Cornelius

During the millisecond that Japanese psychedelic pop made an impact stateside, former teen idol Cornelius (aka Keigo Oyamada) seemed poised to become the country's next big export. His 1997 album, Fantasma—a lovely hodgepodge of shoegazing sonics, hip-hop beats, kitschy sensibilities, and everything in between—had critics making Beck and Beastie Boys comparisons. But a stagnant release schedule—five-year hiatuses between albums, a remix here and another there—stifled some of the hype. Perhaps that explains why Oyamada's third full-length, Sensuous, feels like such an intimate affair.

Following the acoustic ambience of the titular opening track and the fun, stuttering guitar funk of "Fit Song," comes the album's first ringer "Breezin," a catchy, sun-kissed synth jam that sees Oyamada channeling French rockers Phoenix. The indie-pop connection doesn't stop there, as Kings of Convenience balladeers Erlend Oye and Eirik Glambek Boe lend their vocals (singing in a hypnotic blend of Norwegian and Japanese) to the dewy "Omstart," a subdued track that sidles forward on a bed of gentle guitar chords and tinkling bells.

Despite its lighter leanings, though, the album doesn't shy from the dancefloor. The driving electro currents and slap bass accents of "Beep It" are well-suited to a disco workout, while glitchy garage-rocker "Gum" provides dancers with a frantic alternative. Deftly straddling the electronic/rock divide, Sensuous maintains the eclecticism that first endeared Cornelius to his fans, and imbues it with a welcome warmth and breeziness.

- James Jung
04.20.07

Even sleeker and more stylized than Point, Sensuous lives up to its title, with intricate textures and lush atmospheres that are almost tangible, and melodies that evoke visions of lines stretching off into the horizon or tunneling into infinite spirals. However, this is also Keigo Oyamada's most thematic and conceptual Cornelius album, concentrating on just a few well-chosen elements -- wind chimes, delicate acoustic guitars, precise electric ones, fuzzy '80s synths, and layers of vocals -- and either elongating them to the point of no return or chopping them into pointillistic pieces. With all of its lines, loops, and fragments, at times Sensuous feels more like an ever-changing sonic painting than an album of individual songs, a concept brilliantly illustrated by the flowing paint on the album's cover. But no matter how abstractly Oyamada splashes these sounds from track to track, they always stay accessible, and the inherent tension in how he turns poppy sounds into high-concept compositions makes them even more fascinating. Songs like "Breezin'" -- which floats by on aptly airy synths and wind chimes -- and "Wataridori," an addictive exploration of call-and-response with rubbery basslines and loping guitars, take Point's forays into this approach to its logical yet loopy end. "Gum," the album's lone rocker, is honed to super-saturated essence; its chugging guitars sound like a motor turning over, punctuated by bashing drums and bits and pieces of vocal debris. And while repetition is one of Sensuous' major themes, Oyamada never applies it the quite the same way twice. "Beep It" is downright danceable, with a rolling synth bassline overlapped with slapped electric bass and cymbals that sound like they're being tossed down a bottomless pit; the robo-folk of "Omstart" and the title track give gentle acoustic sounds mechanical precision. Cornelius' wonderful sense of whimsy is a vital part of Sensuous as well, especially on "Toner," a witty piece for piano, keyboards, photocopier, and dot matrix printer, and the final track, "Sleep Warm," an interpretation of the standard that's part "When You Wish Upon a Star" and part HAL's version of "Daisy, Daisy" in 2001: A Space Odyssey. When the song fades out on the wind chimes that opened the album, Sensuous becomes one giant, dazzling loop, and quite likely, the finest expression of Cornelius' inimitable, playfully sophisticated musical language yet. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide