With a band like Radiohead it is difficult to know where to start, there is so much to say. I first encountered them when they had already had great deal of success and were somewhere in the middle of their career. I think the first albums I bought by them were Pablo Honey and OK Computer. I remember thinking that the first album was mediocre, the band were clearly still developing as an act and had not yet found there voice. When I got round to checking out OK Computer I felt I had discovered something completely new. The album was high concept but not at the expense of musicality, nor did any of it feel pompous as some “progressive” (I really hate this word, I hope it dies a death) music can be guilty of.

Thom Yorke was clearly singing about alienation, loneliness and the idiocy of life in the industrialised world. These ideas were expressed through a beguiling mix of the abstract ideas and language that sounded more personal. This combination was always hard to untangle. Was the genesis of this song direct experience, or something more general? By keeping the listener guessing and stubbornly refusing to explain anything didactically gave the whole record a wonderful mystery. OK Computer is clearly a work of sophisticated intellects but as a listener you are not beaten over the head with this fact.

Later I got into Kid A which is the complete opposite of OK Computer but equally a masterpiece. I have written this before but it bares repeating but one of the things that I have always admired about Radiohead is their willingness to take risks. Many artists get famous for doing one thing and continue to capitalise on that until they have exhausted the formula. Radiohead have never stayed in on stylistic place for too long. I may not have always liked the result but that is not the point, without taking genuine risks true success and failure are not possible. As bad as albums like The King of Limbs are they are a testament to artistic adventurousness.

I like Radiohead because they refuse to be attached to any particular genre or style. There designation by most people as a “rock” band does not make much sense as apart from the presence of electric guitar in their music, they do not owe or have much in common with any band that is usually tied to that word. Perhaps what this really reveals is that the term “rock” has been used so much as to become nebulous. Regardless, I have always felt Radiohead have gone for what is musical not what is within the confines of their “genre”. After the success of Kid A they moved back to a sound more heavily reminiscent of their early days this produced the excellent series of albums my favorite being In Rainbows.

This album encapsulates everything that is great about the band. It contains the perfect mix of strangeness and familiarity. What is strange is that the cryptic nature of the lyrics is pushed to such an extent that any interpretation of them seems like mere guess work. What is familiar here is that the more conventional instruments (guitars, drums and bass) have a stronger presence.

It is surprising that such a unconventional band could have become so popular. I like Radiohead because they are a multi-directional band. By this I mean that their music operates on many different levels, on the one hand the songs are musical statements of emotional feeling that I have alluded to previously. However, their later compositions are always haunted by an undeniable strangeness the emotional atmosphere is generally dark but mostly not in an overtly violent way with notable exceptions such as the song Paranoid Android. To try and articulate my exact point is quite difficult focusing on a specific song may be illuminating. The song Reckoner could be interpreted as simple collection of interesting lyrically ideas but there is something in the performance of the song on the album that seems to suggest there is something more going on, but what that is exactly is hard to identify. There is something of the empyrean.

It my hope that a band as great and as iconoclastic as Radiohead can gain critical mass in the future but I have my doubts. As recent events have continued the trend tightening the strangle hold of musicians and music. The noise is getting louder every day, you almost can’t hear it any more.

Recently I have been trying to get out of my old habits and listen to some music that I would not do normally. With this in mind I checked out Gangs Signs & Prayer by Stormzy.

What really interests me about this album is the strong narrative ark that holds all the songs together, the lyrics look to the future but also reference coming to terms with past problems, the strongest example of this being the Don’t Cry For Me, in which difficult emotions are laid bare. Raleigh Ritchie’s vocals are stunning. This is by far my favorite track on the album.

Recently I have also revisited the landmark album Kid A by Radiohead.

Even after all these years this album still holds so much mystery and euphoria. Kid A represented a total change of direction from where Radiohead had been previously musically as a guitar based band. This album saw them move into exciting territory of electronic music (Idioteque), to tracks with mostly acoustic instruments (Motion Picture Soundtrack) and tracks that are more reminiscent of Radiohead’s old style (Optimistic). For a band as successful as they were this album was a big risk for them artistically and commercially. The true artists are those who a not satisfied with easy formulas and regurgitating old ideas. I have never understood what the mountain top scene on the album cover signifies. Perhaps the last safe location after some disastrous war? Are the snow peaked mountains an oblique reference to climate change?

Another old favorite I have revisited is Myths of The Near Future by The Klaxons.

I have always felt this band’s career was cut short and they never fulfilled all of their potential. Myths.. came out when I was quite young and some aspects of the music have not aged well, the lyrics can seem a bit vapid at times. However, for something that could be described as “commercial” there are some really good songs here and a genuinely unique style that borrows from rock but also has elements of dance/rave music. There’s also some really interesting guitar work which is places (Gravity’s Rainbow) is reminiscent of Johnny Greenwood’s work in Radiohead. The spiritual ancestor of this style is Adrian Belew who I talk about more in another post. The Klaxons have the uncommon privileged of having material that was meant to be there second album being rejected by their record label. They released some of those tracks as an EP:

It’s strange to look back on the era the Klaxons were popular in as for me the early 2000s are a time when the full impact on new the new technology of file sharing and music being primarily being consumed in a digital format had not been fully realized. Record labels and other gatekeepers were still relevant to new artist looking to break through. Now the number of hits your video gets on Youtube are a far greater indicator of your potential success than any level of endorsement by the powers that be.

Further, the strength of the old players in the music industry are waning as sales of recorded music continue to fall. Many in all likelihood can only remain viable through the control they have over large back catalogs which can then be licensed to Spotify for undisclosed amounts of money. This change in dynamics has meant that artist’s task is now to try and break through the fog of obscurity rather than impressing a few key decision makers. What is taken away in one place is added in another.

If you have any suggestions on what I should be listening to feel free to contact me.

In this new series I am going to write about tracks I have been listening to recently and share my thoughts on them. I was inspired to do this by Steven Wilson’s excellent posts on music he has been enjoying in a particular year.

The first track Chapel Belle comes for Talitha Rise I discovered her via a blog but I can’t remember the name of the original site. I think I was trying to get tickets to see Pineapple Thief and as my browsing session became more wide ranging I found this video.

What I really like about this track is the difficulty I find in placing it in any particular genre. The closest analogue I can think of is Kate Bush, but in this case the similarities are quite superficial. The song follows it’s own wayward structure that defies simple pop formulas. Lyrically the song is enigmatic and defies simple explanations. As a listener you get the feeling that the song is dealing with confronting some dark and uncomfortable truth this compliments the haunting feel of the music.

Next is The Great Curve by Talking Heads. I was hipped to this by a friend. My favorite part of this track is the truly weird guitar solo, it goes everywhere including far outside the harmony of the song. If there was ever an example that rhythm is more important than note choice it is certainly this. The guitar solo is such a device so laden with cliché it is refreshing to hear something different from the norm. It was recorded by Adrian Belew who through work like this established himself as a master of unorthodox guitar playing.

Also, the song has the feeling that it could sit well with some American film (I refuse to use the obvious cliché). I was aware of Talking Heads prior hearing this track but have never bothered to investigate them in any depth. I must remedy this.

I have really enjoyed revisiting this excellent track by Chris Brown:

I originally heard this on Moses Boyd’s show that he used to have on BBC 1Xtra. The heart of this track is bass line, it’s cool to hear something so distorted in a Pop/RnB context. The video is quite cool too, I like the the retro-future aesthetic mixed up with some ideas from Bruce Lee films.

Next is Up North by Bill Bruford’s group Earthworks. I think this track needs some explanation as I am sure some people will not have any idea what it is I am recommending.

Bill Bruford is best known from playing drums with King Crimson and Yes. After leaving this music behind he changed course artistically by playing jazz and started working under his own name. He was one of the first drummers to explore augmenting the drum kit in unusual ways and pairing acoustic drums with electronic pads/triggers. This is now common place but when he did it it was revolutionary. This track showcases him generating chords off the pads during the head whist keeping a beat going with his feet. In some ways you can see what he was doing a precursor the explosion of creative uses of the drum kit that has occurred in recent years. Drummers that are part of this that you should check out are: Mark Guiliana, Mike Mitchell and Chris Dave.

I really like this tune, it is certainly reminiscent of emotions that I feel when in England that is hard to explain. There’s nostalgia and there’s the feeling of the countryside and pubs.