Memory Vague

I recently got back into making art with Photoshop again, and as always the almighty shuffle has been present throughout. However, yesterday I found MP3s of what is one of my major influences and inspirations at the minute: the soundtrack to Oneohtrix Point Never's Memory Vague DVDr.


Now, there's a lot of Oneohtrix's usual synth-rife affair on here, but there are a couple tracks that stand out to me from both a visual and audio standpoint, but I'll elaborate more on those when we get to them, but for now enjoy some of that synthesized sound that OPN does ever so well (note: this is the Rifts version of the track, which is longer and better quality)



This was the first standout I was talking about, it deviates from OPN's usual MO and is mostly sample based, something he'd come to again on his latest LP, Replica. But what stood out to me the most was the sample itself, it's only a few seconds long, but the things done to it sound amazing. After doing some snooping I found that OPN makes stuff like this mostly in Audacity, which got me to thinking I could do it too. But once again, more on that later.



There are a couple other tracks that deviate on here, adding some beats into OPN's usually melodic productions. This is the first and also my favourite of the two, Chandelier's Dream. It reminds me a little of the Arcade High LP I posted a bit on not too long ago, and to a lesser extent OPN's other side project simply entitled Games.




It's not long before some synth heavy stuff comes along again though, this time with an almost early 90's videogame vibe. It still revolves around OPN's tried and tested arpeggio based production, but that is in no way a bad thing because he very consistently pulls it off, and this track is short enough that it's not too obnoxious.



Finally, the other standout track to me, and an almost perfect end to the LP. This and the stuff OPN made for the Eccojams Vol. 1 tape have been in constant rotation by me while making art things. I definitely advise you to check out the dvd, or even OPN's YouTube channel, which has slices from the DVD on it. You can find him at SunsetCorp.



I've dabbled in a few of these sample based jobs myself, I have the basic sound down but I can't quite manage any further edits without it sounding strange, if you're interested you can find it over on my SoundCloud. Also if you are interested, give it a crack yourself, Audacity is a free program and isn't massively difficult to learn.

Tonight,
- Claude Van Foxbat