Oneohtrix Point Never - Magic Oneohtrix Point Never

[drillkicker]

@PolytrixIt's probably nothing like Replica.  OPN's sound has changed immensely in the past decade.

[fumi]

1 hour ago, Alcofribas said:

yeah right on, i totally agree here. well said.

tbh i wish lopatin could somehow turn off his ideas and just use his abilities to make tracks with the innocence of the rifts era. each album has seen an intrusion of his ideas and concepts into the music which, for me, has really held it back and made it so on the nose and it feels like the music is in service of some kind of neat idea(s). i get that this is precisely the kind of stuff people love about his music but to me all his stuff has progressively seemed more convoluted than the last. 

this is kind of a thing with small electronic artists that get big. tim hecker is another one like this. he for sure peaked with harmony in ultraviolet and then his work became more progressively "concepty" and "arty" and imo just way more meh. i think it's extremely hard to produce music that comes out of some kind of conceptual apparatus, being inspired by ideas and concepts in a direct way, maintaining those ideas throughout its creation and resulting in some kind of music/idea synthesis. it's this weird postmodern thing where serious art has to be about stuff and cannot be naive and just "good tunes" or whatever. 

i wonder if he isn't perhaps stretched thin by trying to be a more total artist in a way - like his career finds him putting out records on a prestigious label, playing massive concerts with acts like nin, soundgarden, sigur ross, djing with bjork, doing soundtracks for highly praised independent films, showing his art works in fancy galleries, etc etc. i feel like that's a lot of shoe to fill.

Without this starting to feel like some bromance, I think you've pretty well summed it up nicely.

[Kennylogg Bubblebath]

all subjective innit.

i'm sure jimmies would be rustled if folks knew garden of delete is my favourite opn record and R+7 is my least favourite.

[IDEM]

10 hours ago, fumi said:

No it's not.

Because even though I've not liked (for instance) Exai as such as I like Chiastic Slide, I've still liked it enough to buy it. What I'm trying to say in my previous post is that their output has been consistently good, some better than others

Apologies, it was late, and I misread "everything" as "anything" in your original post. No wonder it didn't make any sense to me, lol.

[fumi]

48 minutes ago, IDEM said:

Apologies, it was late, and I misread "everything" as "anything" in your original post. No wonder it didn't make any sense to me, lol.

No worries. I was rambling anyway.

[Real Human Bean]

Style over content again and again and again

[mcbpete]

17 hours ago, Alcofribas said:

it blows me away that you guys love this shit so much. this new track is pure cringe, i can't believe on a message board devoted to electronic music any one would accept that insanely bad beat and crap, generic drum sounds with no character whatsoever (lmao @ those little fills too). really mediocre and unremarkable melody and then some "weird" sounds at the end. the hype on this is simply wild.

The world just misses Oronoco Flow I guess

[markedone]

@Alcofribas @fumi imo the opn track is a very well crafted pop-ballad type track. the melody is quite catchy and the oddball flourishes are what he brings to the table better and different than any other producer imo; its only 'unimpressive' if youre wanting it to be something else.  every artist constructs the rules for their own music making and i think youre doing them a disservice by attributing it mainly to outside pressures and 'being big'.  like i can pretty clearly trace the trajectory of his interests into this current material, which is sort of what 80s pop music (audience-facing, mtv-airing type stuff) could evolve into.  i also disagree with your assesment of tim hecker as i think he has consistently managed to find new facets to explore within his sound, but that's an argument for another fan-fiction- er, thread. lol

i do get where your criticisms are coming from btw, as i also listen to newer opn way less than his older stuff.. but its kind of a matter of taste no? because i would bet layering up juno-60 loops certainly took him way less 'craft' than making a more fleshed out 'song', but we connect with that more abstract approach

Edited October 22, 2020 by markedone

[Alcofribas]

4 hours ago, markedone said:

@Alcofribas @fumi imo the opn track is a very well crafted pop-ballad type track. the melody is quite catchy and the oddball flourishes are what he brings to the table better and different than any other producer imo; its only 'unimpressive' if youre wanting it to be something else.  every artist constructs the rules for their own music making and i think youre doing them a disservice by attributing it mainly to outside pressures and 'being big'.  like i can pretty clearly trace the trajectory of his interests into this current material, which is sort of what 80s pop music (audience-facing, mtv-airing type stuff) could evolve into.  i also disagree with your assesment of tim hecker as i think he has consistently managed to find new facets to explore within his sound, but that's an argument for another fan-fiction- er, thread. lol

i do get where your criticisms are coming from btw, as i also listen to newer opn way less than his older stuff.. but its kind of a matter of taste no? because i would bet layering up juno-60 loops certainly took him way less 'craft' than making a more fleshed out 'song', but we connect with that more abstract approach

yeah i mean, at the end of the day it's just taste and people should enjoy whatever they want so it's kind of a tough thing to argue about. personally, i *don't* think it's a well crafted pop song by any means. it's very generic but a bit spiced up by the oddball flourishes which i don't think compensate for its corniness. i mean if we're judging this as a pop song...idk man, there's a lot of insanely good pop music to compare this to...

fwiw i don't think the pressures i was getting at are "outside" pressures per se, i was just vaguely speculating about trying to be an Artist in a broader, more significant sense and how that can dilute the clarity of an artist's work.

i think there is a consistent lack of criticism of his work out there, nearly everything i encounter is praise, often of a superlative nature. but i don't want to drag this thread down bc it's a new release and people should be able to come in here without seeing my old man shouting at cloud behavior.

as for tim hecker, harmony in ultraviolet is one of my favorite albums of all time. i now cringe when i see he has a new album out. he ran out of ideas a long time ago

[markedone]

Edited October 22, 2020 by markedone

[Silent Member]

I think we can all agree to disagree and wether or not even though there's no denying everyone loves this track because it's just too good so there's really reason to be wrong in this day and age.

[fumi]

4 minutes ago, Silent Member said:

I think we can all agree to disagree and wether or not even though there's no denying everyone loves this track because it's just too good so there's really reason to be wrong in this day and age.

Umm.

[Silent Member]

I agree

[beerwolf]

Pretentious, just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  Especially (and by miles and miles) within the realm of music. Where does one want to start? It’s a fathomless subject. My old friends were more into punk and hated a lot of metal because it was ‘over produced’. I hated listening to punk music because lots of it sounded like it was made in a tin can!
 

Syro has a similar effect on me. That album is a massive disaster imo. I still feel total alien when I listen to it. Which is never anyway. 
 

I’ll have to check out this Tim Hecker album. I was unaware he’s made anything decent. Critics suck his cock though.

 

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by beerwolf

[Cryptowen]

sufficiently advanced opn is indistinguishable from shit he woulda been slowing down & looping a decade ago

[psn]

I saw him live in 2010 with the Juno (OG boomer old fart credentials), and I like the new single (stupid millennial pop kid credentials). 

[drillkicker]

50 minutes ago, beerwolf said:

punk music

These words do not go together

[IDEM]

1 hour ago, Silent Member said:

I think we can all agree to disagree and wether or not even though there's no denying everyone loves this track because it's just too good so there's really reason to be wrong in this day and age.

Gotcha.

 

52 minutes ago, beerwolf said:

Syro has a similar effect on me. That album is a massive disaster imo. I still feel total alien when I listen to it. Which is never anyway. 

Does not compute.

[Dragon]

i recently got into an obsession with cassette tapes and i was overwhelmed to discover that OPN's next album would not only be given a limited cassette release, but would be themed and stylized around that whole vaporwave/road trip tape player theme. the two preview songs are reasonably good but i hope the album picks up after that - i want highs like Toys 2, Same, RayCats, those completely wild chaotic mood swings.

after reading this thread, i definitely agree that OPN has more potential as a musician besides the energy he puts into themes and imagery. he has a fantastic talent for reaching disturbed, subtle atmospheres buried within minimal electronic soundscapes - even the ECCOJAMS he put out before anyone knew about him show, in my opinion, how well he understands his medium (the second part of "B3" becomes so much more than sampled pop music - it might sound technically easy to make but this is what it takes to get that direct, stark, split-personality vibe).

i hope that if MOPN is a good album, it'll be the wake-up call we need to see there's a damned fine musician underneath all the OMG vaporwave hype.

(and if those extra volumes of eccojams are real, i will buy them )

edit: jesus shit that's a long post

Edited October 22, 2020 by Dragon

[scumtron]

On 10/21/2020 at 11:36 PM, fumi said:

 

I dunno so much with OPN. 'Age Of' and 'GOD' felt like an artist throwing everything at the wall to see what would stick. I also feel that (even now) he's yet to find what he's really looking for. Lots of his stuff has long sections of meh vibes and then for ten or fifteen seconds he throws in some tiny shining gem that's gone before you even had chance to appreciate it.

This.

When I listen to a OPN album I find it mildly fascinating. Now and then he finds the sweet spot, but every time it's over way too soon. It's like a twenty second cocktease followed by a punch to the nose over and over for 40 mins. Long road home is kinda promising, so I'll give the album a go.

 

14 hours ago, Alcofribas said:

as for tim hecker, harmony in ultraviolet is one of my favorite albums of all time. i now cringe when i see he has a new album out. he ran out of ideas a long time ago

I don't get it. He is getting more progressively "concepty" and "arty" but ran out of ideas a long time ago? I found Konoyo to be full of new ideas both in terms of build ups, use of instruments, and so on. A bit "concepty", I agree, but still amazing soundscapes and melodies, IMO. Listen to the latest releases by Com Truise or Lorn. It's like they make the same track over and over. Thats what lacking new ideas means to me. Gotta give artists credits for exploring new fields.

[fumi]

On 10/22/2020 at 1:00 PM, mcbpete said:

The world just misses Oronoco Flow I guess

On the wall. 

 

[Cryptowen]

I will acknowledge that my diminishing interest in OPN over the years probably speaks more of my own life trajectory, rather than of some failing on his part. I've always gotten the impression that he puts a great deal of thought into his albums, is genuinely attempting to map out unique sonic territory, etc.

I feel like I came across Rifts & Returnal at just the right time in my life: late teens, on the cusp of adulthood. Just getting into drugs//philosophy//occultism. Moving from my small hometown to the big city for the first time. Filled with intense but undefinable new emotions. And I feel like his early work really speaks to that sort of experience: glittering harmonic expanses that are at once extremely subtle but all-encompassing, emotional but constantly drifting into the dehumanized, ironically self-aware but somehow also sincere. Fockin loved those albums, played the shit out of em. When Replica came around it took me a few listens to get into (at that time I would have been content with him just churning out tape-saturated juno arpeggios forever), but when it clicked it really clicked. Cliche as it may sound, I felt like that album expanded my idea of what music could be. "Textural" no longer just meant "shitloads of reverb". And then r+7 felt like the high-water mark. Probably the last album to give me that deep childlike sense of wonder. Felt like it perfectly expressed where I was at in my life...But of course by that point there were already a dece amount of critics brushing it off as "random/pretentious", and even I had to admit that sometimes in interviews it was hard to make out what was sincere, what was ironic any more.

Garden of Delete kinda left me cold. Didn't hit me with that same sense of wonder. I mean, I did listen to Sticky Drama one time on acid & found myself awestruck, thinking "whoa, maybe there is something to this!". There was this sense that perhaps he had moved to a new level of musical exploration, and that if I were to give the album enough time, maybe I'd come to appreciate it even more than the previous ones. But by that point I had a lot going on in my life, and I found it hard to give that level of attention to anyone else's music but my own. So I never really gave that album the chance I felt it deserved. And then with Age of this was even more the case: listened to it once & found myself actively bored. There was still the feeling that perhaps something vibrant was buried here, like some kinda magic eye puzzle - but the ship had sailed too far off into the sunset at that point. I no longer knew how to follow it.

Will probably listen to this new one when it drops. Who knows? Maybe it'll make me feel like I'm 19 again.

[beerwolf]

Excellent post amigo

[oldenjon]

On 10/20/2020 at 12:21 PM, IDEM said:

Hmm, shouldn't you be the one explaining what has made you subscribe to this notion? It just seems a bit ridiculous to me. I mean, just because they had today's technologies at their disposal doesn't mean they'd have to make use of every single one of them ... Kraftwerk are not officially retired and are still touring btw, even if the current shows have been postponed. So they would have every opportunity to incorporate this sort of technology into their music. I have been to a couple of their gigs, but no autotune so far. Lol.

Lastly, their latest studio record, Tour de France Soundtracks, was released in 2003. Autotune was well established by that time. However, no traces of it either on that record or on Expo 2000 (1999). I think it's just a question of style.

  Reveal hidden contents

Lol.

 

One thing is that they used vocoders everywhere, one of the only technologies for vocal manipulation back then. Auto-tune, whether you like it or not, excels at making the voice sound artificial and 'robot'-like which is exactly what they were aiming for. Kraftwerk were pioneers in their heyday, but their sound and technique was rather cemented by the 2000s. I don't think anyone would try to characterize that album as being innovative. Does that really need explaining?

Edited October 23, 2020 by oldenjon

[mcbpete]

23 hours ago, beerwolf said:

I’ll have to check out this Tim Hecker album. I was unaware he’s made anything decent. Critics suck his cock though.

Grab these two (the latter is My Love Is Rotten To The Core, but I can't find the whole album as a Youtube video) for the bits when Tim Hecker was at his best (IMO)