For fans of: Aphex Twin, Tim Hecker
Songs to download: ‘Mutant Standard,’ ‘Child of Rage,’ ‘I Bite Through It’

During a faux interview published on a promotional website for his new album, “Garden of Delete,” Daniel Lopatin reflected on the inspiration behind the album, the eighth solo effort under his Oneohtrix Point Never guise: “Basically I’m just seeing how long I can stand in the bathroom with the lights off before I freak out.”

This doesn’t seem particularly strange, especially when considering an experimental auteur like Lopatin, until you realize the interview is being “conducted” by Ezra, an alien who reportedly gave him the audio files for this album. Peculiarities like this and the fictional “hypergrunge” band Kaoss of Edge that inspired the album do more justice to what “Garden of Delete” achieves over its 45 minutes than words will ever do. This is music that is incredibly strange, difficult and hilarious in equal measure.

Lopatin has created some of the most thought-provoking electronic records of the past decade or so and this only continues with “Garden of Delete.” While the songs here retain what made Lopatin’s music so unique on previous releases, they are far more abrasive than anything that has come before, which can be testing for the listener. Touring with Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden in 2014 has obviously influenced Lopatin’s production, as there are moments that are almost reminiscent of the ‘90s hard-rock scene that these groups shaped. On early standout “Sticky Drama,” the samples and synths come together in a way that recalls a classic rock structure—but it just isn’t quite that—and it is the confounding moments like this that make Lopatin’s sounds so effective.

The complexities should not by any means take away the beauty that also exists within. No song is more consistent with this beauty than centerpiece “Mutant Standard,” one of the most gorgeous and difficult moments on the album. Over the song’s monstrous eight minutes, Lopatin edges as close to the dance floor as he ever has, with pounding techno synths and delicate melodies overlapping throughout. Again, it doesn’t quite get there, though; the drums never really come in and the track changes course so much that it could never galvanize the attention of club goers. It becomes obvious that none of this is ever the aim, though, as the final two minutes reach a faux climax taken away by screeching noise.

As weird as “Garden of Delete” is, all of its eccentricities come together in a way that is cohesive and allows the listener to become fully immersed in its universe. Singles “Sticky Drama” and “I Bite Through It” follow fairly conventional electronic structures and the melodies throughout are clear enough for this to not just breeze past you, as much electronic music does in the virtual age. The samples in many of the songs, especially from progressive rock artist Roger Rodier on “Freaky Eyes,” often are so out place that they become amusing. Album closer “No Good” is an incredibly moving ambient piece that serves as a demonstration of Lopatin’s powers as a producer; it is wholly different from what comes before it, but is still somehow the same. There aren’t many others who can claim to possess such skills.

Lopatin has stated numerous times that his experience with puberty was key in driving the creative process for the record, and this is most evident on “Child of Rage.” The dystopian soundscapes seem to recall the boredom that defines adolescence and his experience with it was clearly dark. It is probably this same boredom that inspired him to create Ezra the humanoid alien and all his other oddities. Maybe these are pretentious gimmicks, but they are also a way for him to express what went into this record more clearly than any Tweet could.

I was playing “Garden of Delete” during a late-night walk through the storm that hit St. Louis last week. Watching the wind usher in the winter with haste was mesmerizing in an odd way. Most trees lost almost all of their previous signs of life—some were fully destroyed—but it was creative in its own destruction. The music Lopatin has created here makes sense in this context; when every beautiful part is taken away by pure noise, it allows something possibly greater to materialize. “Garden of Delete” is confusing, of course, but it is a reaction to the puzzling world we live in and for that it should be embraced.