Oneohtrix Point Never’s Timbre Rich Narrative in The Station

Oneohtrix Point Never | The Station | Warp Records

Release date: 27 July 2018

Written by Jenna Dreisenstock

A companionship in the traverse of juxtaposing sound, the willingness to explore new territory in personality and inspiration sings collective and individual – to create without suspension and allow timbres to slow through one another.

American composer and producer Oneohtrix Point Never (aka Daniel Lopatin) embraces the expressive in his latest EP, entitled The Station as it sings in narrative to his previous eight studio album Age Of, in which title track ‘The Station’ makes an appearance, and intricately greets us in this EP; an introduction of the three brand new tracks on the album. With an eager exploration of timbre and interwoven experiments, The Station EP relays to us a continued narrative in Lopatin’s voice.

Drenched in the soak of reflection, ‘The Station’ opens in the sing of acoustic strings; a melody plucked traditional, Lopatin’s saccharine, metallic vocals ease in and beckon, dreamlike in auto-tune juxtaposition. The vocal line sings sweetly in a slight melancholia with abrupt. halts. As the melody of the guitar weaves through robotic tender. Curious percussive texture drives the track into electronic wave, as the timbre seeps through the mechanical and traditional – and the glide of distorted guitar as the soundscape layers in intricate tone. The overlap of textural guitar harmonies dance with one another as the track builds to a climatic soundscape, studded with experimental synth-love and a harsh dance amongst string  melody and venturing into the experimental.

Alien voices gurgle in a bubble seascape as ‘Monody’ sweeps experimental in its introduction. Distant sci-fi-esque extraterrestrial timbres drive to minor melody, before embracing the lover of a synth-wave kaleidoscope. A muffled synth gliding percussive amongst a milky way dance and shimmer, the track drives forward in a upbeat confidence. The other-worldly industrial of percussive layers dims into an eerie ambience, reflective and curious before returning in synthwave dance; heavy in immersion as layers bloom and engulf like an ocean.

With a focus on the experimental and ambient, ‘Blow by Blow’ greets us in an industrial, tenderly ambient grind, simmering with sparking textural electronics in glowing embers as the track ventures in companionship with the collaborative timbres; a prominent pulse and glitch heavy in it’s embrace. A submerge into a seascape of visceral electronic texture and experimentation, the track glimmers dark blue heaviness in gently pulsing tempo. The siren song of confident keys brings theatrical melodrama in contrast, sewing stitches into synth overwhelm of seamlessly changing moods. From a strong electronic influence to traditional keys, the track builds a foundation of ambience, elements of drone and dance in it’s outro, tying the tone together in intricate soundscape.

The extraterrestrial of Lopatin’s sound sings strong in effect-soaked UFO soar, treble melodic synth opening ‘Trance 1’, with the heaviness of a soundscape static forming the timbre and layering it’s twilight-scape in a hypnotic haze, the allure clutching as the haze pieces over and over into an engulf of being. A theatrical track, ‘Trance 1’ captures sci-fi synths and auditory exposure in it’s sphere of experimental haze.

The Station captures the auditory exploration with experimental willingness, a combination of melodrama and ambience in continuation of Lopatin’s distinct style hypnotizes in both traditional synthwave and traditional instruments with the EP’s juxtaposition of tone and a genre stitch and woven seam of Oneohtrix Point Never’s auditory journey.

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