oneohtrix point never

We need to superimpose an alternative to capitalism that has more speculation and allows every person, being, thing, or idea to have a monetary value that can be traded for profit or endless desperate selfish losses

So OPN was a last minute replacement at the Portola Festival in SF (M.I.A. canceled), and it was indeed the dream setlist above give or take, leaps and bounds better than his past live shows I've seen, just pinnacle shit from him and all over his career sound pallet and mixed to perfection. He pulled out a bow and riffed pure distorted face melting chaos in between various tracks I did and did not recognize. Everything twisted and turned unexpectedly, yet organically and the visuals were a mix of distended cartoons, AI generated images, and smoky textural abstractions.

Probably one of the better sets I've seen in years by any artist. Hope he tours in earnest because this deserves to be seen and heard by many.

Oneohtrix Point Never: Surprisingly, given the retro undercurrents of his early work, Daniel Lopatin has never really looked back on his own music; he tends to keep moving forward, and in recent years, his zigzags have become more pronounced. But at Sónar he took the unusual step of presenting a live show of Rifts-era material, essentially reverse-engineering it in order to recreate it live. The biggest surprise was how massive it sounded; at its peak, it was straight-up dance music, driven by a powerful sense of rhythm, and the crowded Sónar Hall responded in kind, in full-on rave fashion.

Philip Sherburne on 0pn's Sonar set

Would travel to see this guy

Would love to hear a recording of that set.

His Big Ears set was incredible but gave me severe anxiety. I noticed some older material in his set including "Betrayed in the Octagon"

I hope he plays more shows in that vein, would love to see it. I admire him for constantly trying new things, but nothing he's done since has topped the Rifts/Returnal era for me. Probably my favorite synthesizer music ever.

show mentioned above just came through sydney - far out, just amazing - i saw him sometime between replica and r+7 and it was pretty flat, this was the OPN live experience that i never thought i would get - and if i feel 5% guilty for having my fan desires serviced in this way, i can live with that - I don’t really know the track names but tonnes of rifts-era materical reworked, (i think it was) physical memory was unbelievably beautiful

I'm excited for his visit to Austin in a few months

New album coming in September

Again pic.twitter.com/idNqb8VYqA

— oneohtrix point never (@0PN) August 23, 2023

stoked

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aArXuUaIWWo

more liek oneohstrings point heaven

interesting

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/02/the-emotionally-haunted-electronic-music-of-oneohtrix-point-never

The album features contributions from Jim O’Rourke and Lee Ranaldo

!!

fuuuuuck yes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcCWAqoiSXI

somehow did not know about this until just this moment

This and Laurel Halo's new one are excellent.

I've had this on in the background all day. It's quite good. I like the jazz fusion touches.

i'm liking this more than anything he's done in a very long time

Yeah. Had it playing in the background while doing stuff cuz I Am Behind On Things, eventually realized I had to sit down and listen properly.

an unexpected lovesliescrushing collab

some of this sounds like he's been listening to John Frusciante's To Record Only Water for Ten Days

finding this kind of maddening tbh

he's kind of a total wanker these days?

did you press the button with the triangle on it, or the button with the square on it?

he's kind of a total wanker these days?

Stylistically? I mean this album is right in his wheelhouse, so I guess he's been a bit of a wanker since day 1.

Loving this btw - finally got to play this through and it's easily his best since Garden of Delete for me. This is really good stuff and has sonic elements of a lot of his recent work, but structured in a way that reminds me a lot of R+7 and GoD, which is probably my favorite era of his. Love the percussive elements on this too - lots of acoustic drums and sounds, which feels like a new element along with the strings.

Memories of Music is like him doing a Campfire Headphase turn or something. I love it!

Do not care for this new one tbh. Kinda boring.

i fucking love this record, especially right around “nightmare paint” and “memories of music”

I love Again. Obviously there's a lot going on to fully process after a few listens, but every few minutes it throws out something that hits me right in the feels.

I also basically love everything he's done. It feels like there's a critical consensus building that he's gone off the boil? I think Age Of was an off-ramp for a lot of people, whereas for me it was the moment he went from being an artist I really like to an artist I adore.

hadnt kept up with his stuff for a while but liking this one

Age Of was a huge disappointment after Garden of Delete, and to this day is the only OPN album I haven't bought. Babylon is just truly, truly awful; the only song I really liked was Black Snow.

It's a head scratcher to me, because Love in the Age of Lexapro from later that year is sublime; the title track is among his greatest works imo.

I think Magic OPN got pretty good reviews, and Lopatin is still very much in demand as a producer, so I'm not sure if there really is a critical drop-off? One dud album so far is a pretty good run imo.

Magic was awful, I love Age Of and “Babylon” is a banger

yea I like Magic so it's really only Age Of I don't connect with. dunno if I find it bad just really unmemorable

those two albums maybe gave off the impression that he was leaning more into his weird pop instincts which I think throws a lot of what was so interesting about him by the wayside. also I really don't like hearing him sing.

still some interesting stuff there, just glad his sound is ever evolving

...“Babylon” is a banger

I agree w/ this but only the remake with Alex G.

I don't really see OPN as a 'banger' artist, aside from maybe Sticky Drama.

Babylon is so far from a banger. The melody is syrupy, the vocals are awful and the production is a hot mess. I think it's the only OPN song I actively dislike.

Magic was quite literally a snooze

Haven’t been that disappointed in a record in years

I don't hate Magic, but definitely prefer both the new one and Age Of. Never really warmed up to GoD. I agree with the folks who are hearing echoes of R+7 on Again. He seems to be favoring samples over synths more on this new one than anything he's done since R+7.

also just ftr, The Ghost Club, i’m using banger in the sense of “great song,” the way my zoomer students do

I was rewatching The Viewing, the Panos Cosmatos-directed episode from Guillermo del Toro’s anthology series, and realized Lopatin did the music for it

Thanks for the clarification table. I do not understand a lot of Zoomer culture, mainly because I can't get past the fashion. And TikToks are way too frenetic for me to keep up with.

Surprised Magic is getting so much, uh, indifference? I thought the songs were much stronger than Age Of and the synths sounded fantastic.

The new one is slightly weaker from a trad songwriting perspective, but definitely a lot more adventurous when it comes to sound design and offbeat structures. Can def see the R+7 connection, particularly in those synth organ arpeggios on A Barely Lit Path. The AI snippets are a blast.

I understand TikToks but I don’t participate at all— mostly absorb them through Instagram accounts tbh

Zoomer fashion just seems like any generational thing of remixing older styles and trends, but I get how the particular eras that Zoomers are mining can feel a little dopey

Fun fact: these are the promo videos he selected for an overnight music program here on the weekend. (I eventually had to go to bed, but presumably the 50-odd selections up to Weyes Bloods were his.) He was legitimately quite entertaining outlining the merits of Edie Brickell or whatever lol.

https://www.abc.net.au/rage/playlist/saturday-night-7-october-2023-on-abc-tv-/102944674

i fucking love this record, especially right around “nightmare paint” and “memories of music”

otm, this is the stretch where I went from, "I kinda like this one" to, "I really love this album"

Surprised Magic is getting so much, uh, indifference? I thought the songs were much stronger than Age Of and the synths sounded fantastic.

I was pretty enthusiastic about it at first too but the more I relisten the more I realize that most of the stuff I like about it is in the first half. after that I think there are a lot of real ugly stretches, feels like inventing music in your head while you're trying to sleep but it's mostly just obnoxious

still like it better than Age Of which I still barely remember a thing about

I mean yeah, that's a fair criticism.

You're lucky you can barely remember Age Of. The worst parts are permanently etched in my brain. I think I had such high hopes after GoD that I kept relistening, trying not to believe OPN could have got this bad.

Anyway I've spent a lot of time with the new one now and I think it nears his post-Replica creative peaks. Not as engaging or fully formed as R+7 or GoD but that's kinda the point. It's a real grab bag of '90s alt rock, prog, AI uncanniness, and modern classical all smooshed together in inimitable OPN style. Which is either really great or really grating, depending on your mood.

I have a lot of respect for artists like him who try to do something different every time out. but with a guy like him whose work is so conceptual at times I feel like it's inevitable that sometimes he just can't capture what's in his head.

giving the new one a try now. so far I can say the shit he pulls on the title track is pretty cruel for anyone who bought the vinyl :)

oh yeah this is really good. I was a little worried that the good reviews were maybe a function of people not liking the last two much but this one hits a lot of the right buttons. maybe because it's so proggy. also the sounds are so much crisper than they were on the last two - a lot of it has the same lush detuned touch as R + 7. I read a comment somewhere that if R + 7 is like its own little mysterious structure, this is the world that structure is housed in. I can get that because I think this is the 'biggest' album he's done by some amount.

also agree with bamboohouses in how every few minutes there's something really special. there are a lot of very cool moments and hard left turns that I think go beyond what I'd ever expect to hear on an OPN album - like the ending of "On an Axis". and a lot of it is anchored by that familiar Juno sound too. was kinda worried that the length might be a bit much but I think the album gets stronger as it goes. idk I can get why people might think it's boring but I'm fascinated by it