A Radiohead riddle

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Radiohead: cryptic hints at new direction

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Almost four years have passed since the release of the last Radiohead album, Hail to the Thief. That's a long spell without new material for the most important band in Britain, whose dense, cerebral 1997 masterpiece, OK Computer, frequently tops lists of the greatest of all time.

But even when they are quiet, the Oxford quintet are never really silent. This week, they dropped the biggest hint yet at the content of their seventh album, due in an unspecified month later this year.

At www.vapourbrothers.com, the website of the film-making team responsible for many of the band's videos, a surreal short film appeared, juxtaposing footage of the band in the studio with images of dancing skeletons, a matador being gored and a slowly rotating cow.

Alluding, no doubt ironically, to Radiohead's morbid mindset, we hear an announcer say, "Here is a land of happy, contented people". We see singer Thom Yorke dancing badly to old-school rave music, and playing guitar while bandmate Ed O'Brien lies on the floor shining a torch in his eyes. They wear Bush and Saddam masks as Yorke's characteristic stream-of-consciousness words flash up: "Capitalism. Millbank. Vermin. Cost". Make of that what you will.

The more this band communicate, the more they complicate-the puzzle, but that is their appeal. They have become masters of the cryptic clue.

The chief source of information is www.radiohead.com/ deadairspace, the band's blog, where photos appear of their grand studio room, of illustrator Stanley Donwood at work on the album sleeve, or simply of trees in the snow. More helpfully, a picture once popped up of a blackboard listing new song titles, including No Shame, Bodysnatchers and Arpeggi.

Yorke often chips in with enigmatic words and poor grammar, mostly about global warming, but occasionally he'll say something about the music, such as "some of the random stuff we have at the moment could be the most exciting ... trying to figure out how on earth we will be able to play some of it".

The Vapour Brothers' film seems to be hinting at a venture into even harsher electronica for the band. Then again, it also shows Yorke singing Winter Wonderland.

Numerous unreleased songs can already be found floating around on the web since the band's summer 2006 tour, and a few are already firm favourites. Especially worth digging out are Bangers and Mash and Go Slowly (at http://speedofdark-web. blogspot.com/2006/11/all-radioheadpart-three-of-three.html) and the gorgeous House of Cards ( h t t p : / / f i n e f i nemu s i c. com/2006/05/16/radiohead-houseofcards). Or you can watch filmed, high quality solo piano versions of Videotape and Down Is the New Up at www. fromthebasement.tv.

One final shot from the new video shows Yorke holding up a sign reading: "One day all this will become clear". With autumn looking like the likely time for LP7 to be unveiled, the mystery will soon be over. Until then, let's enjoy the confusion.

Tarantino keeps up his track record

I can't be alone in feeling more excited about the soundtrack to the new Quentin Tarantino movie than the film, Death Proof, itself. The director reinvigorated the soundtrack genre with the bestselling CDs accompanying Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, blending his cutting dialogue with lost classics and obscurities rather than the latest single by some fleetingly hot current band.

As with his use of faded actors such as John Travolta and Pam Grier, the greatest pleasure lies in seeing the light of appreciation shine once more on forgotten talent. In the past Tarantino has revived the record sales of acts including Nancy Sinatra, the Delfonics, Bobby Womack and Dick Dale. Who's likely to benefit this time?

The soundtrack, out on 23 April, features smooth soul from Joe Tex and Eddie Floyd, racing rock from Willy DeVille and T.Rex, and a dramatic theme tune in the shape of The Last Race by Neil Young's string arranger Jack Nitzsche. Most bizarrely, there's Hold Tight, a chirpy Sixties hit for Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich.

This weekend Dee performs at the Playhouse Theatre in Weston-Super-Mare - he'd be pretty shocked to find an audience full of fans of extreme shlock cinema, but with Tarantino's influence, it could happen.

AN EARLY LISTEN TO...

NATASHA BEDINGFIELD
N.B. (Sony BMG)
Stepping out of the shadow cast by big brother Daniel, Natasha Bedingfield scored number-one singles hits in both Britain and the US from her first album, which also earned her a Grammy nomination in 2004. This follow-up, due 30 April, is equally ambitious, packed with big tunes and the 25-year-old's bigger voice. Her slightly husky bawl sounds best amid the playground chanting and hip hop beats of I Wanna Have Your Babies, and the parping synths and stomping drums of How Do You Do?, though on ballads such as Not Givin' Up she sounds overwrought. Lyrically and musically, much of the album is bland, but a few more hit singles are guaranteed.

NEW ON THE NET

The changing world of all things downloadable continues to move at breakneck pace. Latest developments include EMI's announcement that it is to start releasing higher quality downloads free from Digital Rights Management restrictions, meaning that you can move tracks freely between MP3 players and your computer, and they should sound better. Try it out at the 7digital store, which has exclusive DRM-free, 99p tracks from Damon Albarn's The Good, The Bad and The Queen project now downloadable at 320kbps (that's good, apparently).

Then there's the announcement that podcasts, previously irritatingly music-free, are finally to be allowed to broadcast song segments thanks to a deal struck with PPL, a performing-rights organisation. Don't sprint to the computer though - only 30-second clips are permitted, and so far it only applies to podcasts by commercial radio stations. The BBC's fine efforts will still be all talk. Speaking of quality podcasts, DJ and Bestival founder Rob da Bank has just announced that his Sunday Best podcasts are to start appearing twice monthly. Search for "Sunday Best" at the iTunes store.

www.thisislondon.co.uk/davidsmyth

 

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