Thom York- The Eraser

[thew]

Well, this is about to land in stores, and needless to say i'm a little excited!

Thom Yorke has for a while been one of the main driving forces behind Radioheads shift from guitar based rock into the slightly warped side of experimental blips and clicks.

Largely supsected as being Yorkes take on a techno (not my words) record it is by Yorkes own admission a record mande up of "songs".

Yorke has employed the skills of long time Radiohead producer Nigel Goodrich on this album, who is suprisingly not taking part in the new RH album due out next year...

The record was leaked on to the net late last week and my initail thoughts are very positive. 8 of the 9 songs are firmly planted in the realms of electronica and I couldn't help but draw comparisons with one of my favourite artists Alex Smoke. The record seems to have been largely dismissed by RH's nerd fan base (see atease.com) but i think this record is one definately worth checking out for any fan of quality tuneage...




theeraser.co.uk

[NIK-O-LAKI]

Wicked awesome. :-D

Release date when?

[big eddie]

Very excited too, I'm interested to see how it comes across without johnny in the mix.

[thew]

Wicked awesome. :-D

Release date when?

Early July....

The album art work- Stanley Donwood again- is the business!

http://www.theeraser.net/Stage3UK/

[Lukey]

similar to smoke.. really
look forward to hearing it.

also look forward to the next RH album.

[LorenzoQ]

I listened to a stream of this. The vocals are exactly like past efforts, but the beats are very 'Hot-Chip-ish', it's interesting.

[thew]

similar to smoke.. really
look forward to hearing it.

also look forward to the next RH album.

Yeah it has a similar feel to the vocal Smoke songs. Simple vocals over simple beats and rythms.

Thom expleains much better than i in this rolling stone interview...



RS: The new Radiohead songs in your live show are surprisingly straightforward. Some of them are almost like garage rock. Are you rediscovering the joys of simplicity?

Thom: "We're trying not to get too fussy, which is obviously our tendency. We don't really listen to rock music. A lot of what we listen to is techno and dub. But essentially, it's dance music, and that's feeding back into us, in a crude way."

Looking back at Kid A and Amnesiac, it's as if you had too many options in front of you and tried to use them all.

"That's always the problem. My favorite tune from that time is "How to Disappear Completely," because we didn't care how it could be seen as pretentious or anything. It just sounds glorious. What Jonny did to it is amazing.

But I like that Liars record that just came out [Drum's Not Dead], because they're using loops and stuff we've been making for ages. It's cool that there's someone besides us saying, "We're a live band, but we also do this . . ."

Describe the beginning of The Eraser.

A lot of the basic ideas were kicking around when I got all of my software on my laptop. They weren't things that would ever get to the band; they just worked in that isolated laptop space. There was no point in going to the others and saying, "Phi, do you want to try a beat on this?" Or, "Colin, do you want to play some bass?" Because the sounds and ideas were not from that sort of vibe.

What kind of vibe was it?

I would split up rhythm patterns and manipulate sounds to get to a brand new place. It was stuff that I do when I'm bored, really -- something I'd do when I'd sit in front of the television or traveling around.

It's something I've wanted to do for a long time. I wanted to work on my own. It wasn't casting aspersions on anybody. I just wanted to see what it would be like. Luckily, I happen to be in a band where nobody has a problem with that. In fact, I think there was some sense of relief, that finally I was going to do it. Rather than saying it and chickening out.

The biggest surprise on The Eraser is how clear and clean your voice is.

I kept begging Nigel to put more reverb on it. "No, I'm not doing reverb on this record." Please hide my voice. "No."

But I'm always looking for things that make me want to sing. They're not necessarily chord progressions. It can be a rhythm, with one note on it. In the last song, "Cymbal Rush," the first bit you hear is something I had for three years: one little note. I could hear the melody in there straightaway. But if you played it to anyone else without me singing it, you'd think, "What's he on about?"

There were all these random electronic doodles, but being forced by Nigel to isolate down to the best bits made me realize these were the best bits. All I could see was how clever my programming was. Suddenly I was being forced to forget all that and be the singer again. And I wasn't thinking about Radiohead. I never thought, "I should stop here. I should give this to the band." Once I made the decision to do this record, that's what I was writing for.

Were these songs written in a concentrated period?

Absolutely, except for "Cymbal Rush" -- that riff that had been around for ages -- and "The Eraser," where the piano chords are Jonny's. I recorded them on a dictaphone around his house one day. A year and a half later, I had to own up that I had sampled them, cut them into a different order and made them into a song [laughs]. "Is that alright? Sorry, Jonny."

"Harrowdown Hill" was kicking around during Hail to the Thief, but there was no way that was going to work with the band. "And It Rained All Night" has this enormously shredded-up element of "The Gloaming" [from Hail to the Thief], not that you'd ever I remember doing that in New York. I couldn't sleep one night, and it was one of those New York things, where the rain just chucks down. The rain was so loud.

"Black Swan" has this tiny, shredded segment of something that was one of the library samples we had. It was Ed and Phil doing this thing, and I sliced it into bits. The sample was 2000, but the song was 2005.

Your writing has always been intensely personal and conflicted, but because your voice is so up front on The Eraser, the words and images come through so vividly, as in "Analyse."

[Sings] "Power cuts and blackouts/Sleeping like babies." I used to live in central Oxford, on one of those historical streets, with all these houses built in the 1860s. I came home one night and for some reason, the street had a power cut. The houses were all dark, with candlelight in the windows, which is obviously how it would have been when they were built. It was beautiful.

I also like the lines in "Black Swan": "You cannot kick-start a dead horse/You just cross yourself and walk away."

[Laughs] As always, whatever psychic garbage you've got going on in your head, you end up using it. You should have seen the stuff I didn't put in. That's the shit you don't want to know about.

Your album is the first you've put out since the end of Radiohead's EMI contract. Is the XL deal for one album?

Yeah. We will only ever do that now.

Does that also go for the band's future releases?

I don't know. We haven't talked about it yet. There are a great many things we haven't talked about.

My big problem with corporate structure is this bizarre sense of loyalty you're supposed to feel -- towards what is basically a virus. It grows or dies, like any virus. And you use it for your own selfish ends. Jonny had a big problem with the fact that we didn't have any obligation -- a release date or anything. He found it difficult to work in a vacuum. Which is one of the reasons why we chose to go out on tour: "This is something we can work toward." It's human nature. Personally, I don't have that. But I can see why, if you're a group of people, you need it.

Has the band talked much about the way you want to release music in the future? There were rumors about a series of EPs.

I'm into the idea of singles and EPs. Jonny and I were never convinced about that whole thing with Kid A; "We don't release singles. This is an album, and that's it." What gets me down is the emphasis on the LP. It's one of our strengths. You can create a more exciting picture with lots of different things that you put together. But I want something that gets you on the dance floor. I always have. But we never do that.

So how do you account for the fact that, on your own, you made an album anyway?

There you go -- bloody-minded [laughs]. As it went on, this group of songs fit together quite well. It was Nigel who started it: "What if you opened with this song, then put this one and that one . . .?" Suddenly, we had the first four songs of an album.

How would you describe the status of the next Radiohead album?

We have roughs of things. We have maybe half of something so far. There's another six tunes we haven't started playing live yet. There's one called "Videotape" that's really cool. It's got lots of cyclical melodies. It's one of the first things we had. We were smashing our heads against the wall, trying to figure out what to do with it. Sometimes that drives me crazy.

What have you learned about yourself -- as a songwriter -- from making The Eraser?

I got a lot more confidence. I go through phases where I have absolutely no faith in anything I've done at all. But I was actually talking about what I was doing again. I'd ring up a friend, say "Listen to this," and play him the bass riff on "And It Rained All Night." It was things like that, little pockets of excitement that I'd missed for so long.

I was also surprised and reassured by how cool the rest of the guys were with this. When I said I was going to do it, they were like, "Yeah, please." I was a little worried when I gave them copies of it. If they hated it, that wouldn't be great. And I was worried that it would freak them out. But it didn't, which was great.

I had fun doing it as well. That is mostly what I have learned - this is fun. [Laughs] I'm very, very lucky.

[gymboxer]

ah, excellent. I have been waiting for this to surface! :)

[Richard Parker]

Awesome.

[Skat]

Wicked. Going to the record store to order a copy now!

[Optimus Rhyme]

Nice of him not to make his band do it this time :)

[risk]

heard a leaked single on the j's this morning and it was none too shabby. i'd say, i liked it.

[Alistair]

ive given it a once over... its not too shabs, but a little slow (when the drop the lime track came on after it in my itunes, i immediately hailed that song as the best track on the record... ooops)

I quite like what they talk about in this mp3 blog post
http://www.thephoenix.com/OnTheDownload/PermaLink.aspx?guid=b18d6c0a-54ac-49c7-9fd5-3d29bc081304

[phunkdust]

its not bad. i think an aquired taste.

yorke should have called in someone like Plaid to do a bit of production. it's screaming for some fatter beats and bass

[big eddie]

I really like it, I like the minimal beats sitting back in the mix and this super clear vocal punching right though.

[phunkdust]

yeah i only had a quick listen, i'll report back after I've had a good listen on the train with the trusty iPoo.

[gymboxer]

released on the 24th apparently.

[big eddie]

Harrowdown Hill is one of my favourite songs atm :D

[Harass]

it didn't think much of it at the start, but i've caught myself listening to it a few times, so i guess it's ok. It’s too easy to compare this album to other producers, ie. alex smoke(as people have suggested) and if I had a choice between this, and alex smoke… smoke would win.

I would love to see something with Thom and Marc Leclair, that would be genius

[Richard Parker]

I would love to see something with Thom and Marc Leclair, that would be genius
Too afuken right!!

[Optimus Rhyme]

I am not a rabid radiohead fan but I love Kid A...

I find this record underwhelming personally. Something is missing.

[gymboxer]

triple j is running the whole album tonight (Sunday) on 2006 - the new releases show that Richard Kingsmill has at 6pm. Talking about each track etc....

[thew]

Yeah i don't think the Album is going to be for every one. Most die hard Radiohead fans are dismissing this album.

Kid A is def my favourite Radiohead album as well and was a great foray into the realms of electronica.

This album is nothing like Kid A, and nor should it, or would i want it to be.

I'm quite happy with the result. Like any of those really memorable albums it's a creeper. For mine each track improves with every listen :)


ps. Bryn...Can you please and an 'e' onto York in the thread title to make it Yorke. Everytime i look at this thread i shake my head in shame ;)

[big eddie]

I just love the fact it has the lyric "you cannot kick start a dead horse"

[Indifference]

I listened to it at work a couple of times today. First listen I was a little disappointed...although it grew on me a little the second time through. Whether that is because I was preoccupied is another question.

[mxmai]

still haven't gotten around to listening to this, might get my hands on it this evening and give it a spin.

[Spitchen]

I had a listen last night. I liked the music and liked the tracks where Yorke sang in his less wailing kinda way, but i have never liked his voice when he wails, which is usually most of time. Just a personal dislike. Don't know why really.

[mxmai]

i sort of agree with spitch.

on the one hand, i'd sort of like to hear less vocals, but then at the same time i don't think the production is of high enough quality to stand alone. definitely agree with people's comments about alex smoke though, but if i was stuck on a desert island with either paradolia or the eraser, i definitely wouldn't be taking this.


dunno. it's good, but not that good? a decent warmup for his next release, perhaps, but not entirely strong on its own.

i'll give it a few more listens though.

[thew]

Moody lads moody.... ;)

Expecting Thom Yorke not to 'wail' is like expecting Britney Spears to have artistic integrity :P

[mxmai]

i fell asleep listening to this last night, woke up near the end. thom's voice scared the shit out of me. i had no idea what was going on.

:lol:

[big eddie]

maybe I'm biased, thom yorke could do an abba cover album and I'd probably enjoy it :P

[nic_zero]

This is awesome

Thom Yorke's acoustic performance on The Henry Rollins Show of "The Clock" from his new album The Eraser.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1nFB-R-_gI

[gymboxer]

I am enjoying the album too. I like his voice, always have, and i think it matches well with the minimal techno sounds.

[Salamando]

I am enjoying the album too. I like his voice, always have, and i think it matches well with the minimal techno sounds.

i couldn't disagree more. i love thom yorke and his voice on this album is really cool, but i don't think the production is done very well at all.

will have another listen to it though, just first impressions.

[nic_zero]

Yeah the production could/should have been better but I still think it's a massively good album.

[gymboxer]

i couldn't disagree more. i love thom yorke and his voice on this album is really cool, but i don't think the production is done very well at all.

will have another listen to it though, just first impressions.

what i said was, I think the sound of his voice matches the sounds he has chosen to accompany it. I am mute about whether or not the production is technically done well. :)

[gymboxer]

I have now had a really good listen to this album.

I am going to put the cat among the pidgeons here....

I think the comparisons with Alex Smoke are arbitrary and misguided. The focus of Alex Smoke's work is the instrumentation. The voice, when used, is employed as another layer of instrumentation- it is always (as far as I know) extremely heavily filtered, with distinct lyrics very hard to discern. He does not sing songs per se - the trakcs he produces are very much in the minimal techno stream. He does these superbly - and where he adds his voice, he does an excellent job. But what he is doing is, i believe, completely different from what Thom Yorke is doing here.

The instrumentation is thoroughly muted in Yorke's album. It is the voice that is always high in the mix, that being the focus. The instrumentation does not become the focus. I woudl say he has deliberately eschewed 'fatter beats and bass' because he is NOT trying to make a minimal techno album. What he has done, rather, is to take some of the elements of minimal techno, specifically some of the muted, slightly off key sounds, and used them as a canvas on which to place his songs.

So he is never going to be comparable to a minimal techno artist, such as Alex Smoke, or anyone else, because that is not what he is doing.

A criticism that might be made is that the instrumentation gets a little too repetitive across the album as a whole, but on many of the tracks, he incorporates piano and electronic elements very well as an underscore. I cannot find fault with the production (but maybe others who say it should be better can find those faults).

Another criticism might be that a couple of his songs are quite weak melodically. When this happens, coupled with the aforesaid instrumentation, there is a sense of wanting more.

:)

[Spitchen]

Totally agree gymboxer. I think he just set out to make a solo record utilising predominantly his voice and electronic instruments.

The comparisons with Smoke are unfair on both artists.

[big eddie]

Gymboxer, I like the cut of your jib...

Quick question for those who've listened to the album, how many of you have only given it a run on headphones/ipod?

I found the drums a lot better when played over monitors wound UP!

[thew]

Some say apples and oranges cannot be compared....

I say they taste different but compliment the same palette...


I for one have not drawn complex comparisons to minimal and or A Smoke with the Eraser.

It has however for me a similar feel to some of Alex Smokes production...

[mxmai]

i wouldn't have thought of alex smoke myself, but since the comparison was drawn in this thread, i definitely see it.

but having said that, i can draw a lot of comparisons with other artists in the same genre. the problem i'm having with this album is there's nothing on it that makes it stand out, apart from thom yorke's voice. and shoot me down in flames, but there's only so much value that can give me.


not bad, but it still hasn't jumped out at me.

[gymboxer]

Personally, I can't see any reasonable similarity with Alex Smoke (but please elaborate on this point if you wish). To me, it is like trying to make a comparison between a beethoven symphony and a pop track merely because the latter also has a large string section. The musical aims are completely different and cannot be judged along the same dimensions.

Whether or not you like either the symphony of the pop song is another matter; as is whether it is a good symphony or a good pop song.

You may think Yorke's album is poo, or does not fulfil its promise, and that's cool. But I dont think a valid comparison can be made with Smoke's work, except for purely personal aesthetics in terms of what you like or dislike in your music.

If i made the statement, "Yorke is a much better song writer than Smoke - Yorkes' album is superior", you would rightly tell me that Smoke is not writing songs and it is not a reasonable position for me to take.

The broader issue here, I think, is that music needs to be understood, in part, in terms of its goals. A question I try to ask myself before critiquing any artististic endeavour is, "Do i think I have understood it in terms of what it was trying to achieve?"

We might disagree on what Yorke was trying to achieve.....

This could turn into an interesting discussion..... :)

(yes I am a little bored so have taken to writing essays).

[thew]

Good points but as i said I haven't drawn these complex comparisons. The album has for mine a Smoke feel to it.

Texture, tone, arrangement and lyrical themes. I believe that the Eraser, as does Smoke, to blur the boundaries of several genres. I do not believe this album to be minimal nor would I assume that was his goal.

I agree with you that the Album does not sound like Alex Smoke but disagree that it therefore cannot be referenced.


To me, it is like trying to make a comparison between a beethoven symphony and a pop track merely because the latter also has a large string section.
However i believe the following statement to be valid “The high point of the latest hit single is the Beethoven Esq crescendo…”

It gives the uninitiated listener a quick point of reference without having to describe the individual elements that make up the orchestration.

I have a mate who like me is big on Radiohead and this album. He listens to very little electronic music. When he first gave me this record (the d'l copy) my initial reaction was, if you like this you should try Alex Smoke.

Conversely if someone said to me they liked Alex Smoke, then I would point them in the direction of the Eraser.



The broader issue here, I think, is that music needs to be understood, in part, in terms of its goals. A question I try to ask myself before critiquing any artististic endeavour is, "Do i think I have understood it in terms of what it was trying to achieve?"


This is all good and well but for mine I prefer not to look that deep into an artists work. I'm more interested in the journey (wank wank) rather than the reasons for taking it.

Sure, I enjoy finding out what A and B represent, but for mine it's not how I achieve my musical fulfilment. I do not find that any more validity can be placed into art because the artist had set said goals and has at some point achieved them.

Art to me is not design.

:)

[gymboxer]

Good points. I don't think i disagree with anything you have said here.

I was wondering how the goals of artists line would go down. It is only one persepctive from which to examine things. And i agree whole heartedly with you about the 'journey': no matter how well acheived an artists goal might be, if the end product does not resonate for a listener, then the artist's goals (probably) become irrelevent (for that listener).

Achieving of the goal is not the point really. I didnt mean that if an artist achieves a particular goal of theirs, then that necessarily makes good art. It is just that before I say it is bad art, do i believe that i have understood what the artist was trying to achieve. If not, then I refrain from making a statement about its quality. (I may or may not personally like
it.)

:)

[drater]

Everytime I listen to this album I enjoy it more. And after reading all of the insightful posts in this thread, I have an even deeper appreciation for it. It's lovely reading threads like this. Thanks guys. :)

Stand-out track for me is definitely Black Swan, but I probably respect Harrodown Hill the most as a song. It seems to be the track on the album that Thom is the most passionate about and I respect that.

[nic_zero]

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/Radiohead_Get_Crunk_on_Skeet_Spirit#37943

[nic_zero]

Bah! It cuts off the URL.

That there is Radiohead, crunked. I haven't listened yet so not vouching!

[big eddie]

http://zoomzip.kil.la/skeetspirit/

skeetspirit

thats too funny

[thew]

ha ha! will be sure to check dat shit out!!!

i remember hearing SOME ill mash up of...fark SOME RH song.... i think it was karma police and an A-Trak song or maybe it was even by A-Trak??? i dunno??? (a beer for any one who can id it and put my mind at ease...)

8)

[big eddie]

My favourite cover/tribute ever was the hard and phirm 'rodeohead' effort, I still laugh everytime I hear it...

the cb radio style 'thats it sir you're leaving' from the end of no surprises gets me every time.