Crazy Japanese pop-tronica remixes
Richard Diaz | 06/10/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"If the Beatles during their t psychedelic period (or De La Soul circa 3 feet High and Rising) were Japanese and had huge audio sample collections, they'd be Cornelius. This artist, taking his moniker from the Planet of the Apes, throws everything at you with an innocent pop charm, the results being masterful collages of genres and sounds minus the smug irony of artists like Beck.Of course those who picked up his prior gem "Fantasma" know this, and will hear to some extent a recycling of sounds and ideas on Cornelius CM, which is a remix disc of seven different artists. "Ape Shall Never Kill Ape" by UNKLE becomes a frantic theremin/b-movie jam spasm, reveling in it's chaos; "Maybe I'm Dead," by Money Mark is a stroll through a park on the moon. "Atomic Moog 2000" surpasses the Coldcut original while dishing out some musical history, while his spin on "Windy Hill" does about as good as anyone can with The Pastels. Running a tight 37 minutes, this album gives a taste of the Japanese poptronica scene without overstaying its welcome. Cornelius applies his vision to remarkably different remixes that still retain a cohesive style. While not a great album, it's a sugary treat for those wanting something different."
Nothing short of brilliant!
glass_sword303 | San Diego, CA | 01/17/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"(...) This album is by far one of the greatest remix albums of all time; if a remix album is what you want to call it. Cornelius has taken seven great songs by some of the most respected, current independent rock and electronic artists and reworked them with his own style and emphasized their own. Each song is an otherworldly, organized mess of sound. Just the noises alone he uses are so unique but at the same time they instigate very nostalgic flashes of memory and emotion. It's also one of the trippiest albums I've ever heard. His 'in your face' use of stereo panning makes for a true adventure on headphones. The sister album to this ('FM remixes') is a mirror concepted album where almost all of the seven artists that Keigo Oyamada remixes on 'CM remixes' have remixed some of the tracks off of his Fantasma album. While it is also a good album, and a must have if you liked Fantasma, Cornelius surely puts these artists to shame. Don't get me wrong, I love Coldcut, Unkle, Money Mark, and Bufflao Daughter, but Cornelius alone stomps the small army of artists when compared."