Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: Daniel Lopatin is not a new name to clued-in electronic fans at all, the American MIDI magician has been operating under the alias Oneohtrix Point Never for almost a decade and a half at this point. From working the keys for The Weeknd, going back and forth with artistic adoration to Caroline Polachek and having the late Ryuichi Sakamoto's official stamp of approval, OPN is just as impressive in the shadows as he is in the light. Again is the follow-up record to fan favourite Magic and his main focus after serving as executive producer for The Weeknd's 80s synth-wave smash 'Dawn FM'. A pared-back rollout has given way to just one single, album closer 'A Barely Lit Path'. Pretty-as-can-be strings bend the knee to blasts of digitised noise, the two dancing back and forth with one another across the rollercoaster six-minute runtime. Grandiose operatics and revered choir vocals glide over a swelling string section, pinned together with a throbbing electronic rhythm patch before collapsing into emptiness. It is majestic, emotional and nothing less than to be expected from OPN.

Review: Given his recent stint producing The Weeknd, you might have been expecting a drastic turn towards the mainstream on this LP, but Again is as complex and challenging a listen as ever, spanning everything from Mingus-in-space double bass reflection to walls of blazing, My Bloody Valentine-style guitar textures. It's the kind of album that'll take a few listens to really get your head around, but it's more than worth it, a proper trip.

Review: Since the release of his last album as Oneohtrix Point Never in 2020, Daniel Lopatin has kept himself busy. Yet for all the high-profile projects - scoring films, producing other artists albums and conjuring up The Weeknd's 2021 half-time show - fans have missed his solo work. Again, his 14th (we think) solo album, is therefore not only big news, but also a pleasingly grandiose conceptual affair - a musical "speculative autobiography" which reportedly imagines "what might have been". Musically, it's typically adventurous, constantly shifting between sounds, styles and instrumental textures; one minute you're hearing star-fall electronics mixed with choirs of children, the next neo-trance style riffs mixed with luscious strings or cinematic style orchestration. Like much of Lopatin's work, it inhibits its' own musical world, and there are very few artists capable of achieving that.

Review: Having firmly established himself as one of the foremost experimental producers of the past decade with albums like Replica, Returnal, and Rifts, Daniel Lopatin here makes the logical move to electronic music bastion Warp Records. On first listen R Plus Seven is quite unlike any of his other records, largely eschewing the arpeggiated drones of his early work and sample-based collages of his last album for something much more vivid. Coming across like a combination of the emotive minimalism of Terry Riley and Steve Reich, and the hyperreality of James Ferraro's Far Side Virtual, R Plus Seven nevertheless stakes its own claim in the world of post-everything electronic music, combining delicate, introspective moods with shocking moments of recognisable sonic signification. Quite possibly Lopatin's best album to date.