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Nov 8, 2011It's rare that that source material is specifically evident while listening; at best it functions on a more energetic, subconscious level, making the typically nebulous sonic nostalgia of the chillwave/hypnagogic pop movement.
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Nov 11, 2011This is music that digs deeper and burrows beneath the level of shared associations to discover the sparkling emotional potential of carefully arranged vibrations moving through the air.
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Dec 15, 2011On Replica, Oneohtrix Point Never creates a sonic mélange composed largely of '80s refuse, but it's so lacking in recognizable reference points that it precludes retro sample-spotting and wistful nostalgia alike; but it's a fascinating listen in its own right.
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MojoJan 12, 2012Simultaneously beautiful and unsettling, it moves from stuttering rhythms of ghost vocals and music loops to immersive multi-layered waves of digital polyphony. [Dec. 2011 p. 99]
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Dec 13, 2011Following on from a confusing but rewarding double-disc anthology, 'Rifts', in 2009 and the sublime space scapes of 'Returnal' in 2010, 'Replica' is a rallying call for people who don't see synthesisers purely as objects of retro-fetishism, but rather as agents of future creative potential.
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Dec 13, 2011Part of Lopatin's considerable appeal is his apparent refusal to settle.
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Nov 9, 2011Oneohtrix Point Never has gone further than most, especially with Replica, in proving that our heritage doesn't always need to be "rehashed" to be replicated with real style.
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Dec 6, 2011Its great strength and most beguiling feature is its ability to sand spiky textures down into soothing ones, and to transform the anodyne into the anxiety-inducing, simply through repetition.
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Nov 4, 2011Both lyrical and hypnotic, Replica serves as a deeply romantic testament to the possibilities of life in the Cloud.
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Nov 9, 2011Replica catches Lopatin at the peak of his powers, realizing his esoteric vision with a newfound brazenness, clearly helped along by the success of his recent work with future-pop outfit Games/Ford & Lopatin.
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Nov 9, 2011Building shifting ambient electronic compositions, there's no easy way into his world and Replica is a brooding testament to patience and investment.
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Nov 7, 2011It makes for a fascinating addition to the already-extensive OPN catalogue.
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Jan 20, 2012Take off your thinking cap, and Replica reveals mostly pleasant, mellow ambient jams.
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Nov 4, 2011It's unlike anything else in Lopatin's discography, not just a bold step sideways, but something like an epistemological break from an artist whose work increasingly bears the weight of something like hegemony.
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Nov 11, 2011It's another brilliant album from one of the genre's foremost artists.
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The WireDec 6, 2011He spins an engrossing narrative in short spans of time, packing songs with layers that are felt when they're not immediately perceived. [Nov 2011, p.63]
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Nov 7, 2011By turns eerie and starkly beautiful, Replica rewards repeated listening.
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MagnetNov 21, 2011[Lopatin] knows how to integrate plangent tones with somber piano chords to give the title track a plaintive, wistful quality, making sure to throw enough glitch in so that it doesn't get stranded on Windham Hill. [#82, p.59]
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Nov 11, 2011It does two things that disparate types of electronic music do, and manages to bridge the gap between ambience and glitch so seemlessly they feel much closer than you might have first thought.
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Nov 4, 2011Put simply, nobody else could make music quite like this, no matter which part of the electronic fringe they might call home. Daniel Lopatin is in the zone.
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Nov 28, 2011The voices on Oneohtrix Point Never's new album, Replica , were sampled from 1980s television commercials, an amusing sidelight for an album that is anything but crass and insistent (despite a track called "Power of Persuasion").
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Nov 4, 2011Replica recognises the value of disenfranchised pasts, but redesigns our barely-there reminiscences to imbue a singular vision with the subliminal effects of the lost.
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Nov 11, 2011With Replica, synth-dreamer Daniel Lopatin heads into the Mexican Summer studio to create something more expansive than some of his recent CD-R efforts, and less of the distorto-R&B pop he created with Joel Ford on Channel Pressure.
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Nov 22, 2011On the surface, Replica's focus on the measured emergence of harmony seems to capture a bit of the modern struggle to find some sense amidst a constant bombardment of careless repetitions, to uncover a beautiful pattern in the digital noise of the everyday.
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Nov 15, 2011With a heavier reliance on piano and this newer emphasis on these samples, it's an astounding achievement in a young career already marked by solid works.
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Nov 11, 2011There's a dose of the otherworldly in these evocative tracks, but laced, in all but a few cases, with recognizable bits of ordinary life.
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Nov 22, 2011Drone lives and dies by its inviolability and rigidity, but Lopatin throws that away in favor of something madder, weirder and altogether more enticing.
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Nov 9, 2011That ability to present such harnessed disarray through fresh and exciting music makes Replica a compelling listen from start to finish and a brilliant new direction for Oneohtrix Point Never's sound.
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Feb 3, 2012Chugging, grinding, crackling, swelling, bubbling, babbling, these tracks don't sound like part of the natural world, but they do sound cognizant of the natural world.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 42 out of 45
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Mixed: 1 out of 45
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Negative: 2 out of 45
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Jan 1, 2013
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May 15, 2012
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Feb 16, 2017