Thom Yorke gets bassed

Thom Yorke gets bassed

7 February, 2008 | 5.01PM

• Written by: Carl Ritger
• Filed under: Music News: burial, modeselektor, thom yorke, various

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has long professed an admiration for dubstep’s loping dancehall beats and wobbling bass, so much so that he invited some of the genre’s leading lights to remix material culled from his solo debut, ‘The Eraser’.

As it turns out, pairing Yorke’s penchant for twitchy electronica with the subterranean depth-charge riddims of Modeselektor, Various and Burial is a perfect fit.

The EP starts off on a high note with Burial‘s hotly anticipated refix of ‘And It Rained All Night.’

At first listen, it sounds a bit Burial-by-the-numbers, but ultimately reveals itself as a top notch production worthy of the mysterious producer’s strongest material.

The clattering garage beats are there - all blunted kick drums and yawning bass chords swathed in rain-streaked ambience - but the spotlight is kept firmly on Yorke’s vocal.

Haloed by distant echoes and pitched down moans, Burial recasts Yorke’s 21st century blues as the ramblings of a drunken madman lost in the London Underground, frantically searching for escape.

Up next, Modeselektor turn in a serviceable remix of ‘Skip Divided’ that grafts a rock-solid teutonic pulse onto the original’s slippery organ chords, propelling the track towards a crescendo of skittering hi-hats and roiling toms.

Yorke’s vocals are screwed and chopped into a stream of glitched-out psychobabble, which is a nice touch, but the mix is pretty much exactly what you’d expect.

But it’s Various‘ contribution that is the biggest surprise here.

Their 2006 full-length, ‘The World Is Gone’, was something of a hit and miss affair that failed to live up to the hype, but their version of ‘Analyse’ is phenomenal.

The original centers around rustling rhythms and a rather pretty piano part, but Various ditch all of that, instead opting for chest rattling bass drops, saw-toothed leads and a vocal melody that is processed into oblivion and integrated directly into the beat.

It’s the realization of the alkaline post-futuristic dancehall they hinted at being able to create on ‘The World Is Gone’, and the ideal marriage between Yorke’s singer/songwriter IDM and dubstep.

Released digitally at the end of January, the vinyl hits shops this week thanks to XL Recordings.

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