#the hidden syncopation of Radiohead

[a-h-87769877]

Videotape begins @ min 32:46

[quarantinemusiccalendar]

Day 14: Radiohead - In Rainbows

Is there anyone between the ages of 28 - 42 who doesn’t actually know this album? I feel it’s one of the musical milestones that define a generation. It’s their 7th studio album and it’s the one where they venture into new emotional territories. It’s the album I come back to over and over again. Often when I need to sort out some anxiety or restlessness that have crept into my life without an apparent reason.

I will not write about who Radiohead are. I won’t write about their musical development either. And I will not write about the revolutionary way how this album got released. All of that is so well known I would be repeating information most of you already know. If you don’t know, go and read up on them on Wikipedia ;-) Instead, I will focus on this album itself and its context, symbolism behond the lyrics and its place in the line of Radiohead’s discography. 

In Rainbows got released in October 2007 and it’s the album where they went significantly quieter. Somewhere around this time this band realized that they don’t have to saturate the space with sounds to make a good song and they stopped being afraid of silence - or quite parts in this case. There is effectively only one rocker song (Bodysnatchers). It’s a very organic, contemplative and comforting record.

Thom York mentioned once himself, that there is very little anger on this album. There are very little political subjects on this album. (in comparison to their 6 earlier records). It rather explores the idea of transience. As Thom once described it: "It very much explores the ideas of transience. It starts in one place and ends somewhere completely different." The album takes a lot of inspiration from Goethe's Faust. It’s not the only topic on it, but it’s very prominent. You will find hints and lines mentioning subjects from Faust in the songs Reckoner, Faust Arp, Videotape. Author of one of the reviews I have read during my research has explained it really well: "The character, Faust, observes that life is not about some great search for divine light, but rather, it is about the practice of living with the enlightenment of God at your back; thus allowing it to guide you forward through your organic life, and not lead you down a dead-end path of obsession. It is the recognition that the source light which governs our world cannot really be seen or fully understood by human beings .... Although we have moments of clarity and deep understanding, these moments are generally temporary and don't last very long." (3)

It’s an album that stands out for its clarity, warmness, bold and brilliant songwriting. Radiohead always knew how to make a record that sounds and feels as one compact unit. This one is no exception. But In Rainbows, containing balanced mix of different kinds of song, somehow reflects the beauty and complexity of human life so well, that makes the album quite terapeutical.  In contains their usual moodiness, neuroticism, soulfulness murkiness, but his time they added more warmth and even some romantic undertones. The guitar parts are fluid and soaked in reverb and Thom's voice is at its most soulful. , OK Computer (1997) are Kid A (2000) are equally innovative, brilliant and in some respects maybe even better albums, but they are simply not as warm and comforting as In Rainbows. It brings a stimulating synthesis of accessible songs and abstract sounds - this record steps back from toward more straightforward territory. It covers full musical and emotional spectrum to invoke an aura of breathtaking beauty. It is sparse, thrilling, complex, innovative and yet simple.

This album doesn’t have any weak tracks on it. Just really good ones that suit you completely or really good ones which are not as great fit. But that’s all just a personal preference issue. It doesn’t take anything from its overall quality. But even with an album like this, I have to narrow my selection down to 3 - 5 songs. This is what I’ve picked and why:

Reckoner is a fragile song with an almost Marvin Gaye-like type of sound and a vocal line wrapping beautifully around the meandering guitars and frosty percussions. It just floats through the air. As already mentioned the album reflects several topics from Goethe's Faust. The narrator, Faust, finds himself torn apart between the Reckoner (Mephistopheles) and God ("dare not speak its name"). On the inside his separating, he’s not quite dead yet ("like ripples on a blank shore" - river Styx?), but he’s not alive either.

All I Need is a dark and gentle melody, underpinned by witty, romantic yet slightly creepy lyrics (“I am a moth / Who just wants to share your light /  I'm just an insect / Trying to get out of the night”). It’s reflects Faust’s obsessive love for Margarete. It ends with a life-affirming crescendo while Thom sings the words “It’s alright“ over and over again.

Weird Fishes/Arpeggi is my favourite Radiohead song. And the live version From the Basement (picture above) is even better than the studio one. A beautiful guitar line strung from broken accords (sg. arpeggio, pl. arpeggi) intertwines gracefully with the brandishing drums and above them is hovering Thom’s falsetto. The whole thing floats like honey. It seems the song is about finding love, hoping that things will materialize, and then feeling self-doubts that make it difficult to carry things through. The ocean is a symbol of the subconscious, so this is perhaps a journey of self-discovery and self-healing inspired by love. The oceanic imagery in this song is also related to how an artist first becomes inspired to create; also by going into his subconscious. It maybe loosely connected to the story of Faust and Margarete, but maybe it is not.

By Radiohead standards, the song House of Cards is a little less cryptic then usual.  It's about 2 people who fall in love, but they both already are in relationships, which are not stable or happy ones. The narrator is trying to convince his love to leave her husband because she'll be happier with him. (”The infrastructure will collapse / Voltage spikes / Throw your keys in the bowl / Kiss your husband goodnight / Forget about your house of cards / And I'll do mine“) The song has a lethargic quality to it. It flows slowly to an unsettling pulse and chipping guitar chords.

The song Videotape is a thought-provoking lamentation on death and uses metaphor about leaving your loved ones a videotape behind when you die. It features cathartic piano parts and it sounds a lot like a slow funeral march, but a graceful and dreamy one, not a morbid one. The figure of Mephistopheles appears again in the lyrics, this time he gets directly mentioned (”When I'm at the pearly gates / This will be on my videotape, my videotape / Mephistopheles is just beneath / And he's reaching up to grab me“). It’s Thom York’s favourite song from this album. The song features a hidden syncopation which makes the song so dreamy and hypnotizing. It makes the sound flat and the rhythm sounds off.  It goes against your brain and creates a rhythmic illusion. For better explanation watch the following video.

Happy Tuesday, relax and enjoy.

Album highlights: - Reckoner - All I Need - Weird Fishes/Arpeggi - House of Cards - Videotape 

Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3bB5lH7

References: - Radiohead - Wikipedia - In Rainbows - Wikipedia - In Rainbows – From the Basement - live performance of the album - (1) A. Petridis (10 October 2007). “ Radiohead's In Rainbows - a five-star review “. The Guardian. - (2) Deep Cuts - 10K Subscribers! / Ten Of My Favourite Records (9:38 - 12:27) - (3) Songmeanings.com > Radiohead > In Rainbow  

[adamverzum]

Secret rhythm, hidden syncopation, buried rhythm displacement and other mystical creatures

Most of you probably know Videotape by Radiohead. It is the final track on their 2007 album In Rainbows. What you probably don’t know is that it has a ‘secret rhythm’. Well, it doesn’t really, but it sounds cool, doesn’t it?

The album version is a piano-heavy song, with a strange atmospheric background noise and unusually placed beats. In short: a Radiohead song.

What makes this more interesting, is the evolution of this track, from live performance to the album version. Apparently, some Radiohead fans were baffled by the fact, that Thom Yorke had such a difficulty starting such a ‘simple’, straightforward song during one of their shows. This spurred some fans to go on a fact-finding mission. The whole ‘conundrum’ is probably best summarized by this video with a rather clickbaity title: The secret rhythm behind Radiohead's "Videotape"

While the video presents an interesting case, their solution is not really correct, as it is pointed out in the comments. If I counted and understood it correctly, you have to assume a double tempo for the song, and count 4 :

1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a

in which the beats in bold are the ones Yorke is playing piano on. 

What is really great about this song, it that it has a sort of ‘hidden double time’ playing in the band members’ heads and it gives a whole different feel to the song if you try to count the measures the way they do, and not the way the piano suggests. I can agree, that it is great, that the band members wanted to challenge themselves with this ‘background rhythm’, so much so, that they eventually decided to remove it from the album version completely. This is the aforementioned ‘Bonnaroo version’ of the song from 2006:

Still, it is ‘only’ rhythm displacement, not some secret voodoo. You can also observe a more extreme case of this in the song Bells by the Norwegian experimental trio Cakewalk:

[jkottke]

The hidden rhythm in Radiohead's "Videotape"

In her first installment for a new Vox series called Earworm, Estelle Caswell takes a look at some weird musical stuff happening with Videotape, a song off of Radiohead's In Rainbows. According to a longer video by Warren Lain referenced by Caswell, Radiohead has hidden a syncopated rhythm in the song that even the band members have trouble keeping straight when they're trying to play it. Videotape is my favorite song on that album...maybe this is a reason why?

Also, don't miss the short explanation of how "rhythmic sound synchronizes the brain waves of groups of people". !!!

[mycircusanimals]

The hidden syncopation. Listen to other versions. Find the 1. Watch @vox talking about @warrenlain talking about Videotape.

[atvttcmm]

The Hidden Syncopation of Radiohead's "Videotape" by WARRENMUSIC

[kgenius23]

Liked on YouTube: The Hidden Syncopation of Radiohead's "Videotape" by WARRENMUSIC https://youtu.be/RvKhtFXPswk

[pixites]

The hidden rhythm in Radiohead’s “Videotape”

[hedonisticasite]

The secret rhythm behind Radiohead’s ‘Videotape’

Fascinating dissection of Radiohead’s Videotape, and the syncopation hidden in the slow rhythmically monotonous song.

from The secret rhythm behind Radiohead’s ‘Videotape’