Search - Cornelius :: FM: Fantasma (Rmx)

On his 1998 debut Fantasma, Japanese recombo master Keigo Oyamada, a.k.a. Cornelius, sampled pure pop styles from Music Machine to the Beach Boys to stadium acts such as Wings and icons such as My Bloody Valentine, redreaming them into an orchestral tribute pastiche. His Devo-like live band then toured the U.S. as a hybrid retro-rock show more akin to his '80s band, Flipper's Guitar. FM is an album of celebrity retreatments of Fantasma's genius DJ treatments. The hip-hop identity mantras of "Mic Check" by Money Mark and "Free Fall" by U.N.K.L.E. trace the streets of Shibuya to the streets of Brooklyn, where stardom meant an infinitely repeatable tag. The High Llamas, Buffalo Daughter, and the Pastels hybridize Cornelius against their own signature sounds. The Esquivel-like vocalese of "The Micro Disneycal World Tour" makes a nice High Llamas cut. Pizzicato Five's Konishi Yasuharu reveals "Count 5, 6, 7, 8" as speedy Bacharach ultrapop while Blur's Damon Albarn delivers a bright but menacing Casiopop version of "Star Fruits Surf Rider." The palsied jungle of Coldcut caps an album of cutting-edge DJ re-recontextualization that passes the true test: the tracks hold up as entirely new works. --Dean Kuipers