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Cornelius
Fantasma
Cornelius - what a fucking great name! A Japanese artist on the Matador label - arguably the most innovative large label in commercial music! Fantasma, a release so different from anything else out there right now that all the hipsters and music critics are singing it's praises. There you go - three reasons why you need to go out and buy this disc. And guess what, those better be pretty compelling because you may find you need to keep coming back to those reasons as you try to grasp what in the hell you're listening to when you pop in this disc. Cornelius dabbles with pure bubblegum pop, saturday afternoon cartoons, classical harpsichord, tape loops, samples, and even an entire song dedicated to him doing a mic check as he takes you though a musical collage as disorganized as your local DMV. In another song, ("Count Five or Six") the vocals sing repeat "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6" through the entire three minutes of the song. "Magoo Opening" sounds like Loony Tunes mixed in a blender on high while "Chapter 8 - Seashore And Horizon" is pop bliss that sounds like it came from the Elephant 6 label. Most of the disc is devoid of the typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus make up of normal songs. This in and of itself is not a bad thing, but you need to make it up with something that keeps the listener engaged. With this disc, the listener is often times left hearing some cool snippets, neat electronic soundscapes and glimpses of what could be great songs if only they were in a more palatable form. There's some gems here, but you're going to have to do some serious mining to uncover them.
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