New Radiohead: 'Arpeggi'
Reader Josh writes in:
Last night's performance of new song 'Arpeggi' has already surfaced on the web. A recording of the track - performed by Jonny, Thom and the Nazareth Orchestra at the Ether Festival - can be found on the At Ease message board as well as an amazing perfomance of 'Where Bluebirds Fly', a short(!) video of 'Arpeggi' and an mp3 of 'Smear.'Anyone hear? Should we be excited? Check back later for an audio link.
UPDATE: Jonny Greenwood & Thom Yorke w/ The Nazareth Orchestra - "Arpeggi" (Live At The Ether Festival 3/27/05) (Sorry, link temporarily removed for bandwidth reasons.)
Posted at 8:53 AM
Tags: Thom Yorke
I listened and wasn't particularly interested or impressed. "Smear" sounded really good, but Arpeggi was like it says: numerous electronic arpeggios over and over and over.
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Download here http://member.ycn.com/~ewwoess/tmp/
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eh, like burdine said, it was just sorta boring "experimental" arrangments. doubt any of this will translate into new radiohead material.
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I was at the performance, just to say it was much prettier, more intricate and beautiful than the MP3 circulating indicates. It's a beautiful song, and it was a great performance with little Thom Yorke's voice on full form. It's very Bjork-like but much better and less precious.
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Not bad. I've always liked "Where Bluebirds Fly", so it was interesting to hear this arrangement - not sure I needed the gal to join in chanting though. "Arpeggi" is pleasant enough; I'm curious to see if it will appear on their new album. It grows on me each time I listen to it.
Radiohead sure are veering further and further off the map. Did anyone catch them when in Brooklyn doing "Split Sides" with Sigur Ros? Whoa. They seem really enamored with experimentation which is fine, but I'll always miss music as heard on "The Bends" and "Ok Computer". "Kid A" was the last album of theirs that I truly enjoyed from start to finish.
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I don't really think they're 'veering further and further off the map'- "Arpeggi" is not too much different from some Terry Riley stuff- and it's not like the song is without hooks or a solid melody either. Anyway- At Ease has some speculative lyrics up, if anyone's interested.
http://www.ateaseweb.com/songs/arpeggi.php
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I like it, it's pretty. I assume that it's probably half-finished but I can definitely see the potential for it to turn into something better.
By the way, it's JONNY - short for Jonathan - Greenwood.
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Beware false idols - and, in Radiohead's case, dull, banal prats who don't even begin to skim the surface of what Eno, King Crimson, Can, Rhys Chattham, Lou Reed, Faust et al have achieved in the realm of Avant Crap.
Radiohead is, at this point, for people who like their U2 spiked with moonshine.
And the fact that Coldplay exists only serves to create a false sense of superiority in Radiohead fans - something culturally akin to Blink 182 being considered "elder statesmen" in the realm of bubble-punk.
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Don't be excited just yet. Wait until the album is actually finished, then be excited. Hearing that bit is proof that nobody should be too judgemental of a band when they're still working out new material. Just because they performed it that way live doesn't mean that's how it will sound on the record, right?
Come to think of it, I hope not...
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I was at the first of these Royal Festival Hall shows, and Arpeggi was absolutely stunning.
Haven't heard the bootleg yet but I suspect it's just too intricate for a clandestine recording to do it justice. It's reminiscent of Selmasongs, yeah, but is still the most interesting new direction the band have taken for three or four years.
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Greg says "banal prats who don't even begin to skim the surface of what Eno, King Crimson, Can, Rhys Chattham, Lou Reed, Faust et al have achieved in the realm of Avant Crap"..do you think that after them that's not possible to create some other "crap" music?
..just for talking..
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just listen there 10 times at different moment of your day and you will understand that this song has to offer more that the first time...
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If you wanna hear The Bends, listen to The Bends! Why should they record it again with different lyrics to suit those who miss that. If they wanna experiment, let em. If you like it, like it if you don't, then don't. How hard is this? I personally like a lot of what they've done. Amnesiac is stunning, HTTT is a bit all over the place, don't really love most of it, but cut the crap about false idols, Radiohead are clearly a hugely talented band who don't wanna waste their talent reliving the same old successful formula. If experimentation takes the music to a place you don't like, then that's fine, but you might not know you don't like it unless you try it.
There, rant done.
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