Cornelius Returning To Fillmore In May, Deerhoof Supports

Picture from the HAD Archive

We here at HAD are huge fans of Japanese audio wizard Cornelius. Between his devotion to surround sound, incredible experimental records, and riveting live show, he simply brings something completely unique to the world of music. The last time we saw him, he was playing at The Fillmore as part of his tour for Sensuous. Since then, he's released a surround mix of the record, and continued to tour the world.

Given by how wowed we were the last time he was in town, we were psyched to recently discover that he'll be returning to The Fillmore on May 12th. His show is a completely trippy, synchronized performance that will totally drop your jaw. We highly recommend it. What's more, local faves Deerhoof will be supporting - that's double the bang for your buck! In addition, the somewhat-small tour will be making stops all along the west coast. Dates are below, and tickets are on sale now.

mp3: Cornelius - Point Of View Point
mp3: Deerhoof - Offend Maggie

Cornelius/Deerhoof Spring 2009 Dates
May 8 Lunario Mexico City
May 9 Plaza de la Liberacion Guadalajara
May 12 Fillmore Auditorium San Francisco, California
May 13 Rio Theater Santa Cruz, California
May 14 Mayan Theater Los Angeles, California
May 16 The Glasshouse Pomona, California

Cornelius Loves Surround Sound (And So Do We)

We've made no secret of our love of all things surround here at HAD, so we were psyched to find another artist (much like The Flaming Lips) who seems to be continuing to embrace the format: Cornelius. It should probably come as no surprise that the Japanese electronic musician is a proponent of putting his music in the surround sound/video format: His recordings often make liberal use of stereophonic effect, and his live shows are an audio visual onslaught.

Cornelius' first 5.1 release came in 2003. Titles (appropriately) Five Point One, it was a companion video and 5.1 remix of the record Point. Now, five years later, Cornelius has done the same with his latest record Sensuous, and released Sensurround. We loved Five Point One, and (while we don't own it yet) we're guessing that Sensurround can only be a notch up. If you're a surround music enthusiast, these discs are must-own.

You can click through to the pitchfork.tv link below and check out a video of Sensurround (one week only). While it doesn't have the 5.1 audio (which is the highlight for us), it still manages to give you some idea of what you're getting into.

Video: Cornelius - Sensurround

Cornelius Videos Up On Youtube

Youtube user myelectricsheep has posted some videos of last Friday's Cornelius Group show at the Fillmore that should give you a better idea of what Sensuous Synchronized Show is all about. Here's the vid for "Gum", with more links below!

video: Cornelius Group @ The Fillmore - Intro
video: Cornelius Group @ The Fillmore - Drop
video: Cornelius Group @ The Fillmore - Another View Point
video: Cornelius Group @ The Fillmore - Tone Twilight Zone

First Show of The New Year Is....Cornelius!

On Friday night a the Fillmore, Cornelius (or rather, The Cornelius Group) presented their "Ultimate Sensuous Synchonized Show" - and it was a sight to behold! The show consisted of a long format video presentation that played behind the band and was extremely well synchronized with the music. The vibe was very similar to a Flaming Lips show in that it had the look and feel of a calculated performance, as opposed to a band just being on stage to deliver music.

The video is extremely hard to explain, and hopefully some of our pics will do it justice. It was a highly psychadelic series of images, many of which we were having difficulty figuring out how they were even created. Someone in the Cornelius camp spent just as much time (if not more) getting these videos going as they did on the music.

One of the big surprises for us was the big rock-band feel of the show. We here at H.A.D. had always sort of assumed (obviously incorrectly) that Cornelius was sort of a one man show, and that this would be a DJ-like set. It was really anything but the case: the band was a tight aggressive unit that managed to seamlessly pull of Cornelius' incredibly complex arrangements. The live band format was also welcome in that it gave the songs some new found life: despite adhering to the tracks' intricasies, there was quite a bit of room for experimentation. In particular, Cornelius' guitar playing really showed some shredding instinct that we had no idea was there in the first place!

All in all, this show was solid across the board: the video was spectacular, the band format gave new life to Cornelius' tunes, and the overall performance simply delivered a level of showmanship that's quite unusual in music today. If you have an opportunity to see this show, don't miss it!

Cornelius Tonight At The Fillmore

Japanese electronic musician Cornelius will be gracing the stage over at The Fillmore tonight, and by all accounts it should be a great show. One of 5 US dates on the "Ultimate Sensuous Synchronized Show" tour, it promises to be a crazy fusion of synchronized light and sound. We'll see you there!

mp3: Cornelius - Gum