The Cold Cut

Radiohead- Nude
AmpLive- Nudez (ft. Too $hort & MC Zumbi Of Zion-l)
Nine Inch Nails- 1 Ghosts I
Downliners Sekt- Panic! Sonic Monk

Okay, Radiohead, its time to fess up. With 'In Rainbows', you effectively broke the traditional model for an album release. Now, the idea of a free digital album is commonplace, and distributors are beginning to get worried about their profits. Many artists are quick to turn around and state that they want to release their next album free of charge, but in reality it takes a lot of planning and a certain degree of popularity to pull this off (see Prince and Radiohead). This rule, however, was made to be broken, and its happening as we speak.

Over the last month, we've had free releases of the AmpLive remixes, the new NIN (Nine Inch Nails) album, entitled 'Ghosts I-IV', and the Charlatans release, 'You Cross My Path'. Those were the big releases, but you shouldn't forget Downliner Sekts' 'The Saltire Wave' and many other smaller bands chancing their luck with this new method of releasing music (hit up the links for the download pages). And more are set to follow. The old music infrastructure is being slowly broken up, and the labels are none too happy.

Normally, I wouldn't write about this, but one thing in particular has caused my change of heart. NIN, as well as releasing the album free, have also gone as far as uploading it to torrent sites included the industry-despised Pirate Bay. A brave move, and so the avalanch begins. Since I can remember, bands have taken the opposite approach (cough- Metallica- cough), sueing until they turn blue in the face. The public always prevail, though, but NIN must be the first big band to endorse illegal downloading. Its a big step, and has some interesting implications... I can already picture it: NIN's label suing the band for illegally releasing their own music.

And to the music? Well, of the free albums I've heard, the quality has actually been noticeably superior. Free of the pressure of 'going platinum' or similar goals, the musicians are able to develop their ideas fully, and spend time on elements that yould usually be discarded early on in the production process. Basically, more freedom=more quality. And who cares about solid sales when 'In Rainbows' went platinum in the first day, selling at an average $5. Those figures result in Radiohead pocketing $6 million in the first 24 hours...

Rainydayz Remixes is a short album, at 8 tracks long, so I'm not going to run a full review, rather a short look at what it has to offer. First off, what is this album, and who is it by? A while back AmpLive (an Oakland DJ-Producer) began re-tooling 'In Rainbows', starting off with 'Nude' and then moving onto the whole album. He hit a legal wall when Radiohead's management heard, and a legal battle ensued as AmpLive had not asked for their permission to use their material. A few months have passed, and now an agreement has been reached, and the album released. In the spirit of the original release, its free, but its a wonder that this album even saw the light of day at all. You can download it here, from AmpLive's website...

Radiohead/Thom Yorke lend themselves well to remixes- over the last few months we've had CRS using 'The Eraser', Mark Ronson switching up 'Just' and now this. AmpLive applies a hip-hop vibe by pulling in favours from some great guest artists, including Charli2na and Too $hort. My personal favourite is a much improved 'Videotape', featuring the always reliable Del The Funky Homosapien- a huge improvement over the original. AmpLive's own contribution is impressive, chopping the songs to pieces before re-tooling them. On many of the tracks- 'Weird Fishez' and 'All I Need' for example- the remix sounds completely unlike the original, but still cashes in on the quality of the original songs, and the resultant album is sleek, accomplished and well worth your time.

Just as with 'In Rainbows', you would be stupid not to download this- and as an added bonus, you don't have any choice over the price this time around- its free. If you do download it, leave a comment- what do you think of the remixes?

AmpLive- Video Tapez (ft. Del The Funky Homosapien)

Things are ticking along nicely now, but I've decided to include a few more categories in my 'best of year' list. Keep checking back daily for updates, and comment, whether you like my list or not.

As ever, if you want to see a bit more about each band, click on their name, and if you want to buy the albums, click on their titles. If you think I've missed something glaringly obvious, please let me know. I'm always on the lookout for new material to promote... if it isn't here, I either haven't heard it, or I'm not a massive fan.

10. Les Savy Fav- Let's Stay Friends
I've literally been bombarded with opinions over this album, from those who claim its the album of 2007, to those who think Les Savy Fav are 'past it'. I didn't take the time to listen to it until very recently (i.e this week, when I started noticing it appearing all over the shop), and I lie firmly in the first category. Les Savy Fav have been slogging away for 10 years, and if their back-catalog possesses anywhere near this quality, they have been dealt a great injustice. Somehow, they produce a distinctive guitar sound (come on, its the most popular instrument in the music nowadays), and lead singer Tim Harrington's slightly loopy lyrics brighten things up. Now all I have to do is listen to their formidable collection.

Favourite Track: Patty Lee

Whilst many tracks on this album are extremely crazy, Patty Lee retains the fun side of things whilst focusing a bit more on a cleaner sound. It helps.

9. Daft Punk- Alive 2007
Alive 2007 really came out of the blue, and although live albums don't possess the same sheen as studio ones, I can confidently say that this is the best Daft Punk album, ever. Homework and Discovery are fully deserving of their cult-status, but when you meld them (and the better moments form Human After All) into an hour live set, something far superior is created. On the basis of this, Daft Punk are on of the few bands who are technically and musically better live than on a record.

Favourite Track: Too Long/Crescendolls/High Life

8 minutes, 3 songs, 2 robotic DJ's- the best dance song in a long, long, time.

8. Radiohead- In Rainbows
No surprises here: even if 'In Rainbows' hadn't turned out so great, it would deserve a place on this list for the controversy surrounding it. With their 'you choose the price' scheme, Radiohead proved a valuable point, and made shed loads of cash in the process. By cutting out the middle man, they took all the money, and despite all those who paid nothing (a little bit shameful), the average price paid was still higher than what they normally receive for a label-supported album. A much deserved victory for a band that produce consistently first-rate music.

Favourite Track: Reckoner

Only Radiohead could pull this off. 2 minutes 20 seconds in, and a breakdown occurs- one of the most chilling moments in music of 2007. Beautiful.

7. ?- The Good, The Bad & The Queen
Damon Albarn should really be given a medal or something, for high-standard prolific songwriting. First came Blur, then Gorillaz, and now this. Unfortunately, I was turned off immediately by his pretentious claim that the band didn't have a name, and that The Good, The Bad And The Queen was just the album title. However, I got over it, and once that happened, I was fully able to grasp the quality of this album; its a supergroup, and oh boy, is their music super. After three side-project albums, Albarn's hopefully got them out of his system, and the Blur reunion can move ahead.

Favourite Track: Herculean

The first, and best, single from The Good, The Bad And The Queen. Its about a post apocalyptic wasteland:
"And the medicine man here 24/7
You can get it fast in Armageddon
Everyone on their way to heaven
Slowly"
By no means cheery, but genius nonetheless.

6. Burial- Untrue
As well as being one of my top 10, Burial also wins the prize for 'biggest surprise of the year' and 'most sensitive timing for album release'. Untrue came along at just the right time for me, just when I was in the gutter after being rejected by Cambridge with 'no prospect of gaining a place'. Pretty harsh, but this album was almost like therapy. I've never heard anything like it before; when dubstep is a household genre (in 2020 of course!), Burial will be remembered as the forerunner.

Favourite Track: Shell Of Light

The first time I heard this- on the Hype Machine of course- it opened my mind to another world of musical opportunities. I really have never listened to anything that is simultaneously so wrong, but so right.

I was flipping through the MTV channels today and saw the new Radiohead video for their first "In Rainbows" single, "Jigsaw Falling Into Place". I'm not completely won over by the idea of this as the first single (Reckoner or Weird Fishes/Arpeggi would have been better bets IMHO), but you have to admit that this is a good idea for a video. It pretty much proves that everybody look weird when wearing a helmet camera, and fortifies my opinion that Thom Yorke is a fairly weird looking man... albeit one who writes brilliantly creative music. Here's the original song as well, for those who can't be bothered to download 'In Rainbows' in full:

Radiohead- Jigsaw Falling Into Place

Artist: Radiohead
Album: In Rainbows
Rating: 9/10

[Slow Clap] Well done, guys, you've done it again. Not only is 'In Rainbows' a massive triumph over the machinations of the music industry, its quite possibly the best collection of Radiohead material recorded since the bands formation. The "you decide" price marketing scheme has garnered so much publicity that this album could be mediocre and still change the music industry, but rather than being eclipsed by it's own publicity, Radiohead have produced a 7th which is as strong as its marketing ideas. As well as producing the most bravely controversial albums of the year they've also produced the most musically accomplished offering thus far (well worth the reasonable £5 I paid for it)- 'In Rainbows' is a serious contender for album of the year. 'In Rainbows' shouts clearly to the world that in Radiohead, we have a band who buck the trend, and for that matter, don't give a damn what said 'trend' is.

With all the publicity surrounding this release, you could get so wrapped up in it all that you forget about the musical content of this album; however, for the purpose of this review, I'm going to assume we all know about the price of the new album, or should I say, lack of one. After flying through the registration process yesterday, I was greeted by a long link to download the album, which was playing within 5 minutes of purchase. Things open in Kid A fashion with '15 Step', which starts with processed beats and then tricks the listener seconds later once the full band come in, moving swiftly into Hail To The Thief territory. But fear not, things are mixed up again half way through as Thom Yorke howls and we are thrown back to Ok Computer. To finish things off, we have an echo effect, some more eerie synths and even a group of shouting children in the background. So, all that in one song? Well, '15 Step' is a brilliant opening track, but the rest of the album is much the same: In Rainbows is a masterful mix of all their previous styles- The synths of Kid A and Amnesiac are mixed with the eerie guitar-trio of The Bends, OK Computer contributes atmospheric falsetto from Yorke alongside the overall polish of Hail To The Thief.

'In Rainbows' is such a dense collection of songs that I really have my work cut out describing them to you: as you've read, summing up 15 step took me upwards of 150 words, and thus I'm not going to give you a full track by track description, rather a condensed idea of what the band offer here. Following 15 Step, a distorted baseline announces the arrival of 'Bodysnatchers': this is text-book Radiohead, all wailing falsetto, but I suppose you could call it the weak spot. But, hey, what a weak spot: most other bands would kill to produce music so sonically diverse, and its a testament to this album that such a brilliantly crunchy (listen to it, then comment) song can be considered weak. Next comes 'Nude', a real standout track, with a procession of falsetto ooh's and acoustic guitar solos that rise higher and higher until Yorke is singing in his trademark falsetto at the end. I can't really express how beautiful this song is, but I'm sure many of you have heard live versions, and if not, download it and have a listen (below). We are brought back down to Earth by 'Weird Fishes/Arpeggi', another one of my favourites, but listening here I realised I had only heard half the album. Possible singles from the second half include 'Reckoner' and 'Jigsaw Falling Into Place'.

As I said earlier, 'In Rainbows' doesn't need a track-by-track runthrough, rather a confident assurance that this is a brilliant album. It's been a long hiatus for the band, but listening to this album, you can see its been well spent. As if it weren't obvious already, Radiohead have firmly cemented themselves as a great band once again: all said and done, 'In Rainbows' presents an even better combination of the band's styles than Hail To The Thief, an album which most felt was brilliant but more of a stepping stone than a progression- agreed?

Just a few seconds ago a little pop-up appeared on my Digg widget stating that 'In Rainbows' has already gone platinum, just days after its release. What more can I say? The numbers speak for themselves... Take my word, buy the album for a price of your choice, and enjoy listening to this album both for the music and what it stands for. I'm not including any tracks because defeats the idea of this experiment, but here's a link to the download website...

In Rainbows- Download

*Okay- I couldn't resist posting at least one track: its available for a very short time only, so download it quick by following the link

Radiohead- Nude