The Weeknd Confirms It: Oneohtrix Point Never Is a Genius
The Weeknd Confirms What We Always Knew: Oneohtrix Point Never Is a Genius
David Brandon Geeting
Two weeks ago, two men were photographed together backstage at the Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida. In the picture, they’re embracing with a kind of palpable sincerity you can’t fake; smiling, euphoric, like they’ve just pulled off the heist of the century and they’re only now able to breathe again for the first time even as one puffs on a comically fat cigar.
One of these men is, arguably, the biggest male pop star on the planet and, in all honesty, the only artist who even comes close to deserving that title today. The other, well, isn’t. In relatively short periods of time that run almost parallel one first appearing in the late ’00s, the other in the very early ’10s both have been plucked from bedroom obscurity and catapulted to a kind of stardom it’s hard to imagine that either quite expected. One of t
The Exodus Road and UFOs! You can find the full interview below.
Back in May, the band released Volume 1 of their
Living Room Anthology which features songs recorded at home during recent live streams. The album is available as a name your price download and all proceeds benefit women who have been rescued from human trafficking.
This is the first Volume of the Living Room Anthology. These songs were given a new birth during the 2020 shelter in place evening livestream concerts.
From the living room using a microphone, a CP70b baby electric grand piano and a Roland Juno synth.https://t.co/lB1Nr0cNjxpic.twitter.com/yp19dbrYnx
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Los Angeles artist Arshia Fatima Haq was thumbing through racks of dusty vinyl at New Yorkâs A-1 Records a few years ago when a title caught her eye:
Disco Se Aagay, or âBeyond Discoâ in Haqâs native Urdu. Peering out from the sleeve was a teenage girl with bouffant â80s hair, a white dinner jacket, and a Mona Lisa smile. The album was billed as âa step further in the field of disco musicâ; the musicians were identified in the credits as a brother and sister, Nermin Niazi and Feisal Mosleh, from Birmingham, England. Nermin, the singer and lyricist, was âstill a school-girl,â according to the sleeve notes. Feisal, a college student, had composed and produced the music, writing some of the songs at just 17. The copyright was dated 1984; there were synthesizers. Naturally, Haq took the record home.
Some Kind of Peace. We wish. Clearly fate took an ironic opportunity to intervene shortly before we had a chance to talk to him about both the new album and his approach to creativity more broadly: an earthquake shook Iceland right before this interview took place, prompting Ãlafurâs opening exclamation of, âThereâs a lot of energy in my body right now!â
Thatâs true, of course, for all sorts of reasons. Having reimagined the piano with his remarkable, semi-generative Stratus instrument, which has been exquisitely sampled and captured by Spitfire Audio, Ãlafur sought to follow his 2018 LP
Re:member with a record that represents a sea change in how this musical perfectionist has decided to approach life. His aim? To let his guard down. Here, we press Ãlafur on what spurred such an approach and how he achieves his unique sound.