R Plus Seven | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 30, 2013 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 42:56 | |||
Label | Warp | |||
Producer | ||||
Oneohtrix Point Never chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from R Plus Seven | ||||
|
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. [3] The album's musical palette draws heavily on the synthetic sounds of MIDI instruments, 1980s synth presets, and VSTs. [4]
R Plus Seven received critical acclaim, and was included on the year-end lists of several music publications. Its release came alongside several collaborations on visual accompaniment with contemporary artists such as Jon Rafman, Takeshi Murata, and Nate Boyce.
Differing from the sample-based techniques of Lopatin's 2011 album Replica which drew on lo-fi audio sources such as commercials from the 1980s and 1990s, the recording of R Plus Seven instead saw him work extensively with the synthetic sounds of MIDI instruments and presets, synth patches and VSTs. [4] He also incorporated procedural composing methods and spoken word script samples created from a range of texts. [4] It is the first Oneohtrix Point Never record not to feature Lopatin's signature Roland Juno-60 synthesizer. [4] Regarding the sonic palette, he explained:
I like to be manipulated by the sounds I'm using, and then struggle to find some sort of commonality with those things [...] When I play a pipe organ or have this like Hollywood choir at my disposal, it's going to tap into some kind of cliché matrix of ideas in my mind, and allow me to wrestle with it. [4]
Lopatin would later describe it as a "calm" record influenced by and aiming to musically capture his experience of "domestic bliss", [5] and also confessed to being influenced by the ideas of object-oriented ontology and American contemporary artist Takeshi Murata, specifically "this idea of musical objects – instead of focusing on music, thinking of sounds as these acute choices that are grouped together, that create a sense of place, a cultural sense of contrast [...] a way of giving inanimate objects a kind of secret life." [6]
The cover art is a reproduced still taken from the 1982 experimental film Le ravissement de Frank N. Stein by Swiss animator Georges Schwizgebel. [7] The album title is a reference to the procedural writing technique, "N+7", used by French writing group Oulipo, which involves replacing any noun in a text with the seventh one to follow it in a dictionary. [8]
The sound palette of R Plus Seven incorporates a range of synthesized sounds spanning textures from early samplers, clear-sounding presets from the 1980s and 1990s, and modern "realist" virtual instruments found on DAWs. [1] Pitchfork 's Mark Richardson said that the album plays with "our collective unconscious of music technology" to make something "strange and otherworldly and, most importantly, rich with feeling." [1] He stated that "there's a weird kind of innocence in this sound palette," comparing it to James Ferraro's 2011 album Far Side Virtual which similarly extensively incorporated digital instrumentation, but added that "Lopatin's music doesn't get hung up on irony, even though it's definitely in the mix." [1] Adam Harper of Dummy compared the album to English experimental group Art of Noise, writing that it "might be what the computer that used to work for the Art of Noise does on its own time, an AI enthusiastically generating art, who once wouldn't admit to preferring modernism to postmodernism but now refuses to be ironic or ashamed of the so-called uncanny valley." [9] Andy Battaglia of Rolling Stone described the album as being akin to "holy music, even if wholly weird," and compared it to the works of composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich in terms of rhythm and repetition. [10] Richardson referred to the album as "Fifth World Music", an allusion to Jon Hassell and Brian Eno's Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics , which similarly blended natural imagery with manipulated sound and synthesized sounds. [1] The Skinny wrote that every song is significantly different in structure and timbre, with some songs playing on feelings reminiscent of cosmic jazz music. [11] AllMusic wrote that "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." [12]
Tracks like "Americans" and "Inside World" have been described as musically exploring differences between the Real and virtual representations of "realness", using then-exotic "turn-of-the-80s" sounds found on samplers of the time like the Fairlight CMI and the E-mu Emulator as well as other delicate digital sounds to conjure stilted and sterilized imagery of jungles, beaches, forests and home environments. [1] According to David Wolfson of Beat per Minute, R Plus Seven explores themes of morphogenesis, procedural composition and cryogenics. [13] Describing the song "Zebra" in particular, Wolfson observed a "lively synth progression in the first part of the song" serving as the refrain for "an exercise in procedural composition", followed by "the claustrophobic ambient space of the second part" serving as "a representation of cryogenics", concluding that "the way the song progresses from section to section, with parts building up before splintering off into something completely new, is entirely morphogenetic in form." [13]
Between the announcement and the eventual release of R Plus Seven, Lopatin collaborated with a number of contemporary artists on visual accompaniments to tracks and updates on the official OPN website. The first was an excerpt of "Still Life", released with a video by Nate Boyce, a frequent collaborator with Oneohtrix Point Never's live shows and subsequent director of his music videos. [14] A video for "Problem Areas" by Takeshi Murata [15] followed at the beginning of August alongside an interactive version at pointnever.com. [16] The second update to the site came from American visual artist Jacob Ciocci alongside the song "Zebra" at the beginning of September [17] with a final video prior to the release directed by Jon Rafman for the song "Still Life". Pitchfork described the video in an article dated September 25, 2013, as it being a piece that:
[...] collects bizarre and disturbing low-grade internet footage—images of decrepit computer systems, strange anime art and characters posing for webcams, a few Furries, and more, bookended by clips of a man who looks like he's about to blast his own brains out.
A final video for "Boring Angel", directed by American digital artist John Michael Boling, appeared in December 2013. [18]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 7.7/10 [19] |
Metacritic | 81/100 [20] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [12] |
Consequence of Sound | [21] |
Exclaim! | 8/10 [22] |
Mojo | [23] |
NME | 6/10 [2] |
Pitchfork | 8.4/10 [1] |
Q | [24] |
Rolling Stone | [10] |
Spin | 8/10 [3] |
XLR8R | 9.5/10 [25] |
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 81, based on 30 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". [20] On the album, Heather Phares of AllMusic wrote: "For the most part, the album showcases Oneohtrix Point Never's restlessness and ambition in flattering ways; if it's equal parts mystifying and beautiful, it's also a puzzle well worth trying to figure out." [12] Sasha Geffen of Consequence of Sound stated: "R Plus Seven might be the first album to crystallize the simultaneous joy and terror inherent in a life of constant connection and constant surveillance. With music that simultaneously unnerves and pleases, Lopatin digs out the ghost in the algorithm." [21] Mark Richardson of Pitchfork noted the album's conceptual merits but stated that "you don’t listen to this record thinking about theory; it’s beautiful stuff, with chords and tunes and sections you remember," concluding "R Plus Seven doesn’t have quite the disembodied weirdness of Replica , but it’s no less accomplished, another intriguing chapter from an artist whose work remains alive with possibility." [1]
Marty Sartini Garner of Filter also compared the album to the artist's previous work: "R Plus Seven isn’t the masterpiece of technical error that its predecessor was; it’s the dissection of a heart." [26] Andy Beta of Spin wrote: "With his first album for Warp, OPN proves his mettle amid labelmates like Aphex Twin and Flying Lotus." [3] Bram E. Gieben of The Skinny stated: "A visionary artist at the height of his powers, this is in many ways his most accessible and uplifting work so far," while also adding that "each track contains distinct movements, bearing out the occasional comparisons made between Lopatin's work and classical composition." [11] Nevertheless, Louis Pattison of NME was mixed in his assessment of the record: "There are a few moments of elegant sensuality--like the tumbling, androgynous voices of 'He She'--but by and large it's like one of Jeff Koons' uber-kitsch sculptures: gleaming, opulent, but kinda hard to love." [2]
R Plus Seven was on several year-end lists by critics, topping Tiny Mix Tapes 's year-end list [27] and ranking at number 43 on the annual poll Pazz & Jop by The Village Voice . [28]
Publication | Rank | Ref |
---|---|---|
Year-end | ||
CMJ | 20 | [29] |
Consequence of Sound | 16 | [30] |
Drowned in Sound | 59 | [31] |
Exclaim! (Dance and Electronic) | 9 | [32] |
Fact | 34 | [33] |
Gorilla vs. Bear | 5 | [34] |
musicOMH | 83 | [35] |
Pitchfork Media | 24 | [36] |
The Quietus | 18 | [37] |
Spin | 23 | [38] |
Sputnikmusic | 28 | [39] |
Stereogum | 30 | [40] |
Tiny Mix Tapes | 1 | [27] |
The Village Voice (Pazz & Jop) | 43 | [28] |
The Wire | 6 | [41] |
XLR8R | 3 | [42] |
2010–2014 | ||
Fact | 75 | [43] |
All music is composed by Daniel Lopatin
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Boring Angel" | 4:16 |
2. | "Americans" | 5:17 |
3. | "He She" | 1:32 |
4. | "Inside World" | 3:53 |
5. | "Zebra" | 6:44 |
6. | "Along" | 5:23 |
7. | "Problem Areas" | 3:06 |
8. | "Cryo" | 2:47 |
9. | "Still Life" | 4:53 |
10. | "Chrome Country" | 5:05 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
11. | "Gone" | 1:06 |
R Plus Seven personnel, as adapted from AllMusic. [44]
Chart (2013) | Peak position |
---|---|
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [45] | 111 |
UK Albums (OCC) [46] | 134 |
UK Dance Albums (OCC) [47] | 28 |
UK Independent Albums (OCC) [48] | 37 |
US Top Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard) [49] | 11 |
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard) [50] | 16 |
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.
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.
Arthur Ashin, known professionally as Autre Ne Veut, is an American singer-songwriter and musician from New York City.
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.
Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1 is a 2010 album of remixes by American electronic musician Daniel Lopatin under the pseudonym Chuck Person. Its tracks consist of chopped, looped samples of various songs—including popular songs from the 1980s and 1990s—processed with effects such as delay, reverb, and pitch shifting; the results highlight mournful or existential moments from the sources. It was used as an initial template for the vaporwave internet microgenre.
Rifts is a 2009 compilation album by Oneohtrix Point Never, the solo alias of Brooklyn electronic musician Daniel Lopatin. The album collects Lopatin's early synth-based recordings under the moniker dating back to 2003, including the three limited-run LPs Betrayed in the Octagon (2007), Zones Without People (2009) and Russian Mind (2009), as well as several additional cassette and CD-R releases. It was originally released on No Fun Productions in 2009 as a 2 disc set.
Hopelessness is the debut solo album by British-American artist Anohni, frontwoman of Anohni and the Johnsons, released on 6 May 2016 on Secretly Canadian, Rough Trade, and Hostess. Featuring co-production by Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix Point Never, the album departs from the chamber pop style of her previous work, instead exploring an electronic sound and engaging directly with political and environmental themes in the form of protest songs.
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.
Memory Vague is a 2009 audio-visual project by Oneohtrix Point Never, the alias of electronic musician Daniel Lopatin. It was released as a limited-edition DVD-R by Root Strata on June 1, 2009.
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.
Good Time (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is a soundtrack album by American electronic musician Oneohtrix Point Never, containing the score for the Safdie brothers' 2017 film Good Time. It was released on August 10, 2017 via Warp Records.
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.
Robert Beatty is an American artist and musician based in Lexington, Kentucky, best known for his noise band Hair Police, his solo project Three Legged Race, and most recently for his work designing album covers, including Tame Impala's Currents (2015), Kesha's Rainbow (2017), and limited-edition artwork for The Weeknd's Dawn FM (2022).
Magic Oneohtrix Point Never is the ninth studio album by American electronic producer Daniel Lopatin, under his alias Oneohtrix Point Never, released on October 30, 2020, via Warp. The album draws on a psychedelic radio aesthetic strongly inspired by Magic 106.7, the mondegreen namesake of Lopatin's project, and was recorded during COVID-19 lockdowns, between March and July 2020.
Again is the tenth studio album by American electronic producer Daniel Lopatin, under his alias Oneohtrix Point Never. It was released on September 29, 2023, via Warp.