Oneohtrix Point Never
R Plus Seven
Warp Records Limited / Playground

'Music that gently triggers a series of images and feelings, none of which you can name and all of which seem entirely common' (The New Yorker)

Behind the moniker Oneohtrix Point Never, we find Daniel Lopatin; an acclaimed electronic experimentalist composer and musician. The Brooklyn-based Lopatin is a first-generation American, being the son of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. To throw in some more facts and trivia: Lopatin, along with buddy/composer colleague Joel Ford, also runs the record label Software Recording Co. (which is a subsidiary of Mexican Summer and Kemado Records). Software has released recordings by (in addition to his OPN recordings) genre-hopper Airbird (a.k.a. Joel Ford - also part of the duo Ford & Lopatin), noise artist Pete Swanson, the genre bouncing Slava (or Slava Balasanov), ambient/glitch artist Tim Hecker (collaboration with Lopatin), the meditative/contemplative Megafortress (a.k.a. Bill Gillim), electronic noise explorer Carlos Giffoni (who also has collaborated with Jim O'Rourke and Merzbow), et.al. Lopatin also wrote the score for Sofia Coppola's movie The Bling Ring together with Brian Reitzell. OPN has built live soundscapes at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA, NYC), he has been collaborating with Antony Hegarty, and he has performed at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival curated by Animal Collective.

Lopatin's music has been described as "gentle eddies of sound", and "like a cracked mirror refracting the sounds of the past". True words, but he is also good at balancing playful, noisy experiments with somewhat more accessible melodies. OPN's music glides, cracks, snaps, teases, crackles, glitch and tickles. R Plus 7 is indeed rich and colourful when it comes to the sound and effects used Throughout the album. By listening via earphones, you will be exposed full frontal - or; straight to the frontal lobe. Sometimes OPN sounds like the more experimental side of Cornelius (JP). Other times it is more like Aphex Twin light. Some parts (just a few) sound like a More or less up-speed and/or twisted version of, say Tangerine Dream or other electronic Germans. Some parts sound quite robot-like with this digital 'feel', other parts are of the more human, analogue kind. Lopatin is a creative soul, exploring all sounds and audible emotions around. R Plus Seven surely holds hypnotising stuff, with soundscapes to float away on. Just check out the closing track, "Chrome Country", and you'll be washed off shore in most gentle way.

Copyright © 2013 Håvard Oppøyen