They’re nobody’s buzz bands anymore. But since 1993, MAGNET has discovered and documented more great music than memory will allow. The groups may have broken up or the albums may be out of print, but this time, history is written by the losers. Here are some of the finest albums that time forgot but we remembered in issue #75, plus all-new additions to our list of Lost Classics.
:: CORNELIUS
Fantasma // Matador, 1998
Running ecstatic laps around Beck’s timid electronic samples and polite Tropicalia, the music created by Keigo Oyamada (the Tokyo trendsetter known as Cornelius) scrambled any brain cells caught between its stereo speakers. Fantasma sounded like Pet Sounds made anime, an album so hyperactive that it was difficult to keep up. By the time you realized Oyamada was playing Beethoven at 120 bpm, he was already splicing Raymond Scott cartoon music into a looped soundbite of monkey screeches. The representative artifact of Tokyo’s ultra-hip Shibuya district, Fantasma didn’t get lost in translation (a track such as “Star Fruits Surf Rider” spelled exuberant pop joy in any language) so much as it left all contemporaries in a cloud of crate-digging dust.
Catching Up: Oyamada issued the more organic, understated Point in 2002 and the sedate, sound-sculpted Sensuous in 2007.
“Star Fruits Surf Rider”:
2 replies on “Lost Classics: Cornelius “Fantasma””
This was a great album. Good live shows around this time period as well. He lost me with Point. I guess I was partial to the mutated shoegazer rock.
Incidentally, “Star Fruits Surf Rider” was also the name of an early Primal Scream song from the 80s. Discuss.
This is my favorite cornelius album. Love the intro. The whole album just makes me so happy. Like a kid in disney land.