Oneohtrix | Replica | Album

Oneohtrix Point Never "Replica" (2011)

LP (NEW) - Vinyl, Software, US, 2011, SFT010, 184923201017, First Issue

Replica is the Twelfth studio album by Daniel Lopatin's project Oneohtrix Point Never. On this album swirling analog synth melodies, vast drones, and pulsating arpeggios come together to create a trademark sound that dominates all of his releases from 2007 to mid-2011. Records like Betrayed in the Octagon (2007) and Returnal (2010) could be soundtracks for the cityscapes of films like Blade Runner reflected in the lonely glow of a computer terminal. The sampling throughout Replica is highly unorthodox, even when compared to his other projects. Lopatin has revealed that many of the samples were taken from 1980's TV commercials culled from VHS, though they are mostly unrecognizable as such. The samples are not musical, but rather consist of strange, decontextualized sounds: the spaces in between words, the sound of a single consonant, a small snippet of a sound effect. What makes this album such a breakthrough—and recalls the radio origins of the Oneohtrix name—is that Lopatin is able to play with pop structures and melodies, but construct them entirely out of such experimental sounds. That is not to say the album is emotionless. Rather, Lopatin leads the listener through a series of emotions over the course of the LP. This is one album that greatly rewards a full listen from start to finish. But the individual songs are also short and self-contained enough that listening to one alone is also entirely worthwhile, a quality that much of the prior Oneohtrix canon struggles to achieve. Replica is a milestone in Lopatin's catalog, as well as a milestone in modern electronic music.

Artist Website: pointnever.com

More by Artist: Oneohtrix

Related Artists: Daniel Lopatin, Oneohtrix Point Never