When I reviewed Takako Minekawa's last full- length Cloudy Cloud Calculator, I lazily referred to her "female Cornelius." Seeing how I was under a tight deadline at the time, this comparison adequately conveyed to the Pitchfork audience that Minekawa was all about classic pop, and that she had the multi- instrumental and arrangement chops to realize her syrupy- sweet musical dreams. Imagine my surprise when I read in Giant Robot that Minekawa is not only going steady with Cornelius, but that she would be writing and recording with him for her next record. Man, I love being right, especially when I don't have to work hard to do it.

And so it seems, with her new beau at her side, the already talented Minekawa can't be stopped. This record easily surpasses everything else she's done, with newfound production sophistication and better songs to boot. Gone are those grating moments of excessive twee; instead, our ears are treated to extended passages of warm musical bliss, where modern technology is gracefully deployed in the service of the pop song.

See, this is where Minekawa and her Japanese ilk have a real leg up on the American indie pop crowd: Elephant 6'ers know a thing or two about melody, but their deep block on all post- Kraftwerk musical developments continues to disappoint. Those neo- hippies can be as narrow- minded as your average beer- swilling mullethead: "Where are the fucking guitars?" is always the dismal refrain. Artists like Minekawa and Cornelius realize that a drum machine, when used correctly, has more soul than Ringo Starr and Charlie Watts combined. It's the ideas that matter, not the alleged "purity" of the delivery. And Takako Minekawa has musical ideas to burn.

The fuel on Fun9 (pronounced "funk," mysteriously) is provided by a breadth of influences that somehow blend into a singular sound. The opener, "Gently Waves," showcases Minekawa's dreamy voice, multi- tracked into a five- part Wilsonian symphony. "Plash" (one of the four Cornelius collaborations) effectively combines a Brazilian acoustic guitar shuffle with choppy beats. And "Fantastic Voyage" is one of three tracks featuring the sampling artistry of DJ Me DJ You, featuring a great vocal riff shamelessly lifted from Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side."

Though all the melodies on Fun9 are strong, a few songs prominently feature a more complex electronic ambiance. "Flash" (also featuring contributions from Cornelius) shows that Minekawa listened carefully to Oval's deconstruction of "International Velvet" on her remix album: the distorted, distant sound of her vocal transmission undercuts the loping Hawaiian feel of the background music to sublime effect. And "Fancy Work Funk" features a trance- inducing Moog pattern that would do the German electronic crowd proud. With or without her main squeeze, Minekawa has got vision.

-Mark Richard-San