R Plus Seven - Onethetrix Point Never
I’m finding it a bit hard to say what I want to about this album. On my first listen, I figure it to be a heavily ambient inspired electronic record. RYM figures it as progressive electronic, and the only other record I’ve listened to in that specific genre is ‘для FOR’ by Kate NV, a Russian artist. Unlike Kate, R Plus Seven leans less on ambiance and more on texture.
Never focusing on one musical idea for long before jumping to the next, this album is both distracting and disorientating. The most grounded moments are found in the opening, the halfway point in ‘Zebra’ and the closing section of the final track. This framing is intentional, and the aspects that are disorientating are intentional, and both combine to make those grounded moments all the more satisfying. I think that is a both a major strength and a minor weakness of the album. It’s a nice idea to subvert the listener’s expectations (especially in an ambient style) but the longer the record goes on the more my interest wanes.
This album is truly great in some ways. It has an organic sound; you never know where it’s going and despite being programmed entirely using MIDI and samples is sounds very human-like. The textures are fantastic, and though each individual sound doesn’t isn’t far away from a preset you’d find in a synthesizer, the totality results in a great palette. A cold, interesting combination of textures.
This record isn’t enjoyable to the extent where I would call it a classic. Musically, it fails to tickle something in the brain. The strengths of this album are the vibe, textures, sounds and some of the composition. The first half of ‘Zebra’, and the closing of ‘Chrome Country’ are probably the best parts of the whole project. A strong melodic idea in ‘Zebra’ and a strong, frontwards organ in ‘Chrome Country’ give the listener something to latch onto after listening to 20 minutes of disconnected ideas. On the other hand, there are tracks like ‘Problem Areas’ that the ears cannot connect with. On ‘Problem Areas’ specifically, it’s a combination of a repetitive melody combined with my least favourite synth texture on the album. ‘He She’ also has a grating sitar styled sound that is present the entire track. Maybe a distaste of metallic textures is just a preference, though these sounds are the most dated on the record. I recognise that the level of artistry here is immense, though, and I also appreciate the use of granular synthesis, something you don’t really tend to see until later on. Some of my favourite records uses a lot of granular synthesis, with ‘Hi this is Flume’ being a good example.
★★★★