Cornelius

Sensuous, the new full-length album from Cornelius, detonates on impact with the listener's consciousness. It's a bold and nearly infinite record, a twisting Möbius strip weaving simulation into reality and back again.

It is, in a word, genius.

Arriving stateside through Los Angeles-based Everloving Records, Sensuous resists all traditional modes of classification. Yet Cornelius (aka Keigo Oyamada) has always marched to the beat of a different drum machine, even in his wildly eclectic habitat of Tokyo, Japan. Since exploding onto the scene in 1997 with Fantasma, his cut-and-paste opus, Cornelius has dazed and amused fans worldwide with his freeform pop aesthetic and playful sense of humor. On Point, his 2001 follow-up, he stripped away much of Fantasma's sonic embroidery, spotlighting edgier rhythms and ambient textures within a pastoral, South American setting.

With Sensuous, Cornelius further explores the dazzling atmospherics he developed on Point. It's a disciplined sound that's also wildly experimental, bursting with electronic pulsewaves, wood-grain acoustics, minimalist interludes and raw guitar freakouts. Released as an enhanced CD, it features a video for "Fit Song" and an interactive widget of panoramic Tokyo. (Everloving Records will also release the Sensuous DVD this fall with music videos for all 12 songs, plus more special features.) Sure, you could dance to it, but you could also throw on the headphones, sit back in your Eames chair and get whisked away to Keigo's multidimensional planet of sound.