oneohtrix point never

the vaporwave aesthetic has a broad appeal, i don't think you can pin it to one particular demographic (besides nerds)

True but it’s one of the first genres to be born exclusively online, the “scene” is all virtual so it makes sense that some of that online ugliness would manifest itself

There’s a very ONLINE contingent from what I gather (like /mu/ and Fantano bois) that have glommed onto stuff like vapor wave, OPN, Death Grips and idk what else these days

This pretty much describes my child.

Are they on-board with the edge-lord alt-right elements of those communities? If so, my sympathies. Wouldn’t begin to know how to navigate that as a parent.

Definitely not alt-right

Are Death Grips really popular with the alt-right? That seems odd.

Some extremely odd and offtm posts in this thread, which is sad because new music from OPN should invite anything but! If edgy/disaffected kids on /mu/ and similar spaces online liking your music is grounds for being labelled a fascist or techno-capitalist nihilist, then 99% of the musicians enjoyed and discussed on this board are guilty of the same crime. I don't necessarilyyyy disagree with the idea of "Vaporware as part of a murkier, larger artistic trend/scene with some potentially troubling connotations and adherents that may tend to lean alt-rightish"... but trying to frame Lopatin as some emblematic nexus of that already vague and hard to explicitly define online cultural "phenomenon" or "scene", let alone putting him personally anywhere even remotely adjacent to any alt-right/nihilistic/problematic ideological ballpark himself? All based off of (as far as I know and can see from posts in this thread) nothing but his music and perceived stylistic changes in it over the years??? That's a disingenuous if not unfair/unhealthy characterization IMO.

"Relic of the 2010s" is also maybe the silliest phrase I've ever read on here, and it seems obtusely.... just not even remotely true of the type music he makes? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I think a huge part of the appeal of OPN is that it straight up doesn't quite sound like anything else released around the same time period, Electronic/"Indie"/P4K approved/Warp/Ambient music or otherwise. At least to me personally.

I mean, he is dating one of the Red Scare girls. Make of that what you will. Anyway, I wouldn't worry. I'm sure his politics align with yours. Everything is going to be fine.

i assume you're not posting eccojams stuff in response to my comment where said i wasn't talking about eccojams?

https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/39904/1/oneohtrix-point-never-age-of-interview

mentions ccru stuff and anhoni getting fed up with his nihilism

http://straylandings.co.uk/articles/de-harmonia-mundi-and-the-end-of-the-world-oneohtrix-point-never-barbican

this gets at what i am trying to say - "Lopatin’s complacent visions of the future are frequently paired with a belief that through an exaggeration of these visions, image and sound become transgressive, and therefore radical. His collaborative track with Jon Rafman, Beta Male (which premiered on 4chan) is an excellent example of this thinking: a worst hits of the Internet played out in flashing strobe images of furry pornography and grime-filled keyboards. If the intention was to hold up a mirror to male online culture, then instead of looking away in horror, the boys looked on in perverse fascination, indulging in their own self-debasement."

anyways sorta weird that doing anything other than regurgitating an artist's marketing gets you branded as a canceler these days, its a weird inverted death of the author sorta situation we are in post social media or something idk

haven't really enjoyed him since replicas (r+7 kinda dry for my taste, returnal and zones w/o ppl are my favorites)

based on a tiny snippet this one looks like an exciting return to form

does anyone want this numbered lithograph i got? i have #4/150. you can have for free if you pay for shipping.

https://share-good-vibes.com/2015/11/30/oneohtrix-point-never-sent-us-a-super-rare-numbered-poster-to-celebrate-the-release-of-his-new-album-garden-of-delete-warp-records-weve-decided-to-give-it-to-a-dedicated-fan-so-were-holding-a/

opn dating dasha is the funniest thing ever

xp that frankel piece is p incredible, thanks UC

stoked for the new record

...don't give up now
we're PROUD of who you ARE
don't give up
you know it's NEVER been easy...

;_;

The Frankel piece was definitely good reading and shines more light on where you are coming from, UC. Thanks for the link.

One of the interesting parts for me was in the critique of retro-futurism:

The Barbican’s asymmetrical screens displaying the warped bodies of some- could be 80’s children’s TV show, make me want for an end to retrofuturism. As Benjamin Noys writes: “What we don’t manufacture any more is the future. Instead we dwell in a generalized nostalgia…”

This is a fantastic quote, one that resonated with much frustration I've seen lately, but it makes sense. Right now we live in a world that is very corporate and deliberate in how media and entertainment are manufactured at all levels with algorithms and committees largely driving consumption choices. Much of what we see focuses on our past, or fetishizes the nostalgia of it. Vaporwave is obvious here, as is Hollywood's focus on the MCU and reboots, or television series focused on historical fiction. We live in times that are so out of whack with the norms and creative bursts and unpredictability of contemporary trends that we've slipped into subtly into this state of manufactured reality and media with a de-emphasis on realistic, constructive near future world building. I suppose part of that is due to how ugly, unpredictable and unprecedented of a world we are currently in and how almost comical and unrealistic an optimistic future sounds to us right now. Normalcy is now an escape. And the only place that is "normal" to us now is the past. In this sense, the visuals and sounds of OPN's new single, which are leveraging retro-futurism for the first time since R+7, and blatantly so, seem a bit short on originality of vision, despite really enjoying what I've heard so far. But I can certainly see the appeal in these times. An OPN fan service album? Gotta eat I guess.

I was never much into the surface aesthetics of Age Of musically, so I didn't delve deeper into the narrative and philosophical or political intent, from Lopatin's perspective or otherwise. Now, I see a ton of parallels in terms of scope, vision and attempted execution with Holly Herndon's recent work on PROTO. A ton of crossover of themes, but the live performance of her work seems far more visceral and unnerving in its integration of religious ritual and AI while simultaneously engaging involved audience interaction. The cult-like feel and unease I felt experiencing Herndon's techno-dystopia wrapped in religious ritual was unsettling but original and very exciting from an artistic standpoint.

I also find the philosophies and stark, cold visions of the future that Herndon and other artists like Grimes proffer to be an interesting and entertaining expression rather than a deeper endorsement. In various interviews from each artist, they've said they don't necessarily want this future, but find it inevitable or likely, and thus feel a need to express some form of acceptance or vision around it in their art. I am also skeptical of the Schroedinger's Cat idea that by expressing this view as a form of art you are encouraging that view to come into reality, much like reading science fiction, but perhaps this is coming from a position of naivete, privilege and conscious intellectual escapism whilst taking in the work as art and I'm in the minority. I'm not looking at Age Of and PROTO as radical endorsements encouraging a particular path for the future, but more of a "this is likely where we're going, what can we do with this as a canvas for creativity" situation. In that context, it's nothing more than what science fiction has always been to me, and it should be lauded even if the vision it creates is nightmarish and achievable, a la 1984. And while yes, Orwell wrote 1984 as a warning, other works of Science Fiction could be seen as warnings even if it wasn't the author's intent.

Not all art needs to be urgently revolutionary. Though as our times get more desperate, I can see people being overly sensitive to art that isn't "trying to do its part to help" and this is the vibe I'm feeling in this thread.

Track list, credits and whatnot

Much love and admiration for everyone that made this record possible under crazy circumstances— this record means the world to me. MAGIC ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER comes out this Friday on @WarpRecords , credits below 🩺🖤 pic.twitter.com/4B3ClJDrml

— opn (@0PN) October 26, 2020

Robert Beatty doing the art. Yesss

given this a quick listen and... i quite like it? i mean, it's not too different from the stuff he did with Replica in terms of concept, but for an artist i've often struggled with, i could imagine myself getting into it more than much else he's done.

lol'd at this week's tone glow where the reviewer roundtable smugly shit all over this record. none more disdainful than an experimental artist presented with a more successful experimental artist.

psyched to listen to this

lol one of the main takeaways from skimming that roundtable is that people are really mad that he signs now

Generally if a piece of music writing has the word "I" in the first sentence, I usually stop reading, real talk. Save it for your dream journal.

― wooden shjipley (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, August 11, 2009 11:21 AM (eleven years ago)

this whiney post is often on my mind whenever I read tone glow.

please rephrase

oops, just caught my type. people are really mad that he SINGS now

typo, dammit

Phil Sherburne has again managed the feat of making me want to hear an album I hadn't previously been terribly interested in checking out (I'm one of those "OPN-peaked-with-Replica" people)

People were mad that he sang on the last one too. Honestly, I still don't care for it either, though the singing on certain Age Of tracks grew on me (The Station was really good). I still think the best tracks on that one happened not to have it(Toys 2, Last Known Image of a Song) and the same goes for this one, Auto & Allo and Wave Idea being my favorites. Within the album, the singing feels more well-realized, as I guess there's a conceptual reason for it. The collaboration, however, really doesn't do it for me. Whenever some artist whom he's friends with shows up, it feels like a reminder of the world outside the pretty compelling one he's created for this album, especially that rap verse on The Whether Channel.

i think the thing that has been missing me on the last couple albums is a sustained musical mood (that i like listening to). it seems like as his projects get more conceptual, they lose the musical coherence. at least for me.

it could just be that i listen to music as i work, and these latter-day OPN albums aren't good work music. i have to relegate it to the evenings, and by then i am exhausted and not so amenable to figuring out what he's trying to do.

yeah i prefer him in the alone becoming one with the computer in a cloud of weed smoke mode rather than 'my friend the weeknd' mode (when im not, you know, wrestling with my aversion to cultural thielianism)

but idk why people are saying this sounds like replica and is not a departure? its all songs with programmed drums! this is totally different! what is even discourse anymore

The programmed drums are a bit jarring to me

I remember him saying in an interview that he doesn't like using drums (especially snares).

I can see why.

Listened to it. I like it. Definitely some parts that also lack drums too which really fill out the record in a good way. I appreciated it more than Age Of on first pass for sure and looking forward to returning to it...

but it sounds like an identity crisis! Kinda feel he should start up another alias for his more vocal and pop oriented output. OPN's vibe to me is inherently atmospheric and to a certain extent instrumental and "arms length" experimental. The use of drums and traditional percussion to me feels very off putting and strips away more of what I felt was unique about his work. Feels like now that he's got fame, he just wants to "fit in" rather than be his weird self.

I like this. His songwriting's gotten better, but it still doesn't sound like anyone else. I hear a throughline in this, but I can understand not enjoying it as background music.

And I assume I'll get used to the snare sound on Long Road Home

On Fallon this Friday o_O

i'd assume the weeknd and/or polachek might join as well?

Seems like a strange choice, as either of those two would probably end up overshadowing him. Don't know what else he could do for the late night crowd, though.

i don't really know the popular perception of OPN - i'm not sure his recent work has broken through to the mainstream. i figured they'd throw a couple famous by him on stage just as a signal that hey, OPN can be one of these famous people too!

i would be an extremely bad artist manager. "OPN! I hooked you up on your first big tv gig! sinead o'connor is going to be handling the singing, and in the background...you guessed it, cirque du soleil!"

I'm expecting that he's gonna do No Nightmares. Would be pleasantly surprised with Nil Admirari though...

"I Don't Love Me Anymore" is an anthem for the vaporwave true believers.

oh cool so opn is a rock band now

That Fallon clip is hilarious

I have completely ignored any writing about OPN since I wrote a review of a single of his in his early years, and have simply listened to the records. To be frank, I hardly ever listen to them as full records, mostly they come up on shuffle or I play random tracks when I feel like it. I think this is a fine way of listening to him, tbh.

As far as sound goes, I don't really see much of the Dark Enlightenment connection that is being made up thread.... certainly seems more Fisher or Negarastani than Land.

But what his music sounds like is vastly different than what he advocates and acts on, it seems.

I like the new one!

Also: art has no duty to "do its part" in struggle, because that is when ideology suffocates art. To advocate for the former is to demand that art perform ideology rather than allow new forms of thought and feeling to blossom, and is actually the more fascist of the arguments I've seen here, tbqf.

im like a skrillex fan listening to burial in 2013 when i put this on (kept waiting for the beat to drop)

2 min into track 3, drums just dropped. nice B-)

this is dope. I’d read it was a continuation of age of, but so far it doesnt have any of the cat walking on clavichord stuff. or maybe that was grade of delete

‘i don’t love me anymore’ sounds like c 2007 weird punk

is that eli keszler on jimmy fallon? that rules

xpost to table

i never said he had to perform any struggle, that's your projection. i just connected his art to a moribund ideology, and then mused that perhaps his played-out ideology is why his music sounds played out. sorry for oppressing opns right to free speech or whatever

opn’s ideology is just garden variety Brooklyn dirtbag left (he’s even dating a podcaster) that’s obvious to everyone except you who somehow read thru the tea leaves of his aesthetics and determined he’s a Nick Land style accelerationist fascist. i personally find DBL to be a bit if a played out ideology but like half of ilx are all-in on it; it’s hardly fascist

it was an offtm post, nbd, no need to dig yourself deeper in this one