Russian Mind (vinyl)

2009

Brooklyn synth wizard Daniel Lopatin toiled long in the trenches of the noise scene before eventually breaking through to international acclaim with his glowing 2009 compilation Rifts. Rifts gathered together the best excerpts from an already lengthy discography of small-release cassettes and other lesser releases, the likes of which Lopatin would continue to spit out even as accolades continued to come his way. One such release was 2009's extremely limited Russian Mind, a collection made up of recordings dating as far back as 2004 and focusing on a washy narrative about a Russian cosmonaut. OPN's glimmering synth tones border at times on cosmic new age, but always resonate with enough consideration and determination to keep them from disappearing into listless hippie anonymity.