Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica ALBUM REVIEW
I just want this cover framed.
Experimental music can be a tough sect of music to get into. I know it’s the basic line for this, but what else do I have to start with? Especially when it comes to electronic and ambient music, it can be very off-putting, yet it can also be hypnotic and genuinely great to listen to in a good amount of settings. If I’m being totally honest, I’ve been dying to talk about this project ever since I began writing reviews like this. Daniel Lopatin has had a hell of a career, with basically pioneering a whole genre with vaporwave over a decade ago under the Chuck Person alias, getting into scoring films with the Safdie Brothers, and also becoming an all-star collaborator with The Weeknd for his past two albums. I’ve written about his last studio album, 2020’s high concept Magic Oneohtrix Point Never, and I still enjoy it. However, this one is, cutting out all the fluff, the one. The first time I heard this album, 2011’s Replica, is one of the only moments in my music-listening/music-reviewing time where a shift in my music taste happened. How the hell did this happen? What is it about this album that made me go “HOLY SHIT?” Let me tell you.
In an interview promoting the album, Lopatin said that the entirety of this album was composed of old commercials from the 1980s and 90s from VHS tapes and stitched the album together from them. I think the creativity of the album was already there, even if the concept of the album just seems a little plain on paper. However, once you take a listen to it, that’s really all it is: a blank, oddly empty, canvas. Even the cover itself, the man seeing a skeleton in his own reflection, is a pretty damn accurate description of how I feel listening to it: just… blank. Although, the loops chosen basically feel like isolated melodies that somehow work in this context. Just as an aside, if you don’t get chills on the opening track “Andro,” I have no idea what to tell you.
Like Lopatin’s Chuck Person project, I think that 0PN is just as influential in electronic music. Looking back on the nearly eleven years since Replica’s release, there’s been a shift in progressive electronic music that could most likely be pinpointed to this album. While it certainly could be used as background music, it demands and deserves to have its own attention. I’ve always had trouble writing about electronic music, and if I’m being honest, I’m kind of at a loss for words about this album. It’s not that I don’t know what to write about. It’s one of my favorite albums of all time and changed my direction of what music I listen to, but I’ve been sitting here trying to think and there are just some things in life that you can’t put into words. Replica is just that album for me, and I’ll forever thank Daniel Lopatin for bringing it to life.
10/10
Listen here
Spotify
Apple Music
YouTube
Bandcamp
Replica is a Mexican Summer release.
Experimental music can be a tough sect of music to get into. I know it’s the basic line for this, but what else do I have to start with? Especially when it comes to electronic and ambient music, it can be very off-putting, yet it can also be hypnotic and genuinely great to listen to in a good amount of settings. If I’m being totally honest, I’ve been dying to talk about this project ever since I began writing reviews like this. Daniel Lopatin has had a hell of a career, with basically pioneering a whole genre with vaporwave over a decade ago under the Chuck Person alias, getting into scoring films with the Safdie Brothers, and also becoming an all-star collaborator with The Weeknd for his past two albums. I’ve written about his last studio album, 2020’s high concept Magic Oneohtrix Point Never, and I still enjoy it. However, this one is, cutting out all the fluff, the one. The first time I heard this album, 2011’s Replica, is one of the only moments in my music-listening/music-reviewing time where a shift in my music taste happened. How the hell did this happen? What is it about this album that made me go “HOLY SHIT?” Let me tell you.
In an interview promoting the album, Lopatin said that the entirety of this album was composed of old commercials from the 1980s and 90s from VHS tapes and stitched the album together from them. I think the creativity of the album was already there, even if the concept of the album just seems a little plain on paper. However, once you take a listen to it, that’s really all it is: a blank, oddly empty, canvas. Even the cover itself, the man seeing a skeleton in his own reflection, is a pretty damn accurate description of how I feel listening to it: just… blank. Although, the loops chosen basically feel like isolated melodies that somehow work in this context. Just as an aside, if you don’t get chills on the opening track “Andro,” I have no idea what to tell you.
Like Lopatin’s Chuck Person project, I think that 0PN is just as influential in electronic music. Looking back on the nearly eleven years since Replica’s release, there’s been a shift in progressive electronic music that could most likely be pinpointed to this album. While it certainly could be used as background music, it demands and deserves to have its own attention. I’ve always had trouble writing about electronic music, and if I’m being honest, I’m kind of at a loss for words about this album. It’s not that I don’t know what to write about. It’s one of my favorite albums of all time and changed my direction of what music I listen to, but I’ve been sitting here trying to think and there are just some things in life that you can’t put into words. Replica is just that album for me, and I’ll forever thank Daniel Lopatin for bringing it to life.
10/10
Listen here
Spotify
Apple Music
YouTube
Bandcamp
Replica is a Mexican Summer release.
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