Perhaps a little playfully, Daniel Lopatin has suggested that Garden of Delete is his pop album. It would certainly make a change to hear Radio 1’s Greg James announce a hot new chart entry for Sticky Drama – a fusillade of howls, distortion and pneumatic percussion, leavened only by snippets of harpsichord – but it seems unlikely. What Lopatin has really done is to introduce snatches of poppy vocal and the odd synthesiser hook into his world of challenging electronica. If it has any relation to Justin Bieber, it would be as the soundtrack to his anxiety dreams. Get past the fear, though, and there are moments of great musical dexterity, and even glints of beauty. Lift counterpoints its looped, distorted vocal with a piano line straight out of an 80s ballad. Mutant Standard’s beat begins as a panicky thump but ends up closer to trance euphoria. But Lopatin is never quite able to stand still and enjoy some of the sounds he creates. This remains a project for only a very particular kind of pop picker.
