Monday, June 30, 2008

Cornelius - Chapter 8

(Matador, 1998)

So I was all set to get back on track with writing these reviews, but then, last night, my laptop decided that it had had enough of life on this planet and committed suicide. It was a dignified death, at least: The screen suddenly went black, and now it simply won’t turn back on. Fried motherboard or something, according to tech support sites. Anyway, I guess I’ll just start writing these out longhand and then type them up while I’m on my lunchbreak at work.

Beginning… NOW.

Which means that Cornelius, the Japanese Beck (with Caribou as the Canadian Cornelius??), has the honor of being the first to receive this exciting, time-wasting new treatment. And hullo, what have we here? Why, it’s Robert and Hilary from the Apples In Stereo bringing a decidedly Elephant Sixy flavor to “Chapter 8 (Seashore and Horizon),” a song that switches back and forth between summery acoustic strumming and gentle, twilit electronic psychedelia. Lush vocals harmonizing and weaving around each other are the whipped cream on an absolute pop beaut that could fit on any Apples or Olivia Tremor Control record. Outstanding! “Count Five or Six,” a highlight of the Fantasma-era live A/V extravaganzas, is on the B-side, its turbo-garage robo-countoff providing a dirty JSBX-esque counterpoint to the soothing A while maintaining that layered vocal loveliness. Eliminating the need for this 7” (unless you happen to like the artwork), both songs appear on Fantasma, a record I just realized I’ve been meaning to buy for a DECADE now. Might have to wait a little longer on that, too, cuz for the next few whenevers all funds are going to be diverted to hard drive recovery and the purchase of a shiny new computing machine. Doggone.

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