Oneohtrix Point Never - Magic Oneohtrix Point Never

[chronical]

I ordered this tape and my money left my bank and never arrived at either PayPal or Ochre. After 4 phone calls and loads of emails sending me back and forth I got tired of caring about the 20$ but I do wonder where my money went

[Cryptowen]

1 hour ago, logakght said:

I do miss pre-mainstream OPN tbqh

the fact that pre-mainstream OPN ended up becoming mainstream still baffles me honestly. i mean like not for any fault (he's a talented producer & clearly puts a lot of thought into this stuff), but just because his early work still feels way too weird to suggest someone who would ever get beyond "faceless electronic musician with a cool name that indie kids are into"

[chronical]

4 minutes ago, Cryptowen said:

the fact that pre-mainstream OPN ended up becoming mainstream still baffles me honestly. i mean like not for any fault (he's a talented producer & clearly puts a lot of thought into this stuff), but just because his early work still feels way too weird to suggest someone who would ever get beyond "faceless electronic musician with a cool name that indie kids are into"

underground noise artist gone rogue

[exitonly]

18 minutes ago, chronical said:

I do wonder where my money went

that's the Magic

[logakght]

47 minutes ago, Cryptowen said:

the fact that pre-mainstream OPN ended up becoming mainstream still baffles me honestly. i mean like not for any fault (he's a talented producer & clearly puts a lot of thought into this stuff), but just because his early work still feels way too weird to suggest someone who would ever get beyond "faceless electronic musician with a cool name that indie kids are into"

Memes helped him. Honestly, I think OPN post Replica is overrated. Not saying it´s bad, but I don´t listen to any stuff other than his ambient work, which I still believe is unrivaled.

[Cryptowen]

26 minutes ago, logakght said:

I don´t listen to any stuff other than his ambient work, which I still believe is unrivaled.

yeah his early stuffs definitely have a certain je ne sais quoi to them, a real alien quality that only certain aeshtetic forms can evoke in me. there does seem to be a conscious move away from that over the course of his career towards deconstruction of more "human" concepts (which i imagine was intentional. he talks in some old interview about not just wanting to be that guy channeling magical abstractions his whole career). which might be why i feel like r+7 is his most important album (so far?), if not the one i actually list to the most - it's at that sweet spot in the transition, approximating humanity while still having an intense otherworldly energy for me

it's also a nice metaphor for how conscious development starts feeling a lot less linear after a certain point. when you're a kid your awareness grows as a steady progression. then at a certain point you have some kind of spiritual revelation which seems like the culmination of all that - you fall in love for the first time, you move out on your own, you pop molly at a drone show on a lark. you wonder, "how could it progress from here?". Well, it doesn't. you stop moving linearly. You move off in some other direction. you become more pragmatic. you lose sight of the spiritual revelations you once had, but in turn you gain practical knowledge. You realize that life is not single building sequence but a series of epochs, each with their own distinct highs & lows

[dcom]

I have Rifts as a 3xCD version, haven't liked anything else. I've bought R Plus Seven and Garden Of Delete from Bleep sales, but have probably listened to them three times at the most. Rifts, too many to count. The BRITS track with The Weeknd is just... pop, vaguely synthy, evoking nothing.

Edited May 12, 2021 by dcom

[Stock]

11 minutes ago, Cryptowen said:

You realize that life is not single building sequence but a series of epochs, each with their own distinct highs & lows

Yeah, different epochs, let's say : Ecco, Harvest, Excess and Bondage !

(Magic OPN totally eclipsed Age Of imho, it really feels like Age Of was a draft of what would come next but I love the imagery of that album !)

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by Stock

[fumi]

Magic OPN was in my top five from last year. It obliterated Age Of which (IMO) was an embarrassment to his name.

The early stuff still has the edge though.

[drillkicker]

I think Format & Journey North is a really good ripoff of Stone's Woo Lae Oak

 

[BelacquaShuah]

i wouldn't really call new opn mainstream, though, honestly. none of his albums post-Replica has reached the Billboard Top 200, probably because to most people the music is still too "weird."

his newer stuff definitely channels the uncanny in a way that's unsettling even when it's pretty. it's hard to put a finger on. to me a lot of it plays like a "pleasant" scene in a Harmony Korine movie; it becomes loaded with a bunch of different, contradictory signifiers that all kind of settle in a subtle malaise, and you're not sure where to place your judgment.

in the album artwork for Magic, the last little piece included is a melting green rectangle that reads, "ocTpaHeHHe," which translates to defamiliarization, estrangement. i think it's fair to say that his new music does evoke and address the mainstream but without ever really assimilating.

[milkface]

i dont love me anymore is such a good track

[chenGOD]

On 5/12/2021 at 12:09 PM, chronical said:

but I do wonder where my money went

Thanks! 

[chenGOD]

First listen today. It's nice. Kind of inoffensive. Some saccharin moments. Lot of power balladish guitars creeping in.

[xxx]

On 5/15/2021 at 11:47 AM, BelacquaShuah said:

i wouldn't really call new opn mainstream, though, honestly. none of his albums post-Replica has reached the Billboard Top 200, probably because to most people the music is still too "weird."

his newer stuff definitely channels the uncanny in a way that's unsettling even when it's pretty. it's hard to put a finger on. to me a lot of it plays like a "pleasant" scene in a Harmony Korine movie; it becomes loaded with a bunch of different, contradictory signifiers that all kind of settle in a subtle malaise, and you're not sure where to place your judgment.

in the album artwork for Magic, the last little piece included is a melting green rectangle that reads, "ocTpaHeHHe," which translates to defamiliarization, estrangement. i think it's fair to say that his new music does evoke and address the mainstream but without ever really assimilating.

This really nails it. "No More Nightmares" and its associated video is as close as he's ever gotten to full pop and if you just put it on in the background, it could be a kawaii little monkey adventure. A closer look reveals it to be an Old Testament fever dream with a donkey's jawbone and Abraham willing to sacrifice Isaac. I don't buy physical bits anymore but he tempts me the most because of all the little hidden treats. I appreciate you passing along the "estrangement" Easter egg.

[SeparateHold]

On 5/12/2021 at 9:09 AM, chronical said:

I ordered this tape and my money left my bank and never arrived at either PayPal or Ochre. After 4 phone calls and loads of emails sending me back and forth I got tired of caring about the 20$ but I do wonder where my money went

You lost out on a bit more than 20 my friend! 

[SeparateHold]

The more I listen to this album the more I can't help but agree with the criticism levied towards it... It's a shame the direction OPN has started to go in. Particularly, what spooks me the most is that this was his most predictable record to date. It makes sense for him to have made this after Age Of. Whereas every record before was him toying with sounds he had never used before. The sample chops of replica, to the sleek retro-futurism of r+7, to the dark hypergrunge of garden of delete, to the cult like cyber-rnb of age of.. None of it sounded like what came before it. This is the first album where I can understand exactly the progression between the albums. It disappoints me in retrospect and I worry for his musical future. 

 

However, on the bright side, other artists have been picking up the slack and continuing some of OPN's past strains of music incredibly well. In particular I want to point to 2 specific albums for fans who'd like to hear more.

First off, Maxwell Sterlings gorgeous new record which is his most polished to date. It sounds an incredible amount like r+7 and is amazing in it's own right. In my opinion it takes the sounds OPN toyed with on that record and pushes them even further into the realms of psychedelia. A must-listen for anyone itching for that 2013-2014 OPN sound. 

 

Another record I'd like to recommend is James Ferraro's latest installment of his "Mirai" series. Ferraro is good friends with OPN, and their sounds have seen parallels at many points in eachothers respective careers. This record in particular sounds incredibly similar to Garden of Delete, with similar sounds laced throughout. If you don't believe me, listen to "mutant standard" and then listen to "x."

 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2021 by SeparateHold

[Diabrotikos]

Thanks for the recommendation, this sounds wild

[SeparateHold]

On 7/13/2021 at 5:48 PM, Diabrotikos said:

Thanks for the recommendation, this sounds wild

Glad you enjoyed them! 

[SeparateHold]

The amount of circle-jerking coming from the opn camp about the new weeknd album has been fucking bizarre... I feel like I'm living in an alternate reality. Like... it's a rehash of magic, AND it's a really generic phaux-80s synth pop record.. Why is everyone I'm seeing talking like it's some sort of masterpiece??? 

[YangYing]

18 minutes ago, SeparateHold said:

The amount of circle-jerking coming from the opn camp about the new weeknd album has been fucking bizarre... I feel like I'm living in an alternate reality. Like... it's a rehash of magic, AND it's a really generic phaux-80s synth pop record.. Why is everyone I'm seeing talking like it's some sort of masterpiece??? 

truth, will we ever get anything like this again??

daniel pls

[SeparateHold]

2 minutes ago, MIXL2 said:

truth, will we ever get anything like this again??

daniel pls

WE NEED MORE OPN BREAKCORE DAN!!! DAAAAAAN!!!

[psn]

48 minutes ago, SeparateHold said:

The amount of circle-jerking coming from the opn camp about the new weeknd album has been fucking bizarre... I feel like I'm living in an alternate reality. Like... it's a rehash of magic, AND it's a really generic phaux-80s synth pop record.. 

Had a listen today, and this was pretty much my exact thoughts. 

[SeparateHold]

glad that the grumpy atmosphere of watmm is validating my musical opinions

edit: this was my 404th post. error, post not found!

Edited January 8, 2022 by SeparateHold

[Dragon]

56 minutes ago, SeparateHold said:

 DAN!!! DAAAAAAN!!!

yeah a gescom collab would be nice