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"Scotch_Mist", announced as a concert by our beloved band broadcasted via internet TV channels on New Year's Eve 2007, is not actually a live event, but a documentary, just under an hour long, where Radiohead perform "In Rainbows" in its entirety, following a different setlist from the album. The tracks are all recorded, live, in their rehearsal room, except for a couple, and are interspersed with some brief video clips. In short, a sort of preview of what their 2008 tour will be. The covers that were rumored, from Bjork to New Order to The Smiths, were not played at all.
A decade after the release of "Ok Computer", I feel I can say that the main theme of Radiohead's music is still the struggle between man and machine. Some might argue that if they engaged in something different, they could be more exciting. I believe, however, that it is inevitable: this is their obsession, and it will remain so. If interested, they still offer considerable points for reflection, some of which I wish to share with you.
The issue that most concerns them, to quote Benjamin, I believe is that of the work of art in the age of its reproducibility. Hence the publication of their latest work in various formats and even without physical medium, without material. Thus, the desire to create music, they, who are considered, in this century, one of the groups most compromised with technology, that can be played by five, but often less, individuals, together and without the aid of any computer.
Paradoxically, everyone is at the same time superfluous yet necessary. There is a moment in the video where this consideration appears clear. At the beginning of "Reckoner", only Thom Yorke plays the guitar, while the other four are engaged in providing the rhythmic base. We well know that currently all this is unnecessary: a couple of samples and everything would be resolved. Yet... (the older ones will remember David Byrne in Jonathan Demme's film "Stop Making Sense", playing "Psycho Killer" alone with a beat-box: it was already evident at that moment that the Talking Heads no longer had a reason to be). Johnny Greenwood, who, at the time of the first albums, had been acclaimed as a guitarist with remarkable technical abilities, transitions from the Martenot to other electronic manipulations. What matters is mastery of the means and the result. The humility of one's performance relative to the goal.
Throughout the documentary, no one else appears besides them playing. No mixer engineer, no sound engineer, no one beyond the glass. Radiohead want to give the sensation of being self-sufficient, of having full control over what they are doing. The only exception, a "Faust Arp" played at sunset in the middle of a clearing, with only Greenwood on guitar and Yorke singing. You can hear the voice of whoever is filming them. Perhaps, we don't know, a dozen people around the two, or another member of the band. But the two of them are enough, and the strings recorded in the studio are not needed. And I, please don't be altered by the comparison, but I thought, as I already had at the time of the release of "In Rainbows", of Nick Drake.
It remains to be said that this desire for control sometimes brings them too close to the sound of the album, so the live dimension does not seem to make sense. The deviation, the imperfection, the void, which make reality exciting, are missing. We will see this spring how the real shows will go.
In conclusion, the game is still open. I don't know exactly at which minute they are, but, in my opinion, they are still in the lead.
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