The world’s best producer, according to Thom Yorke
Radiohead is a band who have never been worried about dabbling in various styles and music.
Jack Black was exposed to the versatility of Radiohead when he first listened to their album The Bends, and while he was familiar with the band for their work dabbling in concept, he was surprised when he listened to The Bends and heard how much they were pushing a hard rock style of music.
“If you want concept, you go OK Computer,” he said when championing the group. “But if you wanna rock – if you want straight-up fucking songs – you go The Bends. The first few listens, I was like, ‘I don’t understand… My brain’s not computing…’ Then it clicked in: ‘Ohhhh, I see! It’s the best band in the history of rock!’”
The reason why the band are able to put together such different-sounding albums is firstly that they don’t impose any limitations on their creativity; however, it also boils down to how much effort they put into their production technique as well as their actual instrumentation. Throughout music, a lot of the most innovative minds have applied themselves not just with their instruments but also with the means by which they record their albums.
This goes all the way back to the early days of rock music. While we consider those kinds of genres great because of the individual musicians who helped make them up, the energy contained within a lot of that music wouldn’t resonate were it not recorded properly. Bands needed to be just as handy in the studio as they were with their instruments, and this is still the case today.
It’s for this reason that Thom Yorke has so much respect for Aphex Twin, as he was able to capture that feeling which was instilled in so much innovative music that came before, but without the use of guitars or a lot of live instruments. He relied heavily on his production style in order to do this, and it made Yorke believe that he was one of the greatest producers on the planet.
“I would still say old Richard D James. He burns a heavy shadow,” he said. “Aphex [Twin] opened up another world that didn’t involve my fucking electric guitar, and I was just so jealous of that whole crew. They were off on their own planet.”
A lot of people criticise music that doesn’t use a lot of live instruments as they believe it’s disingenuous, but that isn’t necessarily the case. Time and effort are still needed to make this kind of music, and these artists don’t have as much of a blueprint to follow when attempting to perfect their sound. Yorke felt as though there was plenty of meaning instilled in the likes of Aphex Twin, and held them in higher regard than a lot of the live bands surrounding him at the time, who he believed were actually devoid of substance.
“I hated all the music that was around Radiohead at the time, it was completely fucking meaningless,” he said, concluding, “I hated the Britpop thing and what was happening in America, but Aphex was totally beautiful, and he’s kind of my age too. He’s a massive influence.”
