Oneohtrix Point Never - Age Of

black snow is a fucking trainwreck. Rest of the album is alright but as zaphod said, it’s a slog

honestly it's not like it's terrible, i just hate how conceptual his work is. i don't think i ever liked opn, i just like tangerine dream so i love russian mind/rifts. and replica was something special. but he's pulled a tim hecker and gotten very full of himself.

  On 6/12/2018 at 6:51 AM, Salvatorin said:

may the RayCats keep us safe

https://emperorx.bandcamp.com/album/10000-year-earworm-to-discourage-settlement-near-nuclear-waste-repositories

 

by the way in case it was too vague, raycats refer to a suggestion to bioengineer cats that would glow in radioactive areas such as the new mexico nuclear waste isolation plant to warn people of the future (talkin 10,000 years) of dangerous radioactivity.

  On 6/13/2018 at 7:06 AM, zaphod said:

honestly it's not like it's terrible, i just hate how conceptual his work is. i don't think i ever liked opn, i just like tangerine dream so i love russian mind/rifts. and replica was something special. but he's pulled a tim hecker and gotten very full of himself.

 

Same, up to Rifts I was on board, Replica not so much so... then my interest has waned since.

are people forgetting how shitty returnal is lol

you what ?!

i listened to is again and it's alright. 

Returnal is gr8 ffs

  On 6/13/2018 at 3:02 PM, dr lopez said:

are people forgetting how shitty returnal is lol

you call that shitty ?

btw he made it to the german vogue lol

he says: last summer i only listened to stevie wonder and that he loves the construction sounds of brooklyn and nothing is by coincidence in his music also during his last recording in the glas house weird insects would slam against the windows while the sun goes down while he thought he might die in afwul way out there.

http://www.vogue.de/lifestyle/artikel/interview-daniel-lopatin-oneohtrix

 

 

 

Edited June 13, 2018 by Kavinsky

sorry made some mistakes while translating i am a bit in a hurry.

  On 6/13/2018 at 7:06 AM, zaphod said:

honestly it's not like it's terrible, i just hate how conceptual his work is. i don't think i ever liked opn, i just like tangerine dream so i love russian mind/rifts. and replica was something special. but he's pulled a tim hecker and gotten very full of himself.

yes! the conceptual baggage has bogged down his work more and more with each record. his music comes across as very clunky and bombastic to me, not many subtle sweet spots. he’s got talent and like you said it’s def not terrible but it’s all very overblown to me.

  On 6/14/2018 at 1:21 AM, Alcofribas said:

 

  On 6/13/2018 at 7:06 AM, zaphod said:

honestly it's not like it's terrible, i just hate how conceptual his work is. i don't think i ever liked opn, i just like tangerine dream so i love russian mind/rifts. and replica was something special. but he's pulled a tim hecker and gotten very full of himself.

yes! the conceptual baggage has bogged down his work more and more with each record. his music comes across as very clunky and bombastic to me, not many subtle sweet spots. he’s got talent and like you said it’s def not terrible but it’s all very overblown to me.

 

 

Seems I'm the minority, but I really enjoy how conceptual this album is. OPN's world is darkly oblique and very obscure and Age Of has honestly been one of the most refreshing and challenging listening experiences in some time.

 

Exploring a data dump in a technological wasteland is only really possible because we have entered an age of sophistication with machines where these concepts are no longer exclusive to science-fiction but are intersectional with a potential reality. 'Toys 2' is based on the idea of Robin Williams not wanting his likeness used in future media, like a CGI young Carrie Fisher in the film Rogue One, or a Michael Jackson hologram on stage. Or take 'Same', where a self-aware AI is alone and imprisoned and sings about deleting itself- machine suicide.

 

These possibilities realised because of recent technological developments. It's not a stretch of the imagination to place these concepts in an apocalyptic setting, in fact they are quite at home; Boards of Canada did the same thing with Tomorrow's Harvest just with different reference material. The glitch, noise and horror elements of Age Of add directly to that atmosphere.

 

Stylistically OPN is confusing and obfuscating on this album, but to me that's the point. We are moving into an uncharted digital future with unknown possibilities. Age Of simply explores some of these unknown possibilities.

 

And it's sweet and sweet on repeat.

  On 6/13/2018 at 6:49 PM, hello spiral said:

Returnal is gr8 ffs

listening to returnal lp while laying naked on the cold linoleum floor of my new apartment, in the dark, when i first moved back to montreal two days after chistmas 2k14, knowing no one, alone, insanely high off the weed cookies i had snuck out of my brother's apartment, shadows of snow falling in the yellow light of a street lamp was one of the most powerful musical experiences of my life so far. afterwards i tried to send OPN a rambling stoned email about fractals & the meaning of reality by contacting software records. there was never any reply but i'd like to think someone read it

 

i can see the arguements ppl are making about his records getting progressively more conceptual in a way that could be a detriment...like all the juno-based stuff imo has this depersonalized otherworldliness to it, and from replica on there's suddenly a strong sense of OPN as an actual person with particular interests & particular points he's trying to convey, rather than the music just being a reflecting pool of your own inner experience. I still rly love replica & r + 7 because i dig the sounds used & the melodies on those records. GoD was the first one where initially i was kinda like "hmm i dunno". listened to it again for the first time since its release yesterday & my reaction was more like "i bet this thing has lots of layers, i just need to give it more time", but it's hard to compare to the feeling that previous releases inspired in me because i'm several years removed from being that person

I love the conceptual shit, bring it on

 

this album really clicked for me the other day when doing the dishes (actually one of the few times I can really focus on music)

  On 6/14/2018 at 6:02 AM, modey said:

I love the conceptual shit, bring it on

 

Yup.

 

'Pleasant' as the Rifts stuff is, it's not *interesting* and a lot of it feels like you could be listening to some arp generator app or something.

I like what Cryptowen said above about Lopatin showing more of himself/putting more of his personality into his records from Returnal onwards.

I like this record, but man it could have been so much better if he would have dove into the concept album pool like he wanted to. That interview where he says James Blake told him to steer clear of that....are you kidding me? Who is James Blake? I feel like that was the one thing holding this record back. Every time a narrative begins being explored, it's cut short. Which is a shame. There are moments where he really hits on something and apparently James Blake decided to cock block the rest of it. Whatever it was, this album could have been amazing, but it's just pretty good. It's an interesting listen, and the album artwork and packaging is probably the most badass shit I've ever see. Wish the music matched that.

  On 6/14/2018 at 11:17 AM, dankphaser said:

I like this record, but man it could have been so much better if he would have dove into the concept album pool like he wanted to. That interview where he says James Blake told him to steer clear of that....are you kidding me? Who is James Blake? I feel like that was the one thing holding this record back. Every time a narrative begins being explored, it's cut short. Which is a shame. There are moments where he really hits on something and apparently James Blake decided to cock block the rest of it. Whatever it was, this album could have been amazing, but it's just pretty good. It's an interesting listen, and the album artwork and packaging is probably the most badass shit I've ever see. Wish the music matched that.

absolutely this

 

I still love r+7 and god tho

  On 6/14/2018 at 6:53 AM, hello spiral said:

 

  On 6/14/2018 at 6:02 AM, modey said:

I love the conceptual shit, bring it on

Yup.

 

'Pleasant' as the Rifts stuff is, it's not *interesting* and a lot of it feels like you could be listening to some arp generator app or something.

I like what Cryptowen said above about Lopatin showing more of himself/putting more of his personality into his records from Returnal onwards.

“Pleasantly boring” is a good description of the rifts stuff.

 

a broader discussion could potentially be had about what we mean when we’re calling this “conceptual” and how that differs from records that are not. I’d also be curious to think about other “conceptual” albums, exploring how some succeed or fail. but that’s prob another thread.

 

imo the most flawless conceptual records are by kraftwerk

i give you my attention and i give you my time

trying to get a connection with daniel lopatin-e

best conceptual experimental electronic album of the 2010s is shackleton - music for the quiet hour

"conceptual"

hopefully the concept for his next album is "good music"

lol

lol

boo

lol stepheng u sassy cassy