Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven (2013) flac '2013

Tracks list

Tracklist:

[4:16] 01. Oneohtrix Point Never - Boring Angel
[5:18] 02. Oneohtrix Point Never - Americans
[1:33] 03. Oneohtrix Point Never - He She
[3:53] 04. Oneohtrix Point Never - Inside World
[6:45] 05. Oneohtrix Point Never - Zebra
[5:24] 06. Oneohtrix Point Never - Along
[3:06] 07. Oneohtrix Point Never - Problem Areas
[2:47] 08. Oneohtrix Point Never - Cryo
[4:54] 09. Oneohtrix Point Never - Still Life
[5:05] 10. Oneohtrix Point Never - Chrome Country

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AllMusic Review by Heather Phares
Over the course of Oneohtrix Point Nevers discography, Daniel Lopatin managed to
sound markedly different from album to album while keeping an overarching
aesthetic. His Warp debut, R Plus Seven, often feels like a microcosm of that
approach; these shape-shifting songs hold together more because of Lopatins bold
sonic palette than any unifying concept. Aside from the opening track, Boring
Angel, he downplays the drones that made up the heart of his earlier work (and
Replica, to a lesser extent) in favor of bright, briskly applied tones that, on
the surface, seem like the opposite of his usual modus operandi. This
fragmentation could be seen as a variation of Replicas choppy recontextualizing,
though the results are dizzying rather than hypnotic: Americans hops from
environmental sounds to zapping synths to cheery strings to choral vocals in
what feels like the musical equivalent of a series of smash cuts. Similarly,
Lopatin trades one kind of nostalgia for another: instead of evoking (and
sampling from) the 70s and early 80s as his earlier work did, the brittle,
sometimes cheap MIDI-esque sounds he sprinkles throughout R Plus Seven recall
the late 80s and early 90s. The preponderance of choral pads on tracks such as
the fittingly named Still Life give the album an eerie, uncanny valley-ish
undercurrent, while Alongs mix of piping synth flutes, exotic percussion, and
sax sounds like new age and smooth jazz run through a woodchipper. However,
thanks to the light-handed arrangements, what could be cheesy or ironic more
often than not feels forward-looking. Despite the dots and dashes of sound at
any given moment, the album gives an overall impression of sleekness, and its
subversive glossiness suggests that its tracks were made from pop songs that
were shattered into shards that are as alluring as they are difficult to piece
together. Occasionally, Lopatin tones down the hyperactivity a bit, resulting in
highlights like Problem Areas, which is carried by rubbery bass and a
stairstepping brass motif, and Zebra and Chrome Country, which both use
warm-sounding synths to surprisingly emotional effect (even if the latter song
tweaks the choral pad so violently that it sounds like its shrieking). By
conventional standards, R Plus Seven isnt a widely appealing crossover for
Lopatins new label. Yet in an almost perverse way, the playful spirit of these
tracks and their lively sounds make for some of his most accessible work yet.
For the most part, the album showcases Oneohtrix Point Nevers restlessness and
ambition in flattering ways; if its equal parts mystifying and beautiful, its
also a puzzle well worth trying to figure out.

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