When hackers held a Radiohead album to ransom: “We got hacked last week”
In June 2019, one of the largest audio leaks ever was seized upon by an individual under the alias ‘Zimbra’, initially erroneously reported for a massive cash ransom, but instead to sell to those keen for the material. The recordings in question were the over 18 hours of demos and sessions that took place for OK Computer, Radiohead‘s seminal ’97 album.
While some studio cuts had already been released on the OKNOTOK 1997 2017 reissue, any insight into the band’s creative process had never been heard before in such an intimate and candid manner.
Most bands don’t want their sketches and studio jams available, potentially robbing their work of any mystery. Whose business is it anyway? The online seizure’s exact execution isn’t entirely clear, but it’s deduced that the hacker struck via the Radiohead fan Discord, possibly hoovering up their material when OK Computer‘s sessions material was collated in the ‘cloud’ for the 2017 reissue project. A week later, in early June, an anonymous post on Radiohead’s Reddit boasted of possessing 18 hours of unreleased audio, sharing previews of some of the material.
After much shock among Radiohead’s online fandom, a 65-page spreadsheet labelled ‘OK Minidisc’ was swiftly compiled, meticulously detailing and sorting through the 1.38 gigabytes of leaked audio. Speaking to Pitchfork, the hacker known as ‘Zimbra’ shed light on the initial ransom reporting: “I toss the $150K figure to someone as a hypothetical because at some point you can just do the math… Then the Reddit post drops, and at this point everyone kinda freaks out. I do, the now-known-false Hoserama account does, Reddit does too. And it leaks.” ‘Hoserama’ is the alleged online conspirator, however, their culpability is still hazy and a matter of debate.
Online suspicions that ‘Hoserama’ was a red-herring alias by ‘Zimba’ to assuage the wrath of Radiohead’s fans and soothe his own guilt, ‘OK Minidisc’ compiler told Pitchfork: “I don’t get the sense that Zimbra is the actual thief, but none of his stories about how he obtained the files really add up either,” Nicholas writes. “In the end, he was so spooked by the chance of being outed beyond the private, Martin Shkreli-like trading circles that he briefly impersonated ‘Hoserama’.”
“We got hacked last week—someone stole Thom’s Minidisc archive from around the time of OK Computer…. For £18 you can find out if we should have paid that ransom” guitarist Johnny Greenwood tweeted. “Never intended for public consumption, it’s only tangentially interesting. And very, very long. Not a phone download. Rainy out, isn’t it though?” Deciding to pull the digital carpet from underneath ‘Zimbra’, Radiohead immediately made the MINIDISCS [HACKED] collection available on their Bandcamp, and all proceeds were donated to Extinction Rebellion.
Thankfully, many have already sifted through the voluminous load to pick out the nuggets of interest. An early version of ‘Lift’ was the focus of particular critical praise, and several of Yorke’s acoustic songs plus early cuts which would appear on In Rainbows and A Moon Shaped Pool also singled out for showing later established songs in new lights. Despite its shady circumstances, the MINIDISCS [HACKED] offers a fascinating window into a band at a career peak and a masterpiece’s fruition.
