Radiohead
bandwidth: confusion to acclaim
In the late
'90s, Radiohead's big-crescendo guitar-driven glory had tastemakers touting
the U.K. group as the best rock band in the world.
But with the
enigmatic "Kid A" and the new "Amnesiac," recorded at the same sessions,
Radiohead has generated as much confusion as acclaim. The albums are oddball
indulgences of icy electronic art-rock - lonely, haunting soundscapes of
beeps and pings, with Thom Yorke replacing his lustrous falsetto with alien
vocals.
The introspective
works beg for undivided attention, yet that degree of difficulty has only
endeared the band to an audience apparently disgusted by most current rock.
"Kid A" debuted on the Billboard chart at No.1 last October and then was
nominated for a best album Grammy.
"Our music
expects people to put something in themselves. Hopefully that pays back
quite a few times over," drummer Phil Selway said recently. Radiohead will
perform at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Wednesday night.
"We're in a
lucky position, and it's quite liberating. We're aware that we have the
trust of a lot of people, that if they listen and don't quite engage with
it initially, that they will persist. It's fortunate for us that they give
us the benefit of a doubt. It took us about a year and a half to get our
heads around "Kid A,' and people who came to it fresh caught up a lot faster
than we did. Once you find the reference points in there, it's one of those
albums that gets under your skin."
Radiohead's
members first met 15 years ago at school in Oxford, England. Their first
album, "Pablo Honey," was released in 1993, and the slacker anthem "Creep"
became a modern rock smash. But the band was dismissed as a one-hit wonder.
Then the keening
guitar rock of "The Bends" turned Radiohead into a solid alternative act.
In 1997, "OK Computer," a concept album about technology and dehumanization,
made the guys a thinking-man's artistes.
But when "Kid
A" came out last year, listeners' expectations were obliterated. Gone were
traditional verse-chorus-verse song structures and the band's guitar-dominated
sound.
"At the end
of "OK Computer,' we were rapidly approaching a blind alley. It was the
natural conclusion of one stage of our existence," Selway said.
"We wanted
to approach the next one with the attitude that we'd write in the studio,
that we wouldn't be so bound by working up band performances of our songs.
In effect, it was like going back to square one again, saying we wanted
more options than we'd actually had for the past few years. We wanted to
give ourselves the time and space to find what we wanted to do musically."
The band assembled
tracks using synthesizers and other tools of the electronica trade. The
transition wasn't easy - "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" took 21/2 years to finish,
and internal tensions nearly broke up the group.
"It was quite
bizarre at first, trying to find a new way that the five of us could work
together, which wouldn't necessarily mean me beating skins, or everybody
else playing guitars," Selway said. "Other people were bringing rhythmic
ideas and sequencers along. For me, that brought about certain anxieties
- "Well, does this leave me enough spacee? Do I still have a valid role
in this?'
"But it was
a case of opening ourselves up to these other influences. It stretched
us all as musicians and enabled us to move on."
Cynics say
Radiohead is consciously avoiding melody, but the strength of the songs
on "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" is gradually revealed from the sonic characteristics.
Now Radiohead is determined to pursue those impulses.
"In the past,
it felt slightly destructive at points - if it's hard going for us, it
must mean that something's going wrong. No, it's just a byproduct of producing
music that we're pleased with at the end. You go in the studio and have
absolutely no idea how it's going to turn out, so you have to trust in
the way that the five of you work together, keep that faith in yourselves
that you'll achieve something that you find challenging."
To mark the
release of "Amnesiac," Radiohead is playing North American concerts, and
they've been instant sellouts.
"It's been
a bit of a brain teaser at points, figuring out how we'll arrange the music
so it works as the five of us playing onstage," Selway said. "Normally
when we go out on tour, it's effectively producing Xerox copies of what's
there on the record.
"This time
we've been able to breathe a different kind of life into the music. That's
been exciting in itself."
Di
G. Brown
17/06/2001
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