cornelius' "point"

If anything, this record is too perfect. While it occasionally surprises, it could have done with a few more flaws... a few additional human touches to give it that extra kick of emotion. It needs one song to touch your heart in the way a recent ILM thread was asking about (tho' "Bird Watching At Inner Forest" comes very close to doing this). I predict I'll play this CD to death for a week, then file it away for a loooong time.

I only listened to this for the first time today (having long been aware of and liked Drop), and I must say I'm quite enchanted by it. I love the juxtapostion of simple vocal melodies and the complex arrangements; very witty, warm and fun.

I think this is one of the best five or so albums of the last decade. I was always confused about how it got a bad rep for being too "sterile" or whatever - what amazed me is how the album is so transparantly and meticulously built up, making the listener aware of everything that's going on, yet it manages to convey so much emotion (Tone Twilight Zone is simply one of the most beautiful tunes ever, and it's really just simple harmonics), and it can even groove when it needs to ("Bird Watching at Inner Forest" is amazing). Really that whole stretch from "Drop" to "Brazil" is incredible. Sadly I feel Cornelius didn't really feel he had anywhere to go from here.

<3 Point. the videos are awesomely synesthetic too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQO_ZrWw-38

Sadly I feel Cornelius didn't really feel he had anywhere to go from here.

So it's not worth checking out Sensual?

Sensuas is really beautifully put together and a very pleasant listen, but there's not really any spark or "wow" factor to it. It's just nice craft.

Sensuous.

Sorry, Sensuous. Bit of a crap title either way.

It reflects the album well, ironically. It's a phenomenological pleasure to listen to, but it's not very exciting or enticing.

It's definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of this album. It's basically "Point, but only 75% as good" - lots of the individual tracks are even similar ("Gum" and "I Hate Hate", "Music" and "Fly"...) The main difference is that Sensuous deconstructs things even further, it's more subdued and deliberate in every action, which is stunning at times (the title track is really something), but a lot of times you wonder if he's stripping a lot of the enjoyable parts out of the song ("Breezin" and "Beep It" are pop songs, weirdly deconstructed and kind of bare). The videos are incredible though.

I've not listened to it in a while but I remember it feeling very sparse, almost minimalist. I played Point the other day and it was still pretty *wow*.

yeah this record is excellent & unique imo

the recent salyu x salyu lp this guy produced is dope, btw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVjwEJz1P9c

Speaking of Roger Nichols, ever heard The Love Parade by Cornelius? It IS Don't Take Your Time by Roger Nichols.

― PappaWheelie V, Sunday, November 28, 2010 1:03 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

The above was posted on the Paul Williams thread. OK, since I don't know Japanese and thus can't find much about Cornelius online, someone please fill me in on what's going on here.... "The Love Parade" is way too similar to this 1968 record from Roger Nichols & the Small Circle of Friends to be coincidental. We're talking almost the same melody, harmonies, instrumentation, bass lines, key changes, bouncy arrangements, everything....

Really one of the most blatant "songs that sound like other songs" examples I've ever heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VZUd2JWc5A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiaA14nLgB0

Wow - I'd never heard the original but yeah that's pretty stunning. I'm not surprised though - you may want to have a listen to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMw6lN9Fe3U

This is from Cornelius's pre-solo career band, Flipper's Guitar. They're a decent pop band but their final album is actually quite good (about as good as The First Question Award), and I guess you can figure out the reason why. *Everything* about this tune is basically a rip of "Loaded" (which came out the same year!), except there's even a more blatant cop of "Sympathy for the Devil". I think that Cornelius's shtick at the time was that he was a huge fan of British pop music and (apparently) his Japanese audience generally hadn't heard much of it, so he tried to incorporate a lot of those influences into his early work. 69/96 doesn't do the "slightly modified cover" thing but it does have a lot of samples, particularly from Led Zeppelin (which maybe the Japanese weren't too familiar with either?)

In hindsight it makes the leap he took to get to Fantasma even more impressive. Correct me if I'm wrong but that one seems to be mostly original.