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EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: CORNELIUS!


Posted by Hartley On Apr 30, 2009

BRM blog image

go ahead. judge a record by it's cover.

In 1997 when Matador released Cornerlius' US debut, Fantasma, I had no idea who or what Cornelius was or sounded like. What my 16 year old self did know, however, was that Fantasma had one pretty awesome cover. A two-toned orange and cream screen-print of a dude smoking a stogie that screamed teenage ennui (see: cigarette hanging perfectly from mouth), and obscure Euro "artiness" (see: listing the album credits on the front cover (!) ). Yes, there was no question - I was definitely going to have to love Cornelius even if his/their music sucked.

Luckily for me Fantasma did not suck. And Neither did the album's more....ahem..."streamlined" follow-up, Point, that took a whole five years later to come out. It's a testament to the genius of Keigo Oyamada - who I would later learn is the one man maestro behind the Cornelius name - that his music is so oblique, so all-encompassing, and original that it really does acheive a sort of "timelessness." Good thing for Bank Robber, who now has the very distinct pleasure of representing both of these seminal music gems.

Crazy to listen to Fantasma after all these years. Sure, at the time it seemed Cornelius was very "Beck", very Odelay, very Grand Royal Records - what with his love of Bossa Nova and retro Brazilian grooves...However, in 2009, in hindsight it's more evident than ever that Cornelius was really onto his own thing - some sort of post-modern spazzed out pastiche of...well...everything from 80's hip hop beat box beats, to Beach Boys psychedelia to twinkly minimalist keyboard pop the likes of which Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh made so popular with his Wes Anderson scores. Hell, if Cornelius stood for anything, Fantasma is one glorious testament to Attention Deficit Disorder. What could be a more prophetic statement predating the Age of Twitter." It's a record so big, so all over the map, layered, and "rewarding," it's no shock that Cornelius' follow-up was titled, simply, "Point."

Here's some great old Cornelius video action to demonstrate!

My personal favorite Cornelius jam off Fantasma - "Count Five Or Six" 

this was on Yo Gabba Gabba as you can imagine - no brainer!

A music video for "Star Fruit Surf Rider" also off Fantasma

Can you believe this song and "Count Five or Six" were off THE SAME ALBUM!? I know.

And with "Drop" off of Point

You can see dude mellowed out a bit - but still retained his fetsh for novelty and to use an awful word: "quirkiness"

For those intrigued by all this and want to catch Cornelius live, he is playing Los Angeles - only Los Angeles for 4 dates in May!? COME TO NYC YA HUMP. 

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