'R Plus Seven'

Daniel Lopatin’s latest album “Oneohtrix Point Never” is more fragmented than “Replica” and more experimental than “Returnal.”

It combines disparate sounds in brief bursts to great emotional effect, and in doing so, seems designed to make us rethink the power and role of mundane sounds. A clipped human gasp doubles as a Burial-esque bass swell while synth pads and corny keyboard forgeries of church organs and dulcimers provide a surprisingly human foundation.

The tracks flout linear song structure in favor of a disjointed timeline that is both shocking and wonderful. Lopatin has committed a brilliantly successful switch by making the melodic aspects largely percussion and the jarring sounds mostly human voices.

Some will decry the album for not being “real music,” whatever that means, but repeated listens show “R Plus Seven” to be a carefully constructed record that frequently swaps the roles of synthetic and organic instrumentation and demonstrates the emotional power of sounds while questioning foregone conclusions about composition.