Cornelius: Classic or Dud?

And I don't really care that this new stuff sounds exactly the same as the late 90s stuff did, but I am really surprised that he hasn't changed his aesthetic at all. Ok, all right, fine, and i'm also a little disappointed.

First time I heard Sensuous I was all "Oh crap this is like Point" but it only bothered me for a few minutes and I really got into the whole journey feel of the album. It really does bring out a number of different moods that kind of crossfade into one another. I think his reliance on the same samples is not holding him back -- I mean, how hard would it be for Cornelius to record some new sounds and use those? No, he's doing it on purpose. He's realizing that development doesn't just mean new sounds, but new arrangements, new ways of looking at the same sounds.

Not that the arrangements are new at all on first glance either; he's used that staccato single-word arrangement for lyrics before, he's done the guitar-picking-echoes slightly out of time thing before, he's used the-beat-goes down like its drowning thing before. But it's the way they're all intertwined here, it's the moods they create and the feelings that each interrelated song connect.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I like it, alot more than I thought I would at first. Perfect music to put on repeat while you're doing graphic design or taking the train across town..

Going back to his roots, I've been really getting into Flipper's Guitar first 2 albums lately

Goodbye, our pastel badges (1989)

Camera! Camera! Camera! (1990)

Sensurround DVD is amazing, and on netflix!

this dude is somewhat awesome

Fantasma is flat-out incredible. I would pick out highlights but it doesn't dip below awesome at any point. Perhaps "Clash" and "God Only Knows" are the truly special moments. Loved PappaWheelie's Amazon review! Yeah, I'm sad and that.

Sensuous is great also. I've had that one a long time. "Music" is wondrous. I *think* the best song on Point is "Fly", and that is a quieter but still groovy record. What a dude!

Like, how can you have the balls to call a track "God Only Knows" and then turn out this astonishingly beautiful 7 1/2-minute bliss-noise-ambient-pop opus? That middle-eight. Oh shit, that middle-eight. It's like Lonely Soul never had to happen after all. And the final minute....gah, we'll be here all night if I don't pipe down.

Anyone know what Cornelius has been up to? I was big into him in 2007 when I saw him live - the show was incredible, btw...but haven't heard anything from him since. His last release is CM3, which doesn't seem to be too well-known, and most of the remixes are a few years old, like the Denki Groove/Scha Dara Parr one. It's probably his least consistant but his remix of James Brown's "Call me Super Bad" was incredible!!

Haha, am listening to P-Model right now and am unsurprised this thread has been bumped :D

love love love Fantasma and Point.

no connection as far as I know, just kicking up a bunch of old threads related to Japanese technopop musicians

there's a huge connection with Cornelius and YMO though; he guests on Sakamoto's and Hosono's albums and was kind of a "third member" of Sketch Show for a while, plus I think he performs regularly with them now

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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Title Artist Time Price
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See CORNELIUS 1:28 ¥ 250 iTunes (Chocolat song) A design theme
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Look at 2:04 ¥ 250 iTunes CORNELIUS observation of design
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Look at 1:47 ¥ 250 iTunes CORNELIUS design counting rhymes
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A look at 2:04 ¥ 250 iTunes CORNELIUS Drawing
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See CORNELIUS 1:51 ¥ 250 iTunes (Takako River Mine song) and visual round
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0:34 ¥ 200 iTunes CORNELIUS see an expression of the form
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2:41 ¥ 250 iTunes prominence seen in CORNELIUS
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Look at 0:58 ¥ 200 iTunes Sound Of Composition CORNELIUS
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3:01 ¥ 250 iTunes CORNELIUS see a world without
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See CORNELIUS 2:19 ¥ 250 iTunes (Etsuko Yakushimaru song) Song arrow
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Look at 0:44 ¥ 200 iTunes CORNELIUS shape of the body
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Look at 1:03 ¥ 200 iTunes 1 DAY CORNELIUS
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3:19 ¥ 250 iTunes CORNELIUS seen people design
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Look at 0:57 ¥ 200 iTunes Long clutch B CORNELIUS
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See CORNELIUS 2:08 ¥ 250 iTunes (Yumiko Ono song) sound and music
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CORNELIUS 1:02 ¥ 200 iTunes see messages that only
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Look at 1:09 ¥ 200 iTunes CORNELIUS Looking mono
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0:41 ¥ 200 iTunes CORNELIUS see part
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I see that unlike CORNELIUS 1:36 ¥ 250 iTunes was I thinking
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See CORNELIUS 1:47 ¥ 250 iTunes (salyu × salyu song) Color Magic
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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

anyway here's a story that is perhaps relevant to the discussion. one of the guys I went to high school with named Matt used to tell stories of his sexual encounters and they were usually kinda rapey. he'd hook up at parties with a girl who had way too much to drink and did stuff while she was either passed out or severely inebriated. I remember asking him "uhhh you sure that's okay dude" and he'd be like "oh yeah, she enjoyed it, I got her phone number after" and so on.

this guy would show up to our parties now and then a few years later. of course by that time I was thinking "yeah, that's 100% rape". one day a group of girls came in including one of the girls he'd mentioned. and so I told her "hey uh just so you know, Matt's here". she said "uhh who?" and I was like "we went to school with him, remember?". she recognized him but was curious why I'd pointed that out, and as it turns out his entire story was just made up. he said it just to impress people, because when you're 17 beer and sex were like, super cool

not saying all his stories were made up, but I do recall some of us wondering where exactly these things were happening. there weren't exactly a lot of parties going on back then. and now I think man, if someone had recorded that, or you had posted about it online, that shit could be really bad for you some day.

anyway I apologize for all the reasoning and bargaining and gymnastics but yes, if nobody's gonna corroborate any of the things said in that interview then I have to think there's at least some chance it was either exaggerated or largely made up, especially when it comes to things that kinda seem incredibly difficult to actually do to another person.

thank you so much for policing the thread Whiney, it warms my heart to know good people still exist in ILX

― frogbs

personally i don't mean it sarcastically, i think it really is cool that whiney still genuinely has the capacity for moral outrage

the point of my little anecdote was not to excuse or mitigate what mr. oyamada did. i don't plan on listening to the album, i'm kinda done with him and his career.

i'm just not really _upset_ about it. i wish i was. i wish i could be. the world is filled with horrible people who do awful things and mostly they're the ones who are the biggest successes, that's how you get to be a success in this world, do awful shit and laugh about it.

i'm burned out. i've been burned out for a long time. i have empathy fatigue. if people want to listen to cornelius or eat chick-fil-a or buy the new harry potter game.

well. i'm glad whiney has the ability to get upset about those things. i think his capacity for outrage makes him a really good ally.