Fantasma

Cornelius

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 24, 1998)
• Original Release Date: March 24, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Matador Records
• ASIN: B00000649T
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #116,628 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  Music > Indie Music > Rap & Hip-Hop > Experimental

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
From the first cut--"Mic Check," one of the coolest disc openers heard in ages--it's apparant that Fantasma is something special. To hear electronic musician Cornelius (aka Keigo Oyamada) in full effect, skip ahead to "Monkey," which bends blistering shoe-gazing rock with goofy sound effects, lush, surf's up vocals, and a pleasantly modulating 1980s synth with a loud, distorting drum-roll sample. Cornelius's rock-savvy, playful, and idiosyncratic musical collage works as much off the tension between disparate, sampled sounds as their seamless dance alongside each other. Fantasma is firmly in the spirit of the anything-goes, D.I.Y. tradition of both punk rock and early hip-hop. --Mike McGonigal

Spin
Fantasma, [Cornelius's] third full-length and debut U.S. album, is an exuberant kaleidoscope of hip-hop, noisecore, film soundtracks, cheesy listening, indie rock, even Sesame Street.... Fantasma is an endearing music-obsessive-comes-of-age tale--from Saturday morning TV to arena rock to bootleg Jean-Jacques Perrey reissues--but once the initial weirdness-buzz wears off, there's not a whole lot to latch onto.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Curing The Fitful Synapse, November 29, 1999

By A Customer

I'm a musician who started gigging in the sixties, and I've been enjoying my own muse and listening happily to the creations of others for years. Whenever I hear something new, I try to make my mind blank and my expectations non-existent, so that I won't be impressed by anything but the aural experience. I have a disdain for genre... by that, I mean, I don't like automatically assuming that any genre will have examples that are good or bad. My goal (to be honest, not always achieved) is that each new listening experience be as if I was hearing music for the first time.

That being said, I must admit to having a fairly open attitude to lots of music, although surely, much of it is so-so. So much that I hear is O.K., but doesn't ring any new bells.

<< ENTER CORNELIUS >> The first time I heard CORNELIUS was on HBO's Reverb show (live), and I was in a position where I couldn't see the screen. Wow. Zing. Music. Interesting. Listen to that! Timing. Grit. This is new! TILT!

I ran to the screen to catch the name. The band was exuberant. At the time I didn't realize that CORNELIUS had a one-man nerve-center like Nine Inch Nails. But the CD is so wonderfully woven that it is no surprise that live musicians become so launched in the playing. And the more I have hear the more I smile, because I'm hearing a free soul who is enjoying music with abandon and WE get to play! Merely listening transports us to the mega-sandbox come rocket to inner-space. And not only is the CORNELIUS creation an act of innocence, but one of neuro-musical understanding. It soothes and excites bodily impulses, as it cures the fitful synapse. When I stand back and summarize, I wonder... how long has it been since something this HIP was so POSITIVE. It's been a hard day's night; that's how long.

Fantasma is the only CD I've heard, but I see that CORNELIUS has been involved in some very interesting packaging and rehashes. Something tells me, though, that CORNELIUS is living in the zone where rehashes are new, and I look forward to hearing more & knowing more.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GENRE JUMPING IDM MAYHEM AND BRILLIANCE, November 10, 2004

By	Stowaway (Australia) - See all my reviews

Cornelius. A nutty Japanese guy that patches together more genres than your grandma does quilts!

This album, while not being overly innovative on a track by track basis, still leaves you with the distinct feeling that its the only album of its kind.

Encompassing smooth hip hop beats, samples and scratch trickery, cut and paste wizardry, perfect pop sensability, gorgeous harmonies, the full palette of instruments, crunching distortion, jangly acoustic strumming, blips and bops, and more!

Genres covered include big beat, psychadelica, folk, metal, hip hop, surf rock, space rock, beach boys pop, latin, IDM electronica, and list dont stop! All contained in at times frantic ADD song structures and other times cruisy laid back pop.

A masterful cut and paste collage of everything pop music has covered, and everything a production and pop genuis like cornelius is capable of.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GROOOOH, April 5, 2004

By	Q (Vermont) - See all my reviews

Quite simply put, Fantasma is insane.
Cornelius (AKA Keigo Oyamada) has collected and pasted his musical genius together into a CD case, and mailed it off to America. Songs flow from one to the other like silk, yet Kiego hardly contains any two tracks to the same genre. One listen to "Count Five or Six", and you will totally uppercut someone.
There is no word better word than "insane" to describe the genius encompassed in this album