Rifts (Oneohtrix Point Never album)

Recording and composition

The album collects OPN's synthesizer-based electronic recordings dating back to 2003, primarily drawing from Lopatin's trilogy of limited-run LPs Betrayed in the Octagon (2007), Zones Without People (2009), and Russian Mind (2009). The Roland Juno-60 synthesizer served as Lopatin's primary instrument. Critic Simon Reynolds described the musical template set by these releases as involving "rippling arpeggiations, sweet melodies offset by sour dissonance, grid-like structures struggling with cloudy amorphousness." The compilation showcases Lopatin's distinctive approach to synthesizers, employing "ornate electronic arpeggios, often run through echo pedals, which spiral off into infinity with breathtaking effect."

According to Lopatin, following the recording of Russian Mind he noticed a "clear arc" between his three studio albums which suggested the records could come together to create a trilogy. He described Octagon as being about "surrendering to the raw sounds of the synthesizer", while Zones Without People serves as an engagement with different forms of psychedelic music, such as new-age and noise music, and Russian Mind consolidates the computer-edit music Lopatin completed before beginning his OPN project. The track "Emil Cioran" is a reference to French philosopher and pessimist Emil Cioran, who Lopatin described as "one of my top dogs."

Reception

Rifts received critical acclaim upon its release. The Quietus located the album in a tradition of "chromed modernity and pulp futurism" rooted in the cultural milieu of the 1980s, describing the music as "not so much forging into the future in ignorance of what came before, but acting like a cracked mirror refracting the sounds of the past." The Line of Best Fit described Lopatin's aesthetic as retro-futurist. Tiny Mix Tapes wrote that "some will hear 80s soundtrack music, cosmic ambiance, or minimalist repetition, while others might pick up on the mishmash of noise and plastic, mystical new age music." PopMatters located a feeling of "dyschronia" in the music, suggesting an affinity with the contemporaneous "hypnagogic" music scene. The publication described the music as "strangely familiar and familiarly strange" and suggested that "much of Rifts indeed feels like communication technologies carrying on without the influence of anything but themselves and their own mechanical history, surrogate from human involvement." Tiny Mix Tapes wrote that "the sounds on Rifts look to past versions of unrealized futures for inspiration," stating that "hearing the record in one sitting is like being in two times and places at once, like watching someone from another decade daydreaming."

Release

The 2009 edition of Rifts sold out its initial 2,000-unit pressing, selling far beyond expectations and "propell[ing] Lopatin to underground-star status." In 2012, it was reissued in an expanded 3-CD/5-LP edition on Mexican Summer and Lopatin's own Software label, including additional tracks and alternate sequencing.

2009 edition

All tracks written by Daniel Lopatin.

2012 reissue

Tracks with an * are tracks not included in the original edition

All tracks written by Daniel Lopatin.