Instrumental Tourist | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | November 19, 2012 | |||
Recorded | Mexican Summer Studios | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 54:29 | |||
Label | Software Recording Co. | |||
Producer | Tim Hecker, Daniel Lopatin | |||
Tim Hecker chronology | ||||
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Daniel Lopatin chronology | ||||
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Instrumental Tourist is a collaborative studio album by Canadian musician Tim Hecker and American musician Daniel Lopatin (who records as Oneohtrix Point Never). The album was recorded over several improvisational jam sessions,and was released in November 2012 under Lopatin's Software Records imprint to generally positive critical reviews. [2]
Lopatin and Hecker were admirers of each other's work but had no formal connection when Lopatin suggested a collaboration between the two in 2012. [3] They met at Mexican Summer Studios,with recording sessions occurring over several days in the form of improvisational jam sessions which were later edited down. [4] Lopatin cited producer Teo Macero's tape editing work with Miles Davis in the late-1960s/early-1970s as an inspiration for the sessions. [3]
Lopatin stated that "I'm not sure how it emerged,but we pretty quickly got into this idea that we could paint an extended portrait of a sonic world that is filled with stock musical motifs and sounds," [3] later saying that "we wanted to take those sounds,scrub away the clichéand see if they were salvageable." [5] Hecker noted that "we didn't cut a path in advance. It sort of took shape very quickly in a non-contrived,almost unconscious level through joking around and talking in the studio." [3]
Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 73/100 [2] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [6] |
DIY | 6/10 [7] |
Exclaim! | 6/10 [8] |
The Observer | [9] |
Resident Advisor | 3.5/5 [1] |
Spin | 7/10 [10] |
Tiny Mix Tapes | [11] |
Uncut Magazine | 7/10 [12] |
XLR8R | 6.5/10 [13] |
Instrumental Tourist received generally favorable reviews from critics,with an aggregate score of 73 out of 100 on Metacritic. [2] AllMusic wrote that "Lopatin and Hecker take the sounds in their intentionally limited palette to places they may never have been expected to go,and the journey is intriguing and frequently lovely." [6] The Observer wrote that "the strength of this record comes from their disregard for coherence and disinterest in finding common ground. Their warring improvisations are intriguing,unsettling and often exquisite." [9] In a less positive review, XLR8R wrote that "despite scattered flashes of brilliance,too often it's an album that feels unambitious,as though it's content to dwell in the middle ground where the two producers' back catalogs intersect rather than forge something new." [13] Uncut wrote that "as sublime as much of Instrumental Tourist is,it rarely fulfills that promise of improvisation,of a real sonic engagement or play,and struggles to exceed the sum of its parts." [12]
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Uptown Psychedelia" | 5:58 |
2. | "Scene from a French Zoo" | 4:59 |
3. | "Vaccination (For Thomas Mann)" | 5:51 |
4. | "Instrusions" | 4:52 |
5. | "Whole Earth Tascam" | 5:00 |
6. | "GRM Blue I" | 0:50 |
7. | "GRM Blue II" | 5:48 |
8. | "Racist Drone" | 5:39 |
9. | "Grey Geisha" | 4:17 |
10. | "Instrumental Tourist" | 3:19 |
11. | "Ritual for Consumption" | 4:44 |
12. | "Vaccination No. 2" | 3:12 |
Tim Hecker is a Canadian electronic musician, producer, composer, and sound artist. His work, spanning albums such as Harmony in Ultraviolet (2006), Ravedeath, 1972 (2011) and Virgins (2013), has been widely critically acclaimed. He has released eleven albums and a number of EPs in addition to a number of film scores and collaborations with artists such as Arca, Ben Frost, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Daniel Lopatin, and Aidan Baker.
Daniel Lopatin, best known as Oneohtrix Point Never or OPN, is an American experimental electronic music producer, composer, singer, and songwriter. His music has utilized tropes from various musical genres and eras, sample-based composition, and complex MIDI production.
Ford & Lopatin is an American electronic duo composed of musicians Daniel Lopatin and Joel Ford. The group's sound draws on disparate genres such as 1980s synthpop and MIDI-funk, chopped and screwed production, 1970s fusion, and techno. They have released a number of original recordings and remix mixtapes, including the 2011 album Channel Pressure.
Ravedeath, 1972 is the sixth studio album by Canadian electronic music musician Tim Hecker, released on February 14, 2011, by Kranky. The album was recorded primarily in Frikirkjan Church, Reykjavík, by Ben Frost. It makes prominent use of pipe organ, and was described by Hecker as "a hybrid of a studio and a live record." It received universal acclaim from critics, with many reviewers acknowledging the album as Hecker's finest.
Returnal is the fourth studio album by American electronic musician Daniel Lopatin under the alias Oneohtrix Point Never, released on June 22, 2010 by Mego Records. It develops the synthesizer-based compositions of Lopatin's previous work, while also incorporating elements of noise music and his own processed vocals. The album received positive reviews from critics, and was named among the best albums of 2010 by several publications, including Fact, The Wire, and Tiny Mix Tapes.
Replica is the fifth studio album by American electronic musician Daniel Lopatin under the stage name Oneohtrix Point Never, released on November 8, 2011 via Mexican Summer and Software. It features co-production by Joel Ford and Al Carlson, and was Lopatin's first work to be recorded in a studio. Stylistically, the album marks a shift away from Lopatin's previous synth-based works under the alias, instead showcasing a sample-based approach utilizing audio from 1980s and 1990s television advertisements.
R Plus Seven is the sixth studio album by American electronic musician Oneohtrix Point Never, released on September 30, 2013, as his debut album on Warp Records. The album's musical palette draws heavily on the synthetic sounds of MIDI instruments, 1980s synth presets, and VSTs.
Channel Pressure is the debut studio album of electronic music duo Ford & Lopatin, consisting of producers Daniel Lopatin and Joel Ford. Following the group's abandonment of their previous name "Games" for legal reasons, they recorded the album at Gary's Electric Studios in Brooklyn, New York. It was released on June 7, 2011 as the first album to be issued on Software, Lopatin's own label under the Mexican Summer imprint.
That We Can Play is the debut EP of the American electronic-music project Games, consisting of producers Daniel Lopatin and Joel Ford. Lopatin and Ford produced That We Can Play in an apartment studio, using vintage synthesizers and sequencers to recapture the sound and style of 1980s power pop.
Garden of Delete is the seventh studio album by American electronic musician Oneohtrix Point Never, released on November 13, 2015 on Warp Records. The album—which critics regarded as being radically stylistically different from his previous releases—was preceded by an enigmatic Internet-based promotional campaign, and draws on musical influences such as grunge music, nu metal and popular electronic dance music, as well as themes of adolescence, mutation and abjection. It received generally positive critical reception and was included on year-end lists by several publications, including PopMatters, Fact and The Quietus.
Daniel Lopatin is a Brooklyn-based experimental musician who records primarily under the pseudonym Oneohtrix Point Never. Early in his career as both a solo artist and as a member of several groups, he released a number of LPs and extended plays on a variety of independent labels. In 2010, he signed to Editions Mego and released Returnal. In 2011, he founded the record label Software. In 2013, Lopatin signed to British electronic label Warp Records and released his label debut R Plus Seven.
Commissions I is a compilation extended play by American electronic musician Daniel Lopatin, known by his stage name Oneohtrix Point Never. It was released as a limited 12" vinyl edition of 1,000 copies on Record Store Day 2014 by the English label Warp. It is a collection of three tracks Lopatin commissioned for art pieces, films and live performance events: "Music for Steamed Rocks," "Meet Your Creator," and "I Only Have Eyes For You." These commissions were mixed and engineered for the EP by Paul Corley and mastered by Valgeir Sigurðsson. The record was well received by music journalists, landing at number nine on a list of the best EPs of 2014 by Pretty Much Amazing.
Music For Reliquary House / In 1980 I Was A Blue Square is a split album by American electronic musician Daniel Lopatin, known by his stage name Oneohtrix Point Never, and Rene Hell, the project of American electronic music artist Jeff Witscher. It showcases Lopatin's and Witscher's shift from the style of their early synthesizer-heavy recordings to electroacoustic music. The split album was released by NNA Tapes on September 17, 2012 to favorable opinions from professional reviewers.
Exercises is the fifth extended play in the discography of Canadian musician Michael Silver, known by his stage name as CFCF. The extended play was inspired by brutalist architecture and several synthesizer-heavy modern classical and piano-only works that Silver listened to during the fall and winter of 2010–11, which were the "soundtrack" to how he felt "kind of uncertain” in those seasons. Its cover art by Ken Schwarz, Josh Clancy, and Travis Stearns shows one of the buildings the extended play was inspired by.
New Energy is the ninth studio album by British electronic musician Kieran Hebden, released under his alias Four Tet on 29 September 2017 by Text Records. The album follows a more uptempo, listener-friendly style than previous Four Tet records while containing elements of those albums and a variety of musical styles as well as virtual instrument replications of culturally-tinged instruments. The album garnered critical acclaim, landing on several year-end lists by publications such as PopMatters, Q, Uncut, The Guardian, and Pitchfork, and reached number 48 on the UK Albums Chart.
Age Of is the eighth studio album by American electronic producer Oneohtrix Point Never, released on June 1, 2018, on Warp Records. Recorded over two years, it is the first Oneohtrix Point Never album to prominently feature Daniel Lopatin's own vocals. The album was accompanied by the MYRIAD tour, which premiered as a "conceptual concertscape" in 2018 at the Park Avenue Armory and ended its run in 2019.
Venetian Snares x Daniel Lanois is a collaborative album by breakcore musician Aaron Funk and guitarist–producer Daniel Lanois released on May 4, 2018, by Timesig.
Anoyo is the tenth studio album by Canadian musician Tim Hecker. It was released on May 10, 2019 under Kranky.
Have We Met is the twelfth studio album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer, released on January 31, 2020, by Merge Records and Dead Oceans.
Uncut Gems is a soundtrack album by electronic musician Daniel Lopatin, containing the original score for the Safdie brothers' 2019 film Uncut Gems. It was released via Warp on December 13, 2019. It received positive reviews from critics. It peaked at number 44 on the UK Soundtrack Albums Chart.