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Sunday, 2 March 2014

Album #61 : Atoms For Peace - Amok


Atoms For Peace
Amok (2013)

Thom Yorke has never struck me as the rock supergroup kinda bloke. Fearfully critical of the celebrity hype machine, he seemed more likely to just want to create music in his basement rather than recruit friends from other bands to play his non-Radiohead musings.

Yet in Atoms For Peace, that's exactly what he did. Joined by long-time Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, REM and Beck session drummer Joey Waronker, Red Hot Chilli Peppers bass player Flea and another Chilli Peppers affiliate, percussionist Mauro Refosco, the Radiohead frontman formed a band, bonded by their "love of Afrobeat".

This is their first album (time will tell if there are others), Amok. By Yorke's admission, most of the album was 'conducted' by him, as he showed the others electronic music he'd made and they would copy it on their instruments. The question is, can this material stand up on its own, or does it suffer from the inevitable Radiohead comparisons that are sure to arise?

The Album

No. It can't. And no. It doesn't. Because it is nowhere near as good as Radiohead's material.

It comes off as largely a collection of either Radiohead B-sides or leftover songs from Yorke's sessions on solo album The Eraser. Fitting with the music that Yorke loves to make, it's largely minimalist (occasionally straying into the ambient) electronica with occasional flirtations with traditional rock features. 

Its biggest crime is that by and large it is horribly uninteresting to listen to. It's not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, just boring, devoid of life and and emotion.

A few tracks on the album are decent, though, and show flickers of the sort of sonic experimentation that has taken Radiohead to new heights of creativity. Dropped moves seamlessly from its early minimalist electronica to a more energetic vibe once the bass kicks in, establishing a deep groove. Yorke sings in that typical high register over a choir of Yorkes in the background, further proof that his voice gets better with age. Opening track Before Your Very Eyes demonstrates that 'shared love of Afrobeat' in its rhythms and percussion; the jangly guitar lines are pleasing, even if they are replaced by a buzzy, awesome sounding synth melody. The whole thing though still comes off as being diet Radiohead; some of the flavour, none of the awesome. Stuck Together Pieces isn't bad either, more buzzy, spacey synth while Yorke's vocal is unaffected by studio trickery, sounding pure and, dare I say it, rather poppy. Finally, there's Judge, Jury and Executioner, whose pleasant acoustic guitar licks act as an undercurrent to a simple, yet effective, bass line, and more vocal skills from Yorke. Again, though, it sounds like something not good enough to make a Radiohead album.

Elsewhere, the songs are, as I said earlier, largely dull. Unless could have been good with a bit of attention, and perhaps something to break up the song; it's a very chilled out, smooth ambient tune, but it's the same thing over and over again for four minutes or so. Reverse Running is notable for its jazztronica fusion; jazzy guitar and drums that may be sampled and spliced together supporting more electronica. Amok has an interesting start with its 8-bit Commodore 64 digitised piano sound, and then descends into more dull ambient electronica.

The only real positive is Yorke. Vocally he continues to develop and improve, while his high register vocal is as gorgeously haunting as anyone else in music today. 

The Verdict

Amok is only really of interest to Radiohead fans, or fans of experimental fusions of electronica and rock, though there isn't much of the latter to be found here. Yorke has often gone on record as saying he admires the work of noted techno pioneers like Autechre, Aphex Twin and DJ Shadow, and their influences can be seen in Yorke's work, both inside and outside of Radiohead, since Kid A.

What the album lacks, that Radiohead so frequently have in their music, is emotion. There simply isn't any here. That has nothing to do with the electronica; there is plenty of electronica that can be evocative of emotions; and has everything to do with the nature of this album. There's no bond, no shared experiences, no urgency to the recording; it's just five mates making an album because they can.

Not great, unfortunately, and to be honest if you want to explore Yorke's work in this field The Eraser is a much better album.

My rating: **

Standout Tracks

Dropped
Stuck Together Pieces
Judge, Jury and Executioner

Tomorrow, another request (this time, for my dad). I had no idea he even knew who this band was until he asked me to do an album of theirs.....

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