It's hard to pin Oneohtrix Point Never down to any one spot. The ambient project of Dan Lopatin hints at drone, but the pieces never stick around long enough. For 2011's Replica Lopatin drew from TV ad compilations to create dense and cluttered atmospheres that seemed to float away just as you were settling in. But there is a certain form of repetition that lies just beneath the surface of the album that tied it all neatly together. What seemed chaotic at first blush is able to draw you into a trance like state without you being aware. The way the samples are chopped on Replica might recall the Books, but Lopatin is more concerned with texture than actual words. Simple loops move in and out of each other, whole passages drifting by before you're able to get bored with them. Lopatin mines the sonic terrain that is all around us to create pastoral vignettes that remind us of everywhere and nowhere all at once.

• black vinyl pressing
• music label: Software 2011

reviewed by Michu Meszaros 03/2016