Again

Each album from Oneohtrix Point Never, the project of songwriter and producer Daniel Lopatin, is informed by an open-ended theme or prompt. This allows each release to feel tied to some general philosophy while still being wholly unique. On 2015’s *Garden of Delete*, he made songs built around made-up scrapped vocals from pop stars; 2018’s *Age Of* pictured a world gone insane, with nothing left but artificial intelligence to determine what cultural touchstones were deemed worth keeping. On his 2023 album *Again*, the artist once again concocts a daring concept, this time imagining the project as a conversation between his current and former selves. On the album he asks, “What’s worth keeping? What do we throw away?” Among the detritus that inherently comes alongside radical technological development, what will outlast us? Lopatin recruited a number of collaborators for the project, including Robert Ames, Lee Ranaldo, Jim O’Rourke, Xiu Xiu, and Lovesliescrushing. While they’re mostly disparate in spirit, each artist has at times toyed with the interplay between electric and acoustic clashes, which Lopatin highlights on *Again*. Gorgeously arranged string suites come crashing against grating synths on the title track; massive electronic drums launch Lopatin’s voice towards the heavens on “Krumville.” Acoustic guitar strums get similarly propelled on “Memories of Music.” Lopatin collides sounds from different eras of his discography, highlighting both the diversity of his work and the underlying ideas he returns to time and again. There’s no such thing as *one* Oneohtrix Point Never signature sound; Lopatin’s ear is too shifty, too excited by what comes next and how it emerges. His trademark is a hodgepodge of inspirations—from full orchestral symphonies to barely perceptible VCR buzz. On *Again*, Daniel Lopatin taps into all these worlds—the ones he has created and the futures he imagines—to capture a moment in time, before it shifts once again.

Daniel Lopatin returns with a nostalgic jam session full of proggy synth passages and ’90s alt-rock touches. It leaves a lot to admire but a little less to think about.

Daniel Lopatin’s new experimental Oneohtrix Point Never LP Again weds strings and electronics over 13 distinct tracks. Read our review.

A few months back, a question on Twitter sparked debate amongst music fans: who is this generation’s equivalent of Brian Eno? Debate surged back and

Again by Oneohtrix Point Never album review: another formidable challenge from Daniel Lopatin, his generation's Brian Eno

Oneohtrix Point Never’s ‘Again’ sounds as if every single MP3 file on a hard drive was corrupted beyond the point of recognition.

Daniel Lopatin now adds post-rock, prog and artificial intelligence to his melting pot of avant garde electronics

Magnificently deranged electronic futurism from US producer. Album New Music review by Thomas H Green