CORNELIUS "Sensuous"

I loved indie kids' fascination with Japanese pop music that spiked around the year 2000. While Shonen Knife paved the way for the broken engrish pop sensations that broke through to some degree at the turn of the millenium, Cornelius really slamdunked the whole thing with Fantasma. Fantasma was an eclectic and fascinating magical journey, crunchy cut & paste rock, no one here or in Tokyo had heard anything like it. While Takako Minekawa bleeped her way through sublime pop songs and Buffalo Daughter made everyone dance with the deep groove, Cornelius was more the sculptor, the Brian Eno of the core, but he managed to make a pop record, and it stuck.

Interest in Japanese pop has waned in America since, probably a result from a more experimental and less melodic scene over there and less avenues for such releases to see the light of day in the US. That whole broken engrish thing can't help either, it's charming for a while, but like Morrissey, hard to listen to for more than 30 minutes at a throw. Cornelius (real name: Keigo Oyamada, who not so coincidentally is married and has babies with Takako Minekawa) is back though, with a new record, Sensuous.

Owing more to Japan's electronic pop legends Yellow Magic Orchestra than the Flaming Lips-Yellow Brick Road wonderland that was Fantasma, Sensuous is arty, not a pop record. There are elements of Morricone and Francis Lai, two well known movie soundtrack composers, but there's nothing the kids are going to be able to dance to. And that's ok. It's interesting. If you are in the mood to put on Another Green World or a Flying Lizards record, maybe 2006's Sensous will suffice. While not a classic in that regard, it's curious, and fun to listen to. For about 30 minutes at a time.

"Sleep Warm" is the last song on the record and to me, the most appealing. It was hard to think of what a "single" might be from Sensuous, so you go figure and find the record, if it does find the record bins on this side of the Pacific.

SLEEP WARM