Warp Records
While many key players in the once booming American synth underground have faded away called it quits or made disastrous left turns Daniel Lopatin has remained as creatively charged as ever. Recent years have seen the man commonly known as Oneohtrix Point Never busying himself with everything from collaborating with Tim Hecker to working with Clinic to helping score a Sofia Coppola film and signing to the prestigious Warp Records. R Plus Seven though marks his first proper full-length since 2011’s praised Replica and once again Lopatin is pushing himself in new directions.
In a sense R Plus Seven takes cues from the OPN of old — the glitched-up found-sound samples the MIDI-influenced new age-ness the noise/drone tendencies — puts it all in a blender and comes out with a distinctly fresh formula. Along the way a love for the ultra slick comes into play as well as some newfound pop melodicism and the odd dancefloor experimentation.
There’s also an added sense of complexity to Lopatin’s tracks as they morph mutate and dart off in new directions repeatedly incorporating everything from church organs to children’s choirs to sexed-up horns and eastern percussion.
R Plus Seven isn’t a breakaway from OPN’s past but the culmination of years’ worth of scattered ideas. It’s also one of his finest statements yet.
