it's all shorter pieces, with a lot of vocals, very minimal, but it's clearly him. it reminds me a bit of the Hosono Monad stuff, in that there are only a few sounds going on at once, but there are still a lot of unexpected twists and he draws resonance in odd ways. don't think i'll listen to it as much as his other albums but you can't really complain about new stuff at this point.

Since 2011 Cornelius has been musical director of a kids' TV show about design broadcast on the NHK network early Saturday mornings. He's invited guests and composed his own jingles for items intended to teach children about design. Here's a clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgwxdRnxBK0

it reminds me a bit of the Hosono Monad stuff

well, you just said the magic words...

Speaking of kids' shows, here is on Yo Gabba Gabba
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDcouGIvDi4

Wow i had no idea. That is the coolest!

i saw him live at Matador's "Everything is Nice" 10 year anniversary show in NYC.
I was just thinking about this show, I believe. Prompted because I saw a guy who looked like Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, who were also on the bill.

No, show I saw was called Music Against Brain Degeneration. Also featured Sebadoh and Robyn Hitchcock.

so, this new one is pretty great! I've never been a huge fan but I'm liking the turn away from maximalism he's been on with this and salyu x salyu

I guess that must be Migu on drums on the HGG clip, that's very cool, her solo record is great.

Yeah i saw that tour too! Blew my freakin' mind. I had never heard of a theremin before and I eagerly bought one that week.

So what is this album called, is it "Design"? Or is it a soundtrack to the show?

Oh, OK, "Design Ah". LOL. Not as good a pun as "Fun9" (Fun Ku) but ok!

I'm finally going over his page in English. Man, "CM4" was just released. I haven't heard one of his remix albums since "CM2".

I wasn't a big fan of CM4 but CM3 has astounding remixes of Sketch Show (Hosono/Takahashi's group), Denki Groove (Twilight) and James Brown (Call Me Super Bad)

man, "Tone Twilight Zone" still gives me chills. part of it is because it has a deep connection to my life but also because of those harmonics. such a simple trick to put them in a song like this but it seems like nobody else really thought of it.

No, show I saw was called Music Against Brain Degeneration. Also featured Sebadoh and Robyn Hitchcock.

that was a good tour. saw it at Cat's Cradle in NC. I remember Cornelius' drummer had big giant headphones on giving them the metronome timing to sync with a really fast movie projected behind them.

Anyone watch Cornelius on HBO's Reverb? That's how I discovered him. Was a pretty important step in my taste maturing at 14.

That was my first exposure to Cornelius, the Reverb show. Unbelievably, I can't so much as find a clip from it online.

Aw crap, i had that Reverb show taped years ago, and now it's lost for good.

Those videos were AMAZING. There was a Fantasma remaster that came out a year or two ago and one of the videos i found posted online in connection to the release was the video they projected during "Count 5 or 6", which had this amazing shot of Keith Moon which cut to an accidents from a demolition derby.

he's definitely a phenominal live performer. I think that gets missed considering how tightly controlled the albums are. there was (still is?) a video of him playing "Monkey" note for note on the guitar at about the same tempo. When I saw him they did stuff like "I Hate Hate" flawlessly and were able to play perfectly in time with the videos, even "Fit Song" which isn't that complex of a tune, but still requires a ridiculous level of precision to get it to match the video.

now that i'm listening to this again and again I think it really is a lot like the Cornelius version of Hosono's "The Endless Talking", but a little brighter and not as frightening. I'd be surprised if that wasn't a huge influence on this album. It's really quite good - very brainy and just the right amount of fun, with the pieces acting more like ideas than songs, with a really refined sound palette (some of the old sounds crop up though). Probably better than Sensuous, really.

This is really great! A little spotty at times but the good stuff is goooooooood. Like it much more than anything I've heard since "Point."

What's exactly is everyone's problem with Sensuous?

This is incredible! I watched the show and holy crap is it amazing. This record is probably my favorite since "Fantasma".