Point

Point is the long-awaited full-length follow-up to Fantasma, and it does not disappoint. Cornelius--a.k.a. Japanese pop auteur and clothing designer Keigo Oyamada--thrilled the world with his '97 international debut, a breezy blend of electronica that melded the thick, soupy guitar feedback of My Bloody Valentine to the gorgeous harmonies of the Beach Boys, and fed it all through a peculiarly kitschy Japanese bubblegum pop filter. On Point, the crystal-clear "Smoke" weaves a tangle of jerky new wave guitar over clip-clopping electronic beats and the raw clatter of percussion, while the heavenly "Tone Twilight Zone" elegantly demonstrates that even the most ornate, maximal production can be imbued with calm. Perhaps the album's greatest success is the way that it presents ambient cliché--the gurgle of running water, the breaking of waves, the chirruping of crickets--as just another form of instrumentation. The precise rhythms and harmonies of this enchanting, psychedelic journey into stereophonic sound confirm Oyamada's studio mastery. No one on earth is making music quite like this. --Louis Pattison