Hey, look, it’s new Oneohtrix Point Never!!
Welp, the man is back to do some more solo work as he always stays busy, whether it’s producing for The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow or continuing to do film scores, including the upcoming Josh Safdie movie Marty Supreme. This is his 11th album under the OPN name, and apparently there’s some interesting behind the scenes stuff going on, as the sound palette draws from 1990s sample libraries via the Internet Archive. Given the words ‘1990s’, ‘archive’, ‘internet’ & ‘sample’, I sensed that there’s something here reminiscent of his Chuck Pearson days but no, don’t expect Eccojams Vol. 2.
The single roll-out has been… a lot since out of the 15 (maybe 16 if you’re counting the Japanese edition) tracks, half of the album was released as singles weekly on Mondays, which was annoying to me because we record the podcast on those nights. So I had to either avoid listening to all of them or just what we covered on Decibel Boost, although I did listen to “Measuring Ruins” a day after we recorded about the first 3 singles (the same with “Cherry Blue”), and now we have the full record.
After a few listens, I can easily say that this is the most OPN record I’ve listened to since Garden of Delete.
Garden of Delete was the first album of his I ever checked out, and it had that ambient/synth vibe that I lean towards, and I felt that here. I even felt that presence here more than his previous OPN works, and mainly that’s on the rompling happening here – and yes, rompling meaning ROM sampling.
The first three tracks – “For Residue”, “Bumpy” & “Lifeworld” – were also the first singles released, and the sound is like a computer starting up, and as we get into “Lifeworld,” it’s like the computer being used for whatever it’s doing from internet browsing to playing a game if your PC can handle that type of power. “Measuring Ruins” is one of my favorite tracks on the album with its calming and ethereal sound that’s very in-tune with what OPN has crafted throughout the years.
I also feel that a lot of what I’m going to say about the music here is that it reminds me of his score work, and that’s to be expected since he does quite a bit of work for movies and TV, but I always have that feeling even when listening to a recent album of his. That’s how I feel about the tracks “Modern Lust,” “Fear of Symmetry,” and “Vestigel,” although the latter does have more of an abrasive vibe in the beginning. “Cherry Blue” has this art-house score vibe that increases its intensity as the song goes on until the last few seconds. The music video for this compliments it even more, although it has flashing lights so those with epilepsy can’t experience it.
“D.I.S.” also has a great buildup until going into full video game arcade mode in the middle section and then slowing down near the end — it had that hyper-focus that went berserk. The title track “Tranquilizer” does live up to its name by being very tranquil throughout; “Storm Snow” did trigger a memory of when I first heard Eccojams near the 3 and half minute mark, and the crystallized production amps it up. “Rodl Glide“ sounds so smooth with so much groove and… OK, maybe me saying not to expect Eccojams is inaccurate because it sounds like it would be on that tape, and then halfway… the beat switches up to something you would expect Danny Brown to rap on. The closing track is “Waterfalls,” and again we got a sonically amazing track, especially with the synths and the heavenly sounds of the harpsichord which is a good way to end the album on.
This is probably not going to be a long explanation, but this album is ear candy. Again, this is something that rivals his past projects like Garden of Delete or Eccojams in terms of sound and execution, and while OPN’s past projects have gone in different directions each time, it’s nice to see something that reminds me of projects of his that I love.
FINAL VERDICT: BUY IT! The tranquil feeling of listening to this album increased tenfold.
TRANQUILIZER is on Ridge Valley Digital/Warp Records and available on physical formats, digital download and streaming services. Link is right here.