Bird Watching at Inner Forest

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Cornelius, "Bird Watching at Inner Forest" (download until 1/13/09), from "Point."

I don't know sometimes whether I should be pleased that I still make a new musical discovery (for myself) once or twice a year as I near 40, or whether I should be depressed that I only make one or two new musical discoveries a year these days when I made at least a dozen a year when I was in eighth and ninth grade. Regardless, I'll take what I can get.

So here's how I came across Cornelius. My wife had agreed to chaperone a dance at her school this past autumn and I agreed to clean myself up, put on my good suit, and show those people how to dress, as her date for the affair. The students wore all kinds of dress save the genuinely formal. One kid was wearing a sweatshirt with “BAPE” on it, and as he walked in and we greeted him and of course asked what his shirt meant. We're the older generation, so we don't know. “Bathing Ape,” he replied, and we as you would think assumed he was joking. I did the google on my phone to look it up, and sure enough, the kid wasn't pulling our leg. It's a Japanese clothing line.

My wife and I chuckled about how English words are sometimes used abroad without any regard—at least any obvious regard—for the words' meaning in English. We saw the same thing when we lived in Senegal. I read a bit on Wikipedia about the brand, and then read a line about how Cornelius had written a tune for a BAPE ad campaign or something like that.

I couldn't get over the name, Cornelius. No worse choice could be made in a name, I thought. I don't want to offend anyone actually named Cornelius—it must be hard. I had honestly thought that the last person to give that name to another was James Joyce to Corny Kelleher. Then the article I linked to about Cornelius noted that he took the name from “Planet of the Apes” which might explain the relationship to BAPE. In any event I'd forgotten about that film, because it was, was it not, a fundamentally forgettable film. But remembering the film just made the choice of the name all the worse.

I linked to a review this album, however, and I was intrigued by the mention of sampled field recordings of natural sounds. I found a video for the title track of the record on Youtube, and was done. My wife dug it too, and I bought the record. The whole thing's quite good and sui generis. The marketing campaign seems to have tried to link Cornelius to Beck, and some reviewers have followed suit. The comparison is ludicrous, however, because Beck works essentially through referencing various musical types whereas Cornelius really is a musical type unto himself.

For some reason, I keep thinking to myself that this music is melodic without a melody, somehow. I then rethink it, and note that that's obviously impossible. Last, I rehear the song and arrive back at the first, logically impossible position.