Oneohtrix Point Never - Garden Of Delete (Album Review)

 

Oneohtrix Point Never - Garden Of Delete

(2015)

My copy: 2015 press by Warp Records.

Daniel Lopatin’s popular back catalog often focused on slow, meticulous cultivation of atmosphere - occasionally weaving in distorted samples of TV ads or warped speaking. Garden Of Delete pushes the production side of Lopatin’s work to the core focus, with maximalist IDM jigsaw puzzles that twist samples into stilted, restless arrangements of glitched out melody. “Chopped and screwed” is perhaps too light for what Lopatin has done to the handful of pop music samples across Garden Of Delete, perhaps “warped and fucked” would better fit this strange and dystopian reimagining of popular culture. 

The album immediately opens with uncanny vocal samples that have been shifted in pitch and stretched into demonic mutterings - then “Ezra” whisks us off into OPN’s new world of sample-based projections of rhythm. “Ezra” is mostly stunted with unintelligible singing that has been affected to sound robotic and glitched, until bursts of looping percussion and synth stick things more firmly into the IDM category. “Eccojamc1” is a cute vaporwave throwback to Lopatin’s Chuck Person identity via ominous slowed vocal samples. “Sticky Drama” turns regal with string sounds but tears of distortion crash the party with haunted female pop vocals spearheading crazed electronic choruses. 

While the idm ephemera is seductive, the hyper approach to melodic progressions can be off-putting - this is at times most similar to the Books but with no sense of humor and more rapid shifts in structure. “Mutant Standard,” however, is patient and tense with a steady backbone of percussive loops. Melodies and synth patches are stitched together at a moments notice, the composition contracting and expanding on a whim like a glitched program. The more settled ambiance of “Child Of Rage” is complemented by EQ affected ricocheting mallets and later ghostly drones - this also contains a nice moment of tranquility. “Animals” oozes at the seams with low-bit-rate chirps, like the soundtrack to a dark computer game from the early 90s. 

Glitching and punching through buggy drum loops, “I Bite Through It” eventually touches further on the Books as it crosses an intersection of acoustic manipulation and digital hijinx. “Freaky Eyes” shows promise in its strange chord movements, but ends up feeling noncommittal and aimless. “Lift” turns a cheesy guitar sample into a reflective and melancholy moment while “No Good” sends the album off with further chaos, disallowing a quiet death for the record. 

Garden Of Delete aptly feels like a digital graveyard in which the ghosts of past radio hits are given eerie new life through winding corridors of IDM intrigue. The tone is consistently dark - something that is mostly immersive but sometimes regretful. The unstable nature of the writing is a sign that either too many ideas were condensed into single songs or that the artist intentionally avoided simplicity at all costs. Garden Of Delete is still a stimulating adventure with a vibe that lies somewhere between cyberpunk dystopia and haunted corn maze, even in spite of some overly-ambitious gambles.