R Plus Seven


R Plus Seven is the sixth studio album by American electronic musician Oneohtrix Point Never. Released on September 30, 2013, it is Lopatin’s first release on UK electronic label Warp. The album's musical palette draws heavily on the synthetic sounds of MIDI instruments, synth presets, and VSTs.
R Plus Seven received generally positive reviews from critics and was included on the year-end lists of several music publications. Its release came alongside several collaborations on visual accompaniment with artists such as Jon Rafman, Takeshi Murata, and Nate Boyce.

Background and recording

Following the sample-based techniques of Replica, which drew on lo-fi audio sources, the recording of R Plus Seven saw Lopatin work extensively with the synthetic sounds of MIDI instruments and presets, synth patches and VSTs, as well as procedural composing methods and spoken word script samples. It is the first Oneohtrix Point Never record not to feature Lopatin's signature Roland Juno-60 synthesizer. Regarding the sonic palette, he explained
I like to be manipulated by the sounds I'm using, and then struggle to find some sort of commonality with those things When I play a pipe organ or have this like Hollywood choir at my disposal, it's going to tap into some kind of cliché matrix of ideas in my mind, and allow me to wrestle with it."
Lopatin would later describe it as a "calm" record influenced by his experience of "domestic bliss." He also confessed to being influenced by the ideas of object-oriented ontology and the artist Takeshi Murata, specifically “this idea of musical objects – instead of focusing on music, thinking of sounds as these acute choices that are grouped together, that create a sense of place, a cultural sense of contrast a way of giving inanimate objects a kind of secret life.”
The cover art is a still taken from the 1982 experimental film Le ravissement de Frank N. Stein, by Swiss animator Georges Schwizgebel. The album title is a reference to the French procedural writing technique Oulipo, which can involve the "N+7" technique of replacing any noun with the seventh one to follow it in the dictionary.

Composition

R Plus Seven includes synthetic sounds ranging from that of early samplers and clear-sounding presets from the 1980s, to modern 'realist' virtual instruments found on DAWs. Pitchforks Mark Richardson said that the album plays with "our collective unconscious of music technology" to make something "strange and otherworldly and, most importantly, rich with feeling." He stated that "there’s a weird kind of innocence in this sound palette," comparing it to James Ferraro's 2011 album Far Side Virtual but adding that "Lopatin’s music doesn’t get hung up on irony, even though it's definitely in the mix." Adam Harper of Dummy wrote that "The album might be what the computer that used to work for the Art of Noise does on its own time, an AI enthusiastically generating art, who once wouldn't admit to preferring modernism to postmodernism but now refuses to be ironic or ashamed of the so-called uncanny valley." Andy Battaglia of Rolling Stone described the album as "holy music, even if wholly weird," and compared it to the works of composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich in terms of rhythm and repetition. The Skinny wrote that every song is significantly different in structure and timbre, with some songs playing on feelings reminiscent of cosmic jazz music. AllMusic wrote that "its subversive glossiness suggests that its tracks were made from pop songs that were shattered into shards that are as alluring as they are difficult to piece together."
Tracks like "Americans" and "Inside World" have been described as musically exploring differences between the Real and virtual representations of 'realness', using then-exotic "turn-of-the-80s" sounds found on samplers of the time like the Fairlight CMI and the E-mu Emulator, as well as other delicate digital sounds, that conjure stilted and sterilized imagery of jungles, beaches, forests and home environments. Richardson referred to the album as "Fifth World Music", an allusion to by Jon Hassell and Brian Eno, which similarly takes on natural imagery with synthesizers. According to David Wolfson of Beat per Minute, unlike past Oneohtrix Point Never records, R Plus Seven explores themes of morphogenesis, procedural composition and cryogenics. Describing the song "Zebra," Wolfson stated, "The lively synth progression in the first part of the song is an exercise in procedural composition, the claustrophobic ambient space of the second part a representation of cryogenics, and the way the song progresses from section to section, with parts building up before splintering off into something completely new, is entirely morphogenetic in form."

Visual collaborations

Between announcement and the eventual release of R Plus Seven, Oneohtrix collaborated with a number of artists on visual accompaniments to tracks and updates on his website. The first was an excerpt of "Still Life," released with a video by Nate Boyce, a frequent collaborator on the Oneohtrix Point Never live show. A video for "Problem Areas," by the animator and digital artist Takeshi Murata, followed at the beginning of August alongside an interactive version at pointnever.com. The second update to the site came from Jacob Ciocci alongside the song "Zebra" at the beginning of September with a final video prior to the release directed by Jon Rafman for the song "Still Life". Pitchfork described the video in an article dated September 25, 2013, as it being a piece that:
A final video for "Boring Angel," directed by John Michael Boling, appeared in December of 2013.

Critical reception

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 81, based on 30 reviews. On the album, Heather Phares of AllMusic wrote: "For the most part, the album showcases Oneohtrix Point Never's restlessness and ambition in flattering ways; if it's equal parts mystifying and beautiful, it's also a puzzle well worth trying to figure out." Sasha Geffen of Consequence of Sound stated: "R Plus Seven might be the first album to crystallize the simultaneous joy and terror inherent in a life of constant connection and constant surveillance. With music that simultaneously unnerves and pleases, Lopatin digs out the ghost in the algorithm." Mark Richardson of Pitchfork noted the album's conceptual merits but stated that "you don’t listen to this record thinking about theory; it’s beautiful stuff, with chords and tunes and sections you remember," concluding "R Plus Seven doesn’t have quite the disembodied weirdness of Replica, but it’s no less accomplished, another intriguing chapter from an artist whose work remains alive with possibility."
Marty Sartini Garner of Filter also compared the album to the artist's previous work: "R Plus Seven isn’t the masterpiece of technical error that its predecessor was; it’s the dissection of a heart." Andy Beta of Spin wrote: "With his first album for Warp, OPN proves his mettle amid labelmates like Aphex Twin and Flying Lotus." Bram E. Gieben of The Skinny stated: "A visionary artist at the height of his powers, this is in many ways his most accessible and uplifting work so far," while also adding that "each track contains distinct movements, bearing out the occasional comparisons made between Lopatin's work and classical composition." Nevertheless, Louis Pattison of NME was mixed in his assessment of the record: "There are a few moments of elegant sensuality--like the tumbling, androgynous voices of 'He She'--but by and large it's like one of Jeff Koons' uber-kitsch sculptures: gleaming, opulent, but kinda hard to love."

Accolades

R Plus Seven was on several year-end lists by critics, topping Tiny Mix Tapes' year-end list and ranking at number 43 on the annual poll Pazz & Jop by The Village Voice.

Track listing

Personnel

R Plus Seven personnel, as adapted from AllMusic.