Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven

[Hugh Mughnus]

It's similar to Prefuse's Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian album in how it changes randomly, which is also one of my favorite albums ever. Although this album has more dynamics and fades in and out frequently, whereas Apmexian is an all-out assault on the ears for the most part, which is good for different reason.

 

I really enjoy that album too, it's Prefuse's best in my opinion (regalo and digan lo are my favorite I think... and no lights still rock). But I find that even through all the constant changes in that album, the songs themselves have a constant theme or rhythm or whatever, throughout the track. I don't find that on this OPN album.

 

Maybe I just need to detach myself from the start and end times of the tracks and listen to the album as a whole? hope I'm making sense

[gmanyo]

I think the OPN album has pretty consistent themes. It's very mid-80s to 90s FM/Sample cutting, pretty much the whole way through (listen to some Paul Lansky), with some breaks which I personally find logical, like the rave part in Still Life. It's got a very punchy, arpeggiated feel with consistent pads going on in the background. I think pretty much every song fits a style very distinct to this album. Like, if I heard every song on this album but one then heard the one I hadn't heard, I would probably recognize it as being very similar to the other songs on the album. Actually, if there's one thing that I don't think you can accuse this album of it's not having a consistent style. Pretentious, maybe; annoying, maybe; but not aesthetic-less. You might be able to argue that Cryo doesn't fit, and maaaaybe that He She doesn't flow well, but that's about it.

[gmanyo]

Actually, you know what - the problem with this album is that it might sound a bit too much like Paul Lansky. Listening to some of his stuff now, it's amazingly similar.

[awepittance]

it's definitely heavily indebted to some of the classic masters and most homagey of any of his previous work, even more than Games. People can talk all day along about how he's always been kind of a solo version of a Tangerine Dream or something, but he always had more of his own voice that shined through that homage aspect. This time I barely hear it, or it's much harder to hear over the collage of tribute running through R plus 7. Looking forward to hearing more of 'him' on the next releases.

[modey]

I like it because of that. When bitroast/pigster introduced me to it, I immediately thought of Jean Michel Jarre's Zoolook album.. I fuckin' love that album.

 

I don't really think there's anything wrong with writing in the style of the 'classic' electronic composers. I mean shit, there are still generic as fuck rock bands out there that people lose their shit over, so why is it a problem when someone writes electronic music that in the style of 70s/80s stuff? I guess it hits close to home for me because I essentially make exact pastiches of early 90s demoscene music in my Pselodux project.

 

 

Maybe I just need to detach myself from the start and end times of the tracks and listen to the album as a whole? hope I'm making sense

 

I think so!

[Hugh Mughnus]

I'll give it another shot with this new perpective, thanks guys.

 

Ps Pselodux is the shit meng, love it.

[modey]

aw shucks, thanks man!

[Hugh Mughnus]

One day, I hope to see you live!

[modey]

come to Tokyo for Square Sounds in September and that might actually happen!

[Guest bitroast]

I like it because of that. When bitroast/pigster introduced me to it, I immediately thought of Jean Michel Jarre's Zoolook album.. I fuckin' love that album.

 

Haha when you played zoolook I instantly thought of OPN. It may have been before r+7 came out because I remember thinking it sounds like new opn, referring more to the rene hell split EP or the opn live performance me and Betty went to (which was pretty much r+7 material performed live)

[Cryptowen]

With OPN the enjoyment comes from the overall experience, moreso than any particular musical aspect. It's gotta be taken in the context of the culture it was produced in to have full affect.

 

Rifts & Returnal are easier to defend because they're subtler this way. Like you could treat them like a straight homage to new-age music, or something to trip out to, and listen to them that way. But when you really stop & listen to the sounds being used you go "wiat no, this is wrong somehow"

 

 

It just keeps going & going, and the bass is big thudding thing, and that 80s saxophone pad is so out of place. But it pulls together somehow, more than the sum of its parts. It's not about melody or some special harmonic development - what it's after is the very specific atmospheric experience described in the title. I disagree with the descriptor 90% of the time I see it applied to electronic instrumentalism, but OPN truly does make visual music

 

Replica & R+7 are even more difficult to talk about in the regular sense because, while the visual aspect is still at the forefront, the relatively pretty musical tropes of the early works have been traded in for a dense patchwork of gross cultural iconography. I feel like the full force of the thing is being aimed at a very specific demographic. It may not be vaporwave, but it's aimed at the kind of person who'd go on the internet and have a serious discussion about flavour of the month meme genres like they were something transcendent

[Guest bitroast]

i was enjoying your post but i sort of lost your point during the last paragraph there.

can you elaborate on "It may not be vaporwave, but it's aimed at the kind of person who'd go on the internet and have a serious discussion about flavour of the month meme genres like they were something transcendent" i'm a little lost on what you're saying here !!

[Cryptowen]

i'm a little lost on what you're saying here !!

just a bit of shorthand to describe the kind of person i picture being really into r+7 - first world white guy, age 16-35. uses the internet a lot. geeky, but not like HARDCORE geeky - tries to associate himself more with niche art while distancing himself from the reddit memes & the uncomfortable introverted weirdness & the yadda yadda. Someone who'd recognize the aural cues in R+7 right away, as things from his childhood & current existence. Things that usually just play out in the background of life, unnoticed but colouring it greatly

 

i coulda ust said "this album was made for people like me" but i'm pretty baked right now

[Guest bitroast]

Ahh I see!! I haven't had a smoke since last Tuesday !!! No wonder I wasn't following but I think I'm with you now :)

[Guest bitroast]

The thing that impresses me most with the album is how it manages to grab all the elements (90s cheese/ironic pisstake midi sounds) and tie them seamlessly (abruptly but still seamlessly, in a weird paradoxly kind of way) to create pinpoint accurate pieces of music. The way he's used such cheesy sounds to target a specific audience is something you've described quite well. Haha.

[gmanyo]

In a way I feel like this is a bit more mature, more complete than some of the stuff by earlier composers. Like, back then they were coming out with all sorts of new, cool ideas, some not entirely complete or fully formed but nevertheless influential and awesome. But now this is more of a complete piece - he's not moving into uncharted territory, he's taking a once or twice tread path and paving it. Or like all the puzzle pieces were created already, but only now have they all come together so as to complete the picture.

 

Or maybe not. I haven't heard enough of the older stuff anyway.

[beerwolf]

 

just a bit of shorthand to describe the kind of person i picture being really into r+7 - first world white guy, age 16-35. uses the internet a lot. geeky, but not like HARDCORE geeky - tries to associate himself more with niche art while distancing himself from the reddit memes & the uncomfortable introverted weirdness & the yadda yadda. Someone who'd recognize the aural cues in R+7 right away, as things from his childhood & current existence. Things that usually just play out in the background of life, unnoticed but colouring it greatly

 

 

 

lol, you got the white guy bit and the age right, the rest your a million miles off, I'll forgive as you were 'baked'

[gmanyo]

idk man i think he was pretty spot on in describing me

[malaria]

idk man i think he was pretty spot on in describing me

 

 

"Ok, now, I'm getting the feeling that somewhere over in this area of the forum, there's someone who uses the internet a lot. Is there someone over here that does? Oh, you? Did you have a falling out with Uncle Reddit? I'm getting a visualization of him pushing his nose up? He says you have shit taste in music, is that right? I'm getting a strong bacon smell, and I'm not sure what that's about.."

[gmanyo]

 

idk man i think he was pretty spot on in describing me

 

 

"Ok, now, I'm getting the feeling that somewhere over in this area of the forum, there's someone who uses the internet a lot. Is there someone over here that does? Oh, you? Did you have a falling out with Uncle Reddit? I'm getting a visualization of him pushing his nose up? He says you have shit taste in music, is that right? I'm getting a strong bacon smell, and I'm not sure what that's about.."

 

lol good point

[awepittance]

In a way I feel like this is a bit more mature, more complete than some of the stuff by earlier composers. Like, back then they were coming out with all sorts of new, cool ideas, some not entirely complete or fully formed but nevertheless influential and awesome.

I have to very much disagree with this 2nd sentence. Alcofribas just posted earlier in the thread one of these 'earlier composers' who probably influenced Daniel (the name escape me) and it clearly sounds more fleshed out, more mature compositionally than anything on R+7. I think what Daniel was going for on R+7 was like a stripped down musique concrete' version of that classic stuff. Like taking the skeletal structure and holding on to a lot of the very nostalgic aspects of it. At least it seems pretty obvious to me this was his intention. Even the melodic songs which have structure sound far more stripped down and minimal than the composers he is emulating.

I'm not trying to denigrate his work, I can respect it but I think what you've just described is almost the inverse of reality.

[Hugh Mughnus]

I've always taken that term with a grain of salt, "Musique concrete".

 

Isn't that just a euphemism for sounds in loosely rhythmic or melodic format that someone tries to pass off as music or art?

 

(please don't take offense at that, not my intention... it's just a loaded term, where I come from)

[gmanyo]

 

In a way I feel like this is a bit more mature, more complete than some of the stuff by earlier composers. Like, back then they were coming out with all sorts of new, cool ideas, some not entirely complete or fully formed but nevertheless influential and awesome.

I have to very much disagree with this 2nd sentence. Alcofribas just posted earlier in the thread one of these 'earlier composers' who probably influenced Daniel (the name escape me) and it clearly sounds more fleshed out, more mature compositionally than anything on R+7. I think what Daniel was going for on R+7 was like a stripped down musique concrete' version of that classic stuff. Like taking the skeletal structure and holding on to a lot of the very nostalgic aspects of it. At least it seems pretty obvious to me this was his intention. Even the melodic songs which have structure sound far more stripped down and minimal than the composers he is emulating.

I'm not trying to denigrate his work, I can respect it but I think what you've just described is almost the inverse of reality.

 

Hmm, true I guess. I felt that when I heard some of the older stuff, though, it was studies and what not done with new MIDI shit, exploring ideas uncharted. Unless you're talking about like, Depeshe Mode and stuff, in which case it was pop. Oneohtrix was referencing this kind of music and organizing it into an album that described that kind of music in a nostalgic way. So not more mature I guess, but more focused on an aesthetic than the earlier stuff, and less focused on moving into uncharted territory. Then again, you're probably right since I haven't really heard enough Lansky/Jarre to make an accurate judgement.

[ganus]

With OPN the enjoyment comes from the overall experience, moreso than any particular musical aspect. It's gotta be taken in the context of the culture it was produced in to have full affect.

 

Rifts & Returnal are easier to defend because they're subtler this way. Like you could treat them like a straight homage to new-age music, or something to trip out to, and listen to them that way. But when you really stop & listen to the sounds being used you go "wiat no, this is wrong somehow"

 

 

It just keeps going & going, and the bass is big thudding thing, and that 80s saxophone pad is so out of place. But it pulls together somehow, more than the sum of its parts. It's not about melody or some special harmonic development - what it's after is the very specific atmospheric experience described in the title. I disagree with the descriptor 90% of the time I see it applied to electronic instrumentalism, but OPN truly does make visual music

 

Replica & R+7 are even more difficult to talk about in the regular sense because, while the visual aspect is still at the forefront, the relatively pretty musical tropes of the early works have been traded in for a dense patchwork of gross cultural iconography. I feel like the full force of the thing is being aimed at a very specific demographic. It may not be vaporwave, but it's aimed at the kind of person who'd go on the internet and have a serious discussion about flavour of the month meme genres like they were something transcendent

good post.

 

I think people are thinking too much about the musical similarities, and not enough about the effect that this album has, or was intended to have.

 

Been thinking about why this album disturbs me. I feel like the level of polish put into this album, with intentionally artificial sounding, un-aesthetic choices in instruments (and sometimes composition), is meant to push the music into the uncanny valley.

 

with so much current aesthetic pushing towards organic, raw, and antique sounds, including his last album, it's not unintentional that OPN would choose to use perfectly polished versions of sounds typically heard on cheap yamaha keyboards.

 

I think, with the videos associated with this album especially, and the strong visual & immersive feel to the music, it's not that far off to interpret this album as being about society finding comfort and escape

(from the stress of inheriting responsibility for a failing planet in a capitalist system where we are all powerless)

in the fake realities found in computers.

 

The Betamale video for Still Life focused on current individuals fallen deep into computer escapism, but I think that the album as a whole points towards a larger, broader history of technology assisted escapism, and a caution against the increasingly virtual world we live in (lest we all find ourselves so deeply detached from the reality of being a human being)

 

it's aimed at the kind of person who'd go on the internet and have a serious discussion about flavour of the month meme genres like they were something transcendent

Also this just happened and I'm fine with it.

[modey]

I just think it sounds good, hey