The Japanese invasion of the airwaves was inevitable. After years of assimilating American pop culture into their own, it was only a matter of time before the by-products of this East/West cross-pollination began washing up on our shores. American hardcore came brawling back to us in the form of the riotous Boredoms. The Stooges and MC5 were immortalized by the gutter-garage of Guitar Wolf. And Burt Bacharach was ordained High Priest of Hip in the eyes of Pizzicato Five. Now the Beach Boys, the Wonderful World of Disney, the Partridge Family and indie rock have all been forged into a new musical machine driven by the deft hands of Japan's Keigo Oyamada, a.k.a. Cornelius.

"'Why now?'" Oyamada repeats, taking a long pause to assess the turning of the tables that has resulted in an increasing American interest in Japanese up-and-coming bands like Buffalo Daughter, Takaka Minekawa and Cornelius. "The environment is just right right now. All of these bands have listened to these Western influences ... but there's never really been a foundation to export music from Japan before. Now that this situation has caught up to the market, there were already bands waiting for this [American interest] to happen."

Oyamada, a pop idol in his homeland for years, will tour the U.S. later this summer to support his latest genre-hopping tribute, Fantasma. Since its release in Japan last fall, the CD has already gone multi-platinum [more than 500,000 copies], due no doubt to Cornelius' contagious pop energy, but also the multimedia mind blow of a tour that sold out every venue it played. Karate-kicking ape-men, a video sampler and 3-D lighting effects were all part of Oyamada's sound and vision. Cornelius' American show will be scaled down comparatively, but far from sedate. Oyamada will be performing with a conventional four-piece band plus a new "member" -- a video deck with pre-recorded audio tracks that the band will play along with.

Oyamada's reputation for soundwave wizardry and manipulation had many people not knowing what to expect when he performed last month at the South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas. Headlining the Matador Records showcase, Oyamada proved how seriously he takes his hands-on approach, wowing the masses with a perfect note-for-note rendition of "Love Me Tender," coaxing the King's classic out of a theremin.

And speaking of kings, it was another member of American music royalty, the self-proclaimed "King Of Pop," that inspired Oyamada before he entered the studio to write and record Fantasma. Oyamada had gone to see Michael Jackson in Tokyo, and that same week he saw Eye Yamatsuka of the Boredoms with his side project, Hanatarashi. The contrast between Jackson's choreographed show and the spontaneous noise-fest of Eye's performance was, as Oyamada puts it, "a shock." The differences influenced Oyamada's exploration of sound texture with Fantasma, and gave the project direction.

"It has a start and a finish. At the beginning, you put your headphones on and you enter your CD player through the headphone hole. From there it's an experience [of] different times, different speeds, different places, different ups, different downs. There's a dreamy middle part, but there's definitely a finish where you come out of that, where it stops, and then you're back to reality," Oyamada says about his latest musical journey. "My impression is that it's very orange."

Considering this musical melange of color and texture, the question must be raised: What, if anything, does all of this have to do with Cornelius, Roddy McDowell's character in the Planet of The Apes movies?

"I watched the Planet of The Apes series on TV, and I started liking the character of Cornelius; he was kind of a different kind of ape. Cornelius is actually what I consider to be the band name, even though we're not necessarily a traditional band," Oyamada adds on a clarifying note. "Anyway, we were in Germany recently doing press and this German guy came up with a pretty good statement that we've been using as our answer. Basically, he pointed out that the movie is interesting in the sense that it's futuristic but it takes reference points from the past.... The relationship between that movie and the way Cornelius' music has turned out now all fit into place."

Since dates have yet to be confirmed for Cornelius' American tour, Fantasma will have to serve as the next best thing. And for those who truly want the complete experience, Oyamada's own label, Trattoria -- which has released or re-issued works by artists as disparate as Bill Wyman, Apples In Stereo, and Hanatarashi -- recently made the Planet of The Apes soundtracks available. No doubt, like Cornelius, they are a must-have for every pop primate worth their banana.

STEVE GDULA