VUG Media

Plagiarism is tempting at this time of year.

Actually, that's a lie. However, that is not to say I have not
imagined that "wouldn't it be nice" scenario about term papers more
than a few times...

Rather than plagiarize academically, I'll do it here where it doesn't
matter. I've got to keep this thing chugging along somehow in the
midst of a scary school workload! Enjoy the Pitchfork review of the
new (NEW!!) Radiohead (RADIOHEAD!!) in all of its bootlegged glory.

Rick

Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood
[ft. the Nazareth Orchestra]: "Arpeggi"
genre: rock/IDM

On Sunday, Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke performed a song called "Arpeggi" backed by the Nazareth Orchestra. By Tuesday, thanks to rabid Radiohead fans and a bevy of YouSendIteers, this performance was available to, and heard by, anyone who could click a mouse. There's something amazing and crass about the way an unreleased demo or an album advance or a live track can be downloaded and uploaded and passed on to an exponentially expanding circle of strangers. In some cases, taking advantage of this unbounded access is like seeing your parents put Christmas presents under the tree for the first time.

On this track Greenwood plays the Ondes-Martenot, an electronic keyboarded developed by Maurice Martenot, a colleague of Leon Theremin. The Ondes-Martenot produces elegiac tones that sound like a cross between the warm buzz of a Rhodes piano and the resonant blare of a pipe organ. Such tones are perfect for Yorke's tremulous voice and his equally tremulous words-- "Your eyes, they turn me/ Why should I stay here?" The Orchestra joins the fray slowly, xylophones and trumpets giving way to gliding gilded strings bowed and plucked. The confluence of these swirling bits produces a bit of dissonance, with Yorke's voice rubbing awkwardly against the Orchestra near the end of the performance. Given that "Arpeggi" ends on a questioning tone-- Yorke repeating the word "escape" in a weak, wispy manner as a two-note pattern is repeatedly plucked-- that friction is no doubt intentional.

And then it's done. Except that it's not done. Like I said, there's little doubt that this is a work in progress, and the chatter amongst webheaded Radiohead fans corroborates this notion. Poet and critic Richard Hugo wrote a book about the concept of "the triggering town," a word or phrase or some other catalyst that begins a poet's journey towards a completed work. Hugo says that where a poem begins and where it ends up are often two separate and disparate places. In order for the completed work to truly succeed, he claims, the triggering town is discarded. By the time this song finds itself on an officially sanctioned Radiohead release, it could be completely different. Or it could just be a springboard for something else, end up discarded and forgotten. But I'll stop with the architectural boxstep and take this line from this gorgeous song to heart: "It's over by the words." [David Raposa]

**** [4 stars]