Cornelius - Point
(Matador)
Dear Keigo Oyamada (Cornelius):
I don't know how much English you know, but hopefully you can get this
translated.
You are one of those remarkably rare and skillful musicians with a sense of
creativity, cohesion, and aural clarity virtually unparalleled in the
current musical climate. Having listened to Point countless times
now, my ability to immerse myself in the music found here has only increased
with each spin. I therefore feel compelled to write you on the subject of
the surprise I felt when I first heard Point. I had only heard
Fantasma, which was, no doubt, an excellent debut, and a brilliiant
pop-pastiche record to boot. But you've heard that from everyone (sick of
being called "the Japanese Beck" yet? Hopefully that will change now...).
Anyway, that was my only reference when listening to Point; I had
purposely refrained from hearing or reading any advance buzz or press, since
Fantasma had proven to me that you are a forward-thinking individual.
I found that, as before, each sonic element was presented with pristine
clarity and dynamic, and the music was packed with catchy hooks, your
trademark vocal harmonies, and the occasional ironic wink. But while
verbally comparable to Fantasma in those respects, the sounds
associated with such descriptions were so fantastically different. What I
found immediately engaging about Point was the near-ecstatic feeling
of hearing something new, something that I didn't expect, with every passing
second—sounds coming from every direction and tangling about in my head
with perfectly pre-determined reckless abandon. (Did I convey the feeling of
thrilling contradiction there? That's what I was going for.) By the last
seconds of my first listen to Point, I was convinced that you had
created some untouchable shit. And while Fantasma was the type of
record that can wear on the ears and the intellect ever so slightly after a
while, Point has thus far remained spotless without the necessity of
a quick machine wash-and-dry.
As you can probably tell based on that last sentence, I'm a record reviewer
for an indie music e-zine, which gets me to my actual point, and that is:
should I leave the surprises up to the listener, as they were left up to me?
Should I say: "If you're a fan of new music, and by new music I mean music
that sounds new, with no discernible expiration date, buy this on my
word alone?" Or I'm thinking, less rude, less confrontational: "Reading
about what happens while one listens to Point is like fast-forwarding
through Psycho or reading the Cliff's Notes for Naked Lunch. I
suggest that if you haven't read anything about this up until now, and
you're looking for something surprising and enthralling, try to avoid
reviews that might be a bit more revealing to the plot and discover it for
yourself."
If for any reason you're unable to get back to me—never mind. Probably a
rhetorical question anyway, and I'll figure something out. Simply put, I'm
on your side.
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