I somehow managed to be both a big warp/rephlex/mego and Radiohead fan at the turn of the century.
It’s a bit reductive to call kid A and Amnesiac Warp rip offs. Yep, they wore their influences on their sleeve a bit, but if Kid A was their first album and they released it through Warp, I don’t think anyone would be having this argument.
There were plenty of hints of their sound evolving away from guitar rock right from The Bends. Don’t get me wrong, Kid A was a pretty big departure, but in hindsight, it’s a departure that made perfect sense musically.
Yep, they used Synths and programmed drum patterns, but Ed O’Brien gets very little credit for his guitar and FX work. Yeah, it’s a bit annoying that the mainstream music press and some of their less broadly cultured fans went on like they invented electronic music, but that’s hardly their fault.
Probably not, but I don’t think the album would be regarded as highly if it had come from a fresh band just starting out. Not to say it’s bad, not for me but I can appreciate that it’s a well made album, even if some of the electronic stuff is a bit clumsy, and not in a good way.
I love clumsy, but in this case not really since it’s all about melody and less about what I usually like about experimental electronic stuff, like actual experimentation and crazy sounds. It’s honestly like having your hand submerged in warm water while someone weeps next to you.
Did you guys see the exhibition they’re doing get announced for PS5 today? They’re so good at reading the room on digital arts, I remember they did that iPad app back in the day. But it’s true to form they’re announcing something for a gaming platform when consoles seem to be at the forefront of digital experience right now.
I was watching that stream last night when it came up! I’m not entirely sure what it is but I have a PS5, some headphones, and I’ll be getting it for sure. I couldn’t glean much else from it. Is it free ?
I don’t know if this is true anymore. Record labels don’t really hire talent, they hire personalities. Well, the talent gets hired as song makers as a part of a team while the artists are the personalities. Either way I do think that in the year 2021, record labels can’t really afford to make the mistakes they made in the past.
Anyone in any doubt that Radiohead were really, really, really desperate to be rock stars should watch Live at the Astoria (1994). I have a theory that Radiohead went into some sort of atom splitting machine in 1998 and out one side came the too-kool-for-skool Warp wannabe Radiohead of Kid A and beyond, and out the other came Muse.
I don’t know why, but I I’ve always noticed that people tend to give you a bit of stick for listening to Radiohead.
All my mates still take the piss out of me for listening to them.
You’d think people would be proud of the fact that Thom Yorke was apparently born in my home town, but in reality, admitting to listening to them in the late 90’s was as likely to end in a black eye as anything else.
