Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Radiohead - In Rainbows

So I paid £4 for it in the end. They've given me 160kbps quality mp3s. That's quite annoying as 192kbps is the bare minimum that I'd usually go for. If you think this bits a bit geeky, that's 'cause it is.

1 minute in WAV = 10mb1 minute in 128kbps mp3 = 1mb1 minute in 320kbps mp3 = 2.31mb
So even for 320kbps there's a whole 7.69 of meg missing.

It's quite evident that there's something missing soundwise in some of these songs. I'm putting that down to the poor quality mp3s.

Anyway, the album?

15 Steps
The chaotic but controlled sort of rock guitar set to scatter gun drumming. Thom wails over the top. Hey we're back, missed us? It's a far cry from The Bends.

Bodysnatchers
A heavier more distorted guitar attack on this one. Sounds like it could be off of Hail to the Thief until halfway through when everything breaks and falls into place. It's quite brilliant and shows how music has missed them.

Nude
Okay, so this one has strings on it. A stirring intro leads into a sedately staccato drum backing track with Thom really singing over the top. It's lush and subtle. Big strings and synths. Lovely.

Weird Fish/Arpeggi
On my first listen through this song stood out for me, and it does again here. The song builds and weaves, electronic lilts and whirls creates something huge, yet its held back. It breaks, then builds back up again, but never to an apparent crescendo. Haunting and beautiful.

An aside - the drumming is very machine-like so far. Bit samey samey.

All I Need
Could have been on Eraser. Driven along slowly by a reverberatingly bass heavy piano(?). Jonny Greenwood soon shows his hand late on with an irresistably epic section which ends far too soon.

Faust Arp
Short, acoustic interlude here. Thom sounds delicate and scared, but the overlying strings section is nearly menacing at times.

Reckoner
This is the song that you'd play if you wanted a good old cry. Sparsely picked out guitar set to a sea of percussion. You can see Thom leaning over the piano earnestly singing "you are not alone". The song drops out in the middle, then returns later on, even more heart breaking than before.

House of Cards
I can hear the song failing to reach its peak. Bloody 160kbps rubbish. It's here where you can really hear the mp3 lacking. Atmospheric, and again that word, haunting, it's easy to get lost in this song.

Jigsaw Falling Into Pieces
Rolling along, you know this song is going to build into something big from the start. A glorious middle in which guitars chorus together and roll around as Thom emotes along, as strings enter almost unnoticed and stir their way to the forefront before slipping out the way that they came in.

Videotape
A piano ballad with an almost metronomic percussion effect which seems to run ahead and then get caught up by the subtly changing piano. The sound almost echoes around your head, panning and trapped. Unsettling.

So Radiohead are back. And I realise how I've missed them so. It's a hauntingly beautiful return, almost exactly in time for early nightfall and starkly cold nights.

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Hit the Heartbreaks Honey

Oh, what can I do?


Black Kids - Hit the Heartbreaks (Zshare)


Not been updating this as much as I'd like so let's see if we can find some sort of regularity from somewhere.

The song above is by Black Kids, the newest "hotly tipped" band in a minute. They're very good, and have basically got the internet all a-buzz despite having played a handful of gigs and barely made it out of their hometown of Jacksonville, Florida.

Pitchfork and the Guardian have all featured them recently, and their new manager is one Scott Rodgers who also happens to manage some band called the Arcade Fire. They're planning to release an EP soon on a label which'll most probably turn out to be XL. I mean, they sign every-fucking-one these days! (Laura Groves see below is now in their stable of artists).

Go grab their demo off their MySpace for free. Oh, what do they sound like? Gloriously clever and beautifully twee pop. Like shoegaze on a sugar high from eating too much Haribo. The best song is probably "I'm Not Going to Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You," but I have a lot of love for the call and response vocals in Hit the Heartbreaks.

Next up is a band I actually quite dislike. Xerox Teens, now known as the XX Teens, have always annoyed me, especially live. Their drummer is pretty manic and they've got horns and stuff, so by rights I'd love them. But, no. The singer sort of wanders about in dark glasses and acts like he doesn't give a fuck. That's not too bad I guess, but, they managed to fit in two girls dancing in synchronised slow motion. I can't even think of how to describe it suffice to say that it wound me up. It even wound up Xerox who forced them to change their name.


So, yeah. I'm not a massive fan of them, but this song is quite good.


XX Teens - Darlin'

It's got steel pans. It's got slurred vocals. It's danceable. The video is quite mental.



It's great.

Still, the rest of their songs are quite shit.