This weekend I’m mostly listening to… Cornelius.

Cornelius, or Keigo Oyamada, is a Japanese musician who appropriated the name of one of the main characters (who happened to be an ape) in Planet of the Apes. I’m not sure whether that illuminates the music which is a fairly exhaustive crushing together of musical genres from shoe-gaze, hip hop, dance and pop.

I got hold of his 1997 album Fantasma a year or two later. It’s a remarkably eclectic mix which is held together only by a strong melodic thread that can somehow combine near-punk with electronica, soundtrack instrumentals and sampled sounds and snippets of music. Add to that the way in which it is wrapped up in a strongly and rightly unapologetic Japanese approach – it’s all sung in a strong Japanese accent, kudos to that man for standing his own cultural ground – and here is something that offers a unique insight into the collision of different but overlapping popular cultures.

God Only Knows manages to be both a characteristically fond tribute to the wilder shores explored by the Beach Boys and the Jesus and Mary Chain (with a sample from the chorus of their “Just Like Honey”). It’s great entertaining stuff which I suspect people will either love or hate.

Star Fruits Surf Rider

Free Fall

God Only Knows

PHOTOS copy