Is this TKOL Part 2?
“The King Of Limbs” was a little short. Never mind that, on first listen, it made for the most immediately enjoyable background music Radiohead have ever written. Never mind that, with a few more, those insistent, rattling rhythms on side one became irresistible and the measured ballads on side 2 made you melt a little. Never mind that “Lotus Flower” and “Codex” stand proudly among the strongest songs Radiohead have ever recorded, which makes side 3 of the double-disk newspaper edition technically the strongest side of music ever recorded. 37 minutes was still dissatisfying to some people, so much so that rumours arose, and websites with them, speculating about a follow up album: TKOL Part 2.
Well, “TKOL RMX 1234567″ may not quite be the follow up that those fans were hoping for, but it sure is a heck of a lot more music. Thom Yorke’s hand picked crop of producers have collectively put together over 100 minutes of remixes, running the gamut of styles from house, to dubstep, to hip-hop, to minimalist techno. Every track on “The King Of Limbs” gets at least one mix, with the apparently ultra-mixable “Bloom” getting 5, and “Feral” and “Codex” getting only one each – the first being effectively pre-mixed and the second, perhaps, simply too good to meddle with.
If Yorke’s obvious interest in the work of contemporary producers does little to fend off accusations that “The King Of Limbs” was over-influenced by the young guns of experimental music, the results of this particular experiment at least demonstrate the relative proficiency of Radiohead’s craft: most of the mixes on here are either forgettable – I’m thinking Caribou’s “Little By Little”, Nathan Fake’s “Good Morning Mr Magpie” and Brokenchord’s “Give Up The Ghost” – or actively unpleasant. If Pearson Sound never comes near Radiohead again, that would be fine by me.
Still, there are some gems on this album, as you’d expect with 19 tracks to pick from. Undoubtedly the strongest of the bunch is Jacques Greene’s “Lotus Flower”. Wisely leaving Thom Yorke’s vocals alone at first, while establishing a lush new groove beneath them, the track starts as gentle chillout music before moving up through the gears to recapture the controlled limb-flailing of the original. Mark Pritchard’s two takes on “Bloom”, one recorded under his own name and the other as Harmonic 313, provide one of the most interesting turn arounds on the album: the first is doomladen, coming and going in violent spurts, while the second marches forward at a blistering, kraut-rock pace.
Where those tracks offer arresting changes of pace, others are more quietly pleasant. Altrice’s “TKOL”, the one mix that incorporates elements of more than one track, is a gorgeous, meditative take on the album as a whole; Thriller’s mix of “Give Up The Ghost” is largely unrecognisable yet totally inoffensive in its gentle ambient tones; and Four Tet, predictably enough, takes probably the most sweetly pretty song and the album and makes it prettier still with his mix of “Separator”.
Even acknowledging the worthwhile mixes, though, “TKOL RMX 1234567″ is a completely soulless enterprise. “The King Of Limbs” may never sound as openly heartfelt as “In Rainbows”, but you’d be hard pressed not to feel a little fuzzy inside as “Separator” winds the album to a close. The same can’t be said for any of these mixes. They might make more sense heard in shorter bursts on their original sequential vinyl release, but I’m not convinced they would. Really the best way to treat these tracks is to pick and choose, maybe put together a little “TKOL RMX 1234567″ playlist with all your favourites on it. Mine turned out about 37 minutes long.
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