First off, a quick announcement that our latest Uncut Ultimate Music Guide will be out next week, dedicated this time to Radiohead. I'll write more about that soon, but in the meantime, while I'm finishing the next issue of Uncut itself, please dig in to the assembled tunes below.
Sorry I didn't manage to post a playlist last week; a combination of germs, deadlines and various other professional/seasonal distractions meant that I ran out of time.
At the moment, I'm compiling our films of the 2014 for the end of year issue. By sheer coincidence, one of the films I'm most looking forward to for next year is Inherent Vice. In case you're not up to speed on it, this is Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel - a Seventies-set noir about a stoner Private Investigator, Larry "Doc" Sportello, who's investigating the disappearance of a former girlfriend.
Instant albums do not, as a rule, encourage reflection. There is surprise, sometimes indignation, a social media flame war, a lot of static about delivery systems. Once the 38 minutes of, say, Thom Yorke's "Tomorrow's Modern Boxes" have passed, it can all suddenly be over. What happens next?
Thom Yorke has released a new album, Tomorrow's Modern Boxes.
The album is available to download using BitTorrent, the peer-to-peer file sharing software.
In a statement co-authored with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, Yorke wrote, “As an experiment we are using a new version of BitTorrent to distribute a new Thom Yorke record. The new Torrent files have a pay gate to access a bundle of files. The files can be anything, but in this case is an ‘album’.”
Thom Yorke has teased fans by posting an image of a white 12-inch vinyl on a turntable.
Next to the record appears to be artwork designed by Stanley Donwood – the band's long-time collaborator who has designed all of their album and poster art since 1994. A link to the image, which Yorke posted on his Tumblr page, was also tweeted by another long-time Radiohead collaborator, producer Nigel Godrich.
Pink Floyd, Leonard Cohen, New Order and Fleetwood Mac all feature in the new issue of Uncut, dated November 2014 (Take 210) and out tomorrow (September 23).