11. Oneohtrix Point NeverReplica
I first started listening to Replica at a time when I had taken a step back from DJing, and decided to get my head out the sand. When I’m DJing I tend to just hone in on the kinds of tracks I’d like to play out in clubs, so when I got introduced to Replica I realised that I’d been neglecting other styles of electronic music. Having said that, though, I actually played out ‘Sleep Dealer’ in my DJ sets, even though it’s very different to the percussion-orientated material I usually choose.
Replica was made in such a fascinating, almost laborious way. The sound sources are from so many different places that the final product is something of a lo-fi collage. Part of the reason I’m interested in the album is also because it’s processes and final results are very different to how I make my own music. If you hear a particular sample and you’re dying to use it, it’s easier to find a place for it, whereas if you’re building everything from scratch, on your own drum machines, then that can be more intense, I feel.
When I hear Oneohtrix Point Never’s music, I feel like we’re speaking in different languages, almost. I want to say, ‘Tell me – how did you make that? That sounds really exciting to me.’ With a lot of current dance music I can at least partly imagine what’s going on behind the scenes, so that unfamiliarity makes me want to get in the studio and try out different techniques.
And, of course, it functions as an album first and foremost. ‘Sleep Dealer’ and ‘Replica’ are great tracks, but they’re hardly Zane Lowe "hottest record of the week", are they? It’s about presenting something as a whole in the context of one another. You can’t dip in. It would be a shock to the system.
