A Lot on My Crate

Daniel Lopatin under the moniker of Oneohtrix Point Never, is someone I’ve heard of many times, but never got into until recently. Not that I didn’t want to, because the man is hailed as a pioneer of groundbreaking electronic music. However, I’ve never done a deep dive as I haven’t had time to. I remembered liking a track off of his Replica album, which was this weird enigmatic track full of ethereal keys and unhinged breathing on “Sleep Dealer.” So, all that was the extent of all my knowledge of Lopatin. He’s just known as an experimental guy to me. But this experimental guy has done mountains of work with eleven studio albums under his belt, with six of them being with Warp Records including Tranquilizer. He’s also collaborated with FKA Twigs, and the Weeknd, so thankfully he’s being properly recognized for his work. The release of Tranquilizer was met with a lot of acclaim right off the bat, so it piqued my curiosity. The album seemed to be in my wheelhouse as it was a lot of layered ambient soundscapes, but it was not a captivating first listen. So wondering if it was me, I decided to actually sit down with proper headphones and give this album another college try. To my surprise, I appreciated the album buku amounts more and listened to this multiple times. There’s a lot of complexity within this New Age album and follows no specific formula. It provides a lush and ethereal atmosphere that makes me feel like I want to float in the air. Lopatin revealed that the development of this album is basically a passion project of using samples from libraries of the 90s. So, giving us a lens of how he made this monster of a project, I’ll go ahead and give you the rundown on why Tranquilizer is something you shouldn’t “sleep” on. I am so sorry for that….

Even after multiple listens, I couldn’t get into the lukewarm start of “For Residue.” I know it’s supposed to be a taste tester of things to come, but it hasn’t got me engaged enough to prepare for this spiritual experience. It was too wallpaper for me. “Bumpy” was very interesting as it is this glitchy calm soundscape. With these celestial synth sounds and that come in at sporadic times. It has its swells and it sounds so out of this world to me. “Lifeworld” has these tribal hand drums and distorted warbled sounds going into this haunted theme just grabbed my attention. The looping motif of this track made it very memorable to me and I always go back to it. If you want to be taken to an actual spiritual journey “Measuring Ruins” is a wild ride I would recommend. It’s very minimalist in the beginning, but the crescendos on those stuttering pads just does wonders to the human mind. It’s very calming, but very engaging. Two descriptors there that define the album as a whole. “Modern Lust” has a dynamic to it by growing from these soft yet mechanical percussive elements to these overlapping blends of jazz and synths just working in tangent to each other. And in the end of it the synths are singing its song and makes it sound so alien. “Vestigel” is just a delight for any ambient stans in the beginning and gets more chaotic to the point that it becomes jarring in the end. I know a lot of people love “Cherry Blue”. But even if it was not my cup of tea, I can still recognize the blending layers can be engaging with these pianos and synths answering each other. “D.I.S.” is another positive for me. It’s so glitchy and heavenly that it’s not afraid to almost destroy itself as the MIDI keys just go haywire. It then tapers into something so beautiful with this piano passage. Then we get into the titular track, “Tranquilizer”. It is this mysterious entity lurking in the shadows, but it leaves you unharmed in the end. The ending theme is back into its baseline of tranquility as this sinister segment leaves us. There’s this fun xylophone and pan flute segment on “Storm Show” as it is being layered with this tape and glitch noise. In the midpoint of the track, it goes into this really haunting as what it sounds like strings that makes you feel like you’re ascending…..and then it stops. It makes you take a breath and then takes us into this beautiful watery marimba passage that makes it pure bliss. “Petro” is probably the most simple track texture wise, but doesn’t take away the emotion it provokes. It gently pushes us with these simple chords throughout the whole track and it does nothing, but soothes you. “Rodl Glide” is just a crazy adventure. What makes Lopatin justify this minimalist jazz like beginning into this acid, IDM segment that has this groove that just makes me involuntarily move and ends things with this trippy vaporwave aesthetic. It’s the most different out of all the tracks, but it’s so much fun. I cannot lie. And we finish things off with a bang that is “Waterfalls”. The sample sounds used is a great aggregate of all of what makes this album so enriching. It’s epic and engaging with so many memorable moments that it make it an awesome closer.

It’s a long project and even though there were a few misses, it’s only a remarkable few. The start being a drag is one complaint and some others just seem too wallpaper for me. But that seems to be it.

Tranquilizer is such a dense, calm behemoth of an album that makes me appreciate the ideas and sounds that sprout from those sample libraries and Loptain’s brain. That mind palace of his must be cluttered with amazing sounds that I’m baffled on how a person can come up with this stuff. The hype is real on this album and I am on the train to Oneohtrix Point Never town. Population: a lot of people, since they praise Daniel and his works that it makes me want to go back and deep dive his discography. This is a headphones listen and you will be remiss if you skip on that immersive experience. It’s sounds you can almost touch. It’s sounds you can heal yourself with. It’s sounds you can escape with. A leap of faith is all it takes.

FAVORITE TRACKS: LIFEWORLD, MEASURING RUINS, MODERN LUST, VESTIGEL, D.I.S., TRANQUILIZER, STORM SHOW, PETRO, RODL GLIDE, WATERFALLS

LEAST FAVORITE: FEAR OF SYMMETRY

You can purchase this album on Bandcamp and his discography is also available for streaming.

https://oneohtrixpointnever.bandcamp.com/album/tranquilizer