Radiohead – TKOL RMX 1234567 Review

Remix albums went the way of Radiohead – suspended indefinitely as people moved on. Hopefully, they return soon, though not with a collection of mutating dance floor mixtures. Adapting one of their more controversial and room-splitting albums with the likes of Caribou and Jamie xx, Radiohead puts their faith in innovation and a series of singles which merely chart where these The King of Limbs songs can be taken. Nowhere interesting, unfortunately. Perhaps it is the sour taste of Blur deep cuts and a Jarv Is… record spiralling out of mundane control which means it is hard to connect with the inherent charms of putting a spin on the work of another artist. Thom Yorke held firm with TKOL RMX 1234567, saying it was intense and interesting to see where others could bring Radiohead.

Hearing what another artist can do to a song picked over for a year by a band at loggerheads is a wise way to get a new perspective – but few out there make a sound showing they have clicked onto something the original artist had not. An in-house experiment which could have stayed that way – in-house. But it did not, and here we are. Clapping rhythms and technological tapping on Little By Little, remixed by Caribou. It lends itself to the whirring momentum and cluttered tests James Murphy carried out on his tennis test match remixes, Remixes Made With Tennis Data. Shuffles of technology on Morning Mr Magpie are enough to induce a headache though that may be the bright lights glowing away in a dark room. Or, more likely, it is the scuffed and repetitive nature of this Nathan Fake remix.  

Fortunately, there is salvage to this one – with plenty of material useful for focusing on tedious tasks. Bits of noise which require little attention spring through and mark TKOL RMX 1234567 as a useful tool in short bursts. Much of it whirrs away under an indifferent scope – the likes of Give Up the Ghost – Brokenchord Remix sounds as the title suggests, broken. TKOL RMX 1234567 is not inherently Radiohead even with the manipulation made to the Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Philip Selway pieces. The trouble with a remix is it loses the path travelled by those with a clear message – and the fallout of The King of Limbs is fragmented and lost almost entirely on this release. Forget everything when Blood (Blawan Rmx) appears though – the clear star of this album, its industrial thump is a real treat.  

Yorke’s love for electronic manipulation and remix work takes over here and as he dishes out these tracks to DJs and contemporary hands, he and Radiohead lose the swaying emotions of The King of Limbs. Perhaps the point was to weaken these tracks, to crack their kneecaps and have them submit to a sound that neither benefits nor offends. TKOL RMX 1234567 feels like it plugs a gap which was never there – a computer-like experience which feels far removed from anything emotionally tethered to Radiohead. A release where carving off the best bits is the most appropriate action – to cling to a handful of these reworkings is much better than slogging through the whole project.