Topic: "Magic Oneohtrix Point Never"

[The Mollusk]

Oneohtrix Point Never has announced new album Magic Oneohtrix Point Never, which will be out October 30 via Warp. The title is a play on mishearing the name of Boston’s Magic 106.7 radio station, and Daniel Lopatin fashioned the album as an homage to radio, specifically the "easy listening" and "new age" stations of the '70s and '80s, imagining a station moving through "dayparts" from morning to evening. Via the press release, the album "collages together archival recordings of various American FM stations’ 'format flips,' in which detourned DJ sign-offs collide with advertisements and self-help mantras to form darkly humorous reflections on American music culture."

D-Lopz has dropped the opening three tracks to whet the ol' appetite:

Cross Talk I
Auto & Allo
Long Road Home

It's not the most original of concepts (Songs for the Deaf fuckin' nailed it) but if anyone's got the potential to spin a fresh angle on it, it's 0PN. These tracks have a definite new-age vibe coupled with his well-honed signature neoclassical shimmers and continuing in the same abstract pop direction that he explored on the divisive (and somewhat disappointing) Age Of. I've given them a couple of listens and am really enjoying them.

Lopatin is without a doubt one of my favourite electronic artists and on the many occasions he's struck gold I find myself thinking "Fuck, this guy might actually be a genius". His ear for sound and his unconventional styles result in music that I find vividly evocative and moving. I don't listen to a lot of ambient but some of the tracks on Rifts are transcendent and otherworldly in a way not much other music is to me (hence why I will always listen to it on planes to ease my anxiety and take my mind somewhere else), and I consider R Plus Seven and Garden of Delete to be modern masterpieces.

So, I'm looking forward to this!

[jobotic]

Agree with everything you say about him but been really put off by seeing last year (I think, maybe the year before!) at the Roundhouse. It was shit. I don't want to listen to eighties ballads no matter what the level of irony, with proper singers and everything.

the worst thing was that there were glimpses in these little interludes he did of how brilliant it could have been, and the last ten minutes were breathtaking.

[shagatha crustie]

I love him - definitely the most cutting edge electronic musician of the last decade or so. Eccojams, Rifts, Memory Vague and the like are seminal, and Replica, R Plus 7 and Garden of Delete some of my favourite albums of the '10s. I just couldn't vibe with Age Of at all though, and honestly these preview tracks have left me a bit cold. He's getting a lot of fancy soundtrack work in from the Safdie brothers and stuff isn't he, so it feels like his attention is maybe focused elsewhere a bit.

[buttgammon]

Around the time he did Returnal and Replica, Lopatin was my favourite musician on the planet. I have mixed feelings about him these days (not helped by Age of which really left me cold), but this does sound promising based on these tracks.

[The Mollusk]

I still have time for Age Of, partly because I still think it's a decent (if inconsistent) album, but also because I admire the bold change of artistic direction. Plus the packaging for the CD is fucking gorgeous. It is his weakest album, though.

[Famous Mortimer]

Also love his stuff, also a little puzzled by "Age of Delete".

[The Mollusk]

That's two separate album titles compounded you mad bastard!

[BlodwynPig]

Games in far superior.

[The Mollusk]

You've had some spicy takes in this subforum over the years but this might just be the spiciest.

[spaghetamine]

Long Road Home has a bit of an Enya vibe to it, no? (not a bad thing)

[BlodwynPig]

You've had some spicy takes in this subforum over the years but this might just be the spiciest.

you don't like that LP/EP? are you mad...?

ALL SPICY TAKES MY OWN

[spaghetamine]

That Games EP is incredible, Strawberry Skies is a perfect song. I really wanted Channel Pressure to be a full album of that kind of vibe but it ended up being pretty underwhelming.

[the]

Every single OPN album I've heard has been underwhelming to me initially, before becoming fucking spellbinding across the timespan of repeated listening. So I'm just gonna shut the hell up.

I haven't caught up with Age Of.

[purlieu]

Age Of is a weird one because it's like he fastforwarded through his "critically unfashionable genre" timeline to something that's so current that it's hard to really separate from... well, other stuff that sounds like it. I think there's a lot of great stuff in there, but it's a touch too close to some really awful mainstream stuff, and his synth choices are maybe too similar to those on Garden of Delete.

I'm looking forward to this, anyway, the previews sound very nice.

[BlodwynPig]

That Games EP is incredible, Strawberry Skies is a perfect song. I really wanted Channel Pressure to be a full album of that kind of vibe but it ended up being pretty underwhelming.

Gateway into Nmesh and ultimately vapourware, by a varied and convoluted path. Artists like OPN and Laurel Halo drag you in with stuff like this and then do a few earnest nodders (which I don't dislike but barely get on repeat).

[The Mollusk]

you don't like that LP/EP? are you mad...?

ALL SPICY TAKES MY OWN

It's not that I don't like it - I think it's really good - but I massively disagree that it's "far superior", unless you were only comparing That We Can Play to these new 0PN tracks, which would be an easier criticism for me to swallow.

[Famous Mortimer]

That's two separate album titles compounded you mad bastard!

Dammit I missed the edit window to spare my blushes. I loved "Garden of Delete", I was probably thinking of making a second sentence about that.

Also, I love Nmesh too.

[purlieu]

I've known Nmesh for years and he's just about the loveliest bloke ever, which is always a bonus.

[BlodwynPig]

It's not that I don't like it - I think it's really good - but I massively disagree that it's "far superior", unless you were only comparing That We Can Play to these new 0PN tracks, which would be an easier criticism for me to swallow.

oh yes. His earlier works are sublime, just these snippets.

[BlodwynPig]

I've known Nmesh for years and he's just about the loveliest bloke ever, which is always a bonus.

Pass on my regards.

His 3 hour mixes are the greatest best pleasure.

https://www.discogs.com/Nmesh-Needle-Exchange-282/release/13611545



And this...THIS! is the album of the last decade for me

https://www.discogs.com/Nmesh-And-t-e-l-e-p-a-t-h-テレパシー能力者-ロストエデンへのパス/master/910160

sorry nags, should do an NMesh thread

[BlodwynPig]

This one at least has OPN on it, to keep it on topic

https://www.discogs.com/Nmesh-Psychic-Surgery-The-Complete-Terminal-Radio-Transmissions/release/5115548

I'm impressed by his varied tastes, including Ishq, Tuu and Dean de Benedictus (favourites from my first forays into electronica in the 90s, both pretty obscure - Ishq in Hillier's previous incarnation as Ishvara did a sublime album with Alien Mutation - Jake Stephenson, RIP).

[The Mollusk]

This is out today. Even as someone who saw more merit in Age Of than others, I gotta say my first impression of Magic Oneohtrix Point Never is one of disappointment.

HERE'S WHY!

Lopatin is undeniably a fabulous producer and I don't begrudge him for leaning more into the direction of pop deconstruction which began with Garden of Delete, especially since he's proven his chops very well concocting dark atmospheric pop for the likes of FKA twigs, ANOHNI and The Weeknd, but as a solo venture I don't find it nearly substantial enough to fill an album, which is especially disappointing considering this record feels retrospective to a degree and is also a "radio dial twiddling" collage effort, both of which you'd think would work very much in his favour.

Where his standout work R Plus Seven set about weaving together sounds, textures, rhythms and soundscapes together in a way which one would assume to be vexatious but actually succeeds magnificently, Magic Oneohtrix Point Never attempts the same but compromises that skill in splicing them with more straightforward (albeit still noisy and weird) pop compositions which can at times be drab or even downright boring. Two or three of the tracks have big crescendo moments in the final minute or so which had me grasping at the sky like "Aaaargh where was this bombast and wonderment for the rest of the song?!" and honestly I thought the Cross Talk interlude tracks were among the best bits and I wish there was more expansion on those into the rest of the music.

I'll give this more time to grow on me but I did give it a properly considered first listen on a 3-mile walk earlier (my favourite way to consume music in the last several months) and it really didn't have much of an impact on me.

[buttgammon]

This is out today. Even as someone who saw more merit in Age Of than others, I gotta say my first impression of Magic Oneohtrix Point Never is one of disappointment.

HERE'S WHY!

Lopatin is undeniably a fabulous producer and I don't begrudge him for leaning more into the direction of pop deconstruction which began with Garden of Delete, especially since he's proven his chops very well concocting dark atmospheric pop for the likes of FKA twigs, ANOHNI and The Weeknd, but as a solo venture I don't find it nearly substantial enough to fill an album, which is especially disappointing considering this record feels retrospective to a degree and is also a "radio dial twiddling" collage effort, both of which you'd think would work very much in his favour.

Where his standout work R Plus Seven set about weaving together sounds, textures, rhythms and soundscapes together in a way which one would assume to be vexatious but actually succeeds magnificently, Magic Oneohtrix Point Never attempts the same but compromises that skill in splicing them with more straightforward (albeit still noisy and weird) pop compositions which can at times be drab or even downright boring. Two or three of the tracks have big crescendo moments in the final minute or so which had me grasping at the sky like "Aaaargh where was this bombast and wonderment for the rest of the song?!" and honestly I thought the Cross Talk interlude tracks were among the best bits and I wish there was more expansion on those into the rest of the music.

I'll give this more time to grow on me but I did give it a properly considered first listen on a 3-mile walk earlier (my favourite way to consume music in the last several months) and it really didn't have much of an impact on me.

Very good summary here. It's like R Plus Seven but much less interesting. It's a shame, because I had high hopes for this - the tracks I heard previously were enjoyable on their own, but the album as a whole is just a bit lifeless.

[BlodwynPig]

Given the hatred of Age of and the above comments I have not even bothered to listen to it, until now...I enjoy it, it has sounds that I will never tire of listening to, and some I hate, but overall the variation keeps it interesting. Probably worth a couple of repeat plays, but don't have time.

[Chedney Honks]

There will always be nuggets trickling down the stream but the gold rush is over.

[BlodwynPig]

There will always be nuggets trickling down the stream but the gold rush is over.

Plenty of gold in them there hills.

https://mypetflamingo.bandcamp.com/track/donor-lens-realty-reality

https://mypetflamingo.bandcamp.com/track/vanitas-sell-dreams

https://sunsetgrid.bandcamp.com/track/high-tides

[Chedney Honks]

Some good stuff there, I like em. A few names for me to follow up, too.

I also rather enjoy Luxury Elite, this is my favourite:

https://crashsymbols.bandcamp.com/album/world-class

The opening track S.N.A.K. is great.

[imitationleather]

Ah I love that Luxury Elite album. A proper classic of the genre.

[Famous Mortimer]

On a related thing, Blank Banshee have just released a new album, and it's pretty decent, to my uneducated ears at least. My speakers suddenly sound a lot more expensive when listening to it, it's got a lot of lovely sounds in it.

https://blankbanshee.bandcamp.com/album/gaia

[BlodwynPig]

On a related thing, Blank Banshee have just released a new album, and it's pretty decent, to my uneducated ears at least. My speakers suddenly sound a lot more expensive when listening to it, it's got a lot of lovely sounds in it.

https://blankbanshee.bandcamp.com/album/gaia

The Prodigy / Keane of vaporwave. Just cannot get on with them.

However, this is the pinnacle release of the last year

https://digitalsex.bandcamp.com/album/night-mode

Chedney...get it right! Baseball cap, sneakers and tears in the kiddie park at night.