Stephen Mejias

Oneohtrix Point Never is young electronic composer Daniel Lopatin. His critically acclaimed Returnal shook my listening room walls, clattered around in my mind, and stirred my soul. While more lighthearted recent collaborations with Joel Ford (first under the guise of “Games” and later simply as “Ford and Lopatin”) haven’t reached the same emotional depths, news of Lopatin’s upcoming album, Replica, is intriguing.

The press release states that Replica is “an electronic song-cycle based around lo-fi audio, procured from television advertisement compilations…. Lopatin’s commitment to his [Roland] Juno-60 [polyphonic analog synthesizer] is still on display, but the placid, synthetic surroundings of Returnal are accelerated via darker, propulsive terrains using samplers, analog filtering, tape manipulation, acoustic piano, plate reverb, and sub-frequencies.”

Lopatin adds: “Replica has as much to do with environmental, broadcasted, and club sounds as it does with more direct musical influences.”

Mastered by Joe Lambert (Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, Dan Deacon) and mixed by Lopatin’s childhood friend, Al Carlson, at the Mexican Summer studio in Brooklyn, NY, Replica is Oneohtrix Point Never’s first proper studio album. It is scheduled to be released by Software/Mexican Summer on November 5th.

Lopatin recently performed at John Zorn’s venue, The Stone, in NYC, and has upcoming dates at the Hopscotch Fest (September 8) in Raleigh, NC, and the Moogfest (October 28) in Asheville, NC. In addition, the FRKWYS Borden Ensemble, led by accomplished pianist and minimalist composer David Borden and featuring Lopatin, Laurel Halo, James Ferraro, and Samuel Goldin, will perform at Pittsburg’s Carnegie Melon University on October 6.