A00-09 24. Cornelius - Point

Cornelius is a Japanese musician who makes sample based music. He came to prominence in 1997 with the release of Fantasma. It is the follow up Point that makes it into my chart not just because it came out in the right decade, but because I think it is a better album. Fantasma has probably too many bells and whistles and gives the impression that he it is trying too hard to be clever. Whereas Point has a more precise, restrained feel.

A lot of the samples used are organic. There are twittering birds and water samples, such as the bubbles on Drop. Also there are a lot of guitars (mainly acoustic) and drum samples. The samples are put together to give often a very rhythmic feel and there are lots of stereo panning effects where the instruments flick quickly from left to right. It is all very well done, but the songs themselves are strong enough not to sound like production tricks. When he does try to do something a bit different, such as the aggressive guitar work-out I Hate Hate, it stands out more than it would have on Fantasma.

The vocals are generally multi-tracked, and are almost all in Japanese, despite the English titles. Like with Sigur Rós, the fact that I like the fact that I can't understand the lyrics, because it means I focus on the sound of the vocals as another instrument rather than thinking about the meaning.

Recommended Track: Drop - features bubbles