Kuedo recommends Oneohtrix Point Never’s <em>Replica</em>
kuedo-recommends-oneohtrix-point-never-s-replica
December 20, 2011
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# Kuedo recommends Oneohtrix Point Never’s Replica
***Jamie Teasdale**, aka **Kuedo**, is an electronic musician based in
Berlin. As one half of the duo **Vex'd**, he helped usher in a golden
age of creative exploration in British dubstep. Kuedo's most recent solo
album, *Severant*, was released on **Planet Mu**.*
Over the span of his previous two or three albums, **Oneohtrix** has
been able to develop his own musical language---one which most obviously
consisted of various arpeggios and Juno synth sounds. Those were also
the elements people would use to describe his music in reviews and
whatnot. You don't really hear these sounds on **Replica**, but you do
hear a unique musical voice and a continuing narrative to Oneohtrix's
exploration---and therefore a language that can't be pinned down to
instruments or individual sounds alone. For that reason, it's hard to
describe his voice exactly, so I think I'll try and describe more the
**emotions** the record invokes. At its core, Replica maintains a
tension between elements that are pleasantly static and things that are
constantly changing. **It's almost like watching something really
immersive on television** or on YouTube, being pulled into a certain
world, but also being aware of yourself watching. It's a two-fold
presence of the work itself and it's something I constantly feel when
listening to this album. Replica is not just about what you're hearing;
it's also about being aware of what you're hearing, about the gulf
between your reality and the one he's presenting. This isn't an
intellectual awareness but more of an emotional one. It's music that,
for me, describes **the flaws of escapism**.
He achieves that, in my opinion, through an emphasis on elements of
bittersweetness: the music oscillates back and forth between
**imagination** and **reality** and the difference between the two
becomes its emotion. Because Replica is loop-based, it feels hypnotic
and circular---but in a very specific way, because the loops aren't
clean. Instead, they're imperfectly interrupted by these abrupt events
and sonic artifacts like small clips and digital distortion, which make
it sound all the more homespun. Clearly, this album has nothing to do
with over-glossed perfection. The samples themselves are often taken
from eighties commercials and TV shows and are kept rough, but deployed
in really brave ways, musically speaking. Often you'll hear a sample
appear completely naked, without any real tail or embedding or reverb or
whatever. To me, these are the elements which establish the distance
between the listener and the track at hand. This music isn't escapist;
it admits the flaws of this world and the utopian alternatives.
I admire Oneohtrix for his **fearless use of samples** and his ability
to embrace flaws. It's something that I feel I tried to do on my last
album, Severant, but not enough. People describe Severant as futuristic
and grand, but my original intention was for it to sound homespun and
flawed in its grandeur, even though I'm not really sure it gets that
point across. Replica undoubtedly achieves that. These days electronic
music is often judged by its level of technical prowess---people have
certain expectations about how well rendered things are supposed to
sound . . . at least compared to other forms of music. **To ignore those
norms and expectations requires strength of mind and purpose**, which is
maybe the thing I respect most about this record. It's also just
beautiful and can wonderfully envelop any space in which it's played. ~
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---
id: 11f01962-e21e-4953-8062-1b84c240c7bf
blueprint: article
title: 'Kuedo recommends Oneohtrix Point Never’s <em>Replica</em>'
date: 2011-12-20T19:57:10+01:00
wp_id: '11181'
slug: kuedo-recommends-oneohtrix-point-never-s-replica
contents:
-
type: text
text: '<p> <em><strong>Jamie Teasdale</strong>, aka <strong>Kuedo</strong>, is an electronic musician based in Berlin. As one half of the duo <strong>Vex’d</strong>, he helped usher in a golden age of creative exploration in British dubstep. Kuedo’s most recent solo album, <em>Severant</em>, was released on <strong>Planet Mu</strong>.</em></p><p>Over the span of his previous two or three albums, <strong>Oneohtrix</strong> has been able to develop his own musical language—one which most obviously consisted of various arpeggios and Juno synth sounds. Those were also the elements people would use to describe his music in reviews and whatnot. You don’t really hear these sounds on <strong>Replica</strong>, but you do hear a unique musical voice and a continuing narrative to Oneohtrix’s exploration—and therefore a language that can’t be pinned down to instruments or individual sounds alone. For that reason, it’s hard to describe his voice exactly, so I think I’ll try and describe more the <strong>emotions</strong> the record invokes. At its core, Replica maintains a tension between elements that are pleasantly static and things that are constantly changing. <strong>It’s almost like watching something really immersive on television</strong> or on YouTube, being pulled into a certain world, but also being aware of yourself watching. It’s a two-fold presence of the work itself and it’s something I constantly feel when listening to this album. Replica is not just about what you’re hearing; it’s also about being aware of what you’re hearing, about the gulf between your reality and the one he’s presenting. This isn’t an intellectual awareness but more of an emotional one. It’s music that, for me, describes <strong>the flaws of escapism</strong>.</p><p>He achieves that, in my opinion, through an emphasis on elements of bittersweetness: the music oscillates back and forth between <strong>imagination</strong> and <strong>reality</strong> and the difference between the two becomes its emotion. Because Replica is loop-based, it feels hypnotic and circular—but in a very specific way, because the loops aren’t clean. Instead, they’re imperfectly interrupted by these abrupt events and sonic artifacts like small clips and digital distortion, which make it sound all the more homespun. Clearly, this album has nothing to do with over-glossed perfection. The samples themselves are often taken from eighties commercials and TV shows and are kept rough, but deployed in really brave ways, musically speaking. Often you’ll hear a sample appear completely naked, without any real tail or embedding or reverb or whatever. To me, these are the elements which establish the distance between the listener and the track at hand. This music isn’t escapist; it admits the flaws of this world and the utopian alternatives.</p><p>I admire Oneohtrix for his <strong>fearless use of samples</strong> and his ability to embrace flaws. It’s something that I feel I tried to do on my last album, Severant, but not enough. People describe Severant as futuristic and grand, but my original intention was for it to sound homespun and flawed in its grandeur, even though I’m not really sure it gets that point across. Replica undoubtedly achieves that. These days electronic music is often judged by its level of technical prowess—people have certain expectations about how well rendered things are supposed to sound . . . at least compared to other forms of music. <strong>To ignore those norms and expectations requires strength of mind and purpose</strong>, which is maybe the thing I respect most about this record. It‘s also just beautiful and can wonderfully envelop any space in which it’s played. ~</p><p>—</p>'
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# Kuedo recommends Oneohtrix Point Never’s Replica ***Jamie Teasdale**, aka **Kuedo**, is an electronic musician based in Berlin. As one half of the duo **Vex'd**, he helped usher in a golden age of creative exploration in British dubstep. Kuedo's most recent solo album, *Severant*, was released...
Chunk #2 (Position: 1)
As one half of the duo **Vex'd**, he helped usher in a golden age of creative exploration in British dubstep. Kuedo's most recent solo album, *Severant*, was released on **Planet Mu**.* . Over the span of his previous two or three albums, **Oneohtrix** has been able to develop his own musical la...
Chunk #3 (Position: 2)
This isn't an intellectual awareness but more of an emotional one. It's music that, for me, describes **the flaws of escapism**. He achieves that, in my opinion, through an emphasis on elements of bittersweetness: the music oscillates back and forth between **imagination** and **reality** and the...
Chunk #4 (Position: 3)
To me, these are the elements which establish the distance between the listener and the track at hand. This music isn't escapist; it admits the flaws of this world and the utopian alternatives. I admire Oneohtrix for his **fearless use of samples** and his ability to embrace flaws. It's something...