Radiohead is holding a "contest" called Radiohead Remix, in which they're inviting fans to remix the song called "Nude" from their latest album. They've released the raw tracks -- separate, isolated audio clips of vocals, guitar, percussion, etc. -- and are encouraging people to remix the tracks to create something different, then upload it to radioheadremix.com. I put "contest" in quotes because there's no prize other than a guarantee that the band members will listen to your remix. But that's still kind of a cool prize.
I listened to a bunch of the submitted remixes on Wednesday and was kind of disappointed that none of the ones I listened to did anything interesting musically. Most of them retained the same techno/electronica feel of the original song, kept the song's melody intact and added a couple of drum beats. So tonight, I gave a shot at making my own remix.
For context, I'd suggest listening to the original song first. You can find it on the "In Rainbows" album or listen to this remix to get an idea of the song's melody/mood.
My remix is called "Nude (jazzy acoustic)," and you can listen to it on the site or using this embedded player:
It uses only Thom Yorke's vocal track from the recording, which means I was able to change the song's chords from the classic Radiohead melancholy to something a bit happier/jazzier. It has four guitar tracks -- two rhythm, one bass and one fingerstyle melody part for the extended fadeout. I cut up the vocal track in six places to fit the rhythm better, but they're in the same order as on the original recording, including the extended wordless vocals at the end.
It's kind of soulful, in a weird falsetto-Eddie-Vedder-ish way, especially compared to the original recording (which is also soulful, but in a much different way!).
If you like it, please vote and tell all your friends to vote! I'd love for Radiohead to hear this. :-)
Comments
Posted by Aneirin on April 4, 2008 at 8:43 a.m.:
Sounds pretty nice!
Posted by jeff judge on April 4, 2008 at 10:38 a.m.:
i like it :)
Posted by Matt Hellige on April 4, 2008 at 11:21 a.m.:
I really like it. Somehow it reminds me of some Matthew Herbert stuff.
Posted by jeffery on April 4, 2008 at 3:49 p.m.:
Holy crap. This is wonderful.
Posted by Rob Lambert on April 4, 2008 at 6:48 p.m.:
Awesome, Adrian!
Posted by Chris on April 4, 2008 at 8:47 p.m.:
Unexpected and most excellent.
Posted by Richard Roche on April 5, 2008 at 12:19 a.m.:
Wow, that was the prettiest thing I have heard in a long time. Found this via Chris Glass, I'm going to re-post it to my blog as well. Nice job.
Posted by Braydon Fuller on April 5, 2008 at 4:04 a.m.:
This is pretty awesome :) I enjoy the new guitar track -- refreshing! :)
Posted by Paul D. Waite on April 5, 2008 at 5:43 a.m.:
Genius :) Just needs Ed, Colin and Jonny doing a few “bop-she-waddy-waddy”s in the background and we’ve got a world-beater.
Posted by Mark on April 5, 2008 at 5:18 p.m.:
please release this.
I want to listen to it in my car stereo!!!
Posted by Adrian on April 5, 2008 at 8:48 p.m.:
Here's the MP3 of my remix. Share it and enjoy it.
By the way, you can get the MP3 for any of the remixes by going to http://radioheadremix.com/widget/data/datagateway.php?remix_id=XX (where XX is the remix's ID) and looking for whatever's between "mp3_loc=" and the ampersand.
Posted by Scott Johnson on April 6, 2008 at 3:02 a.m.:
Awesome work, Adrian! This was such a great idea from Radiohead, and it's nice to see so many people participating.
Posted by Brad Fults on April 7, 2008 at 3:44 p.m.:
Awesome. I'd buy your album.
Posted by anonymous on April 9, 2008 at 11:28 p.m.:
The ending is especially good. Totally changes the entire character of the track.
Very nice!
Posted by Jonathan on April 15, 2008 at 4:57 p.m.:
Really great job, man.
These guys did something really great too. I too will be submitting a remix with a friend.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Posted by Davman on April 18, 2008 at 6:21 p.m.:
If you made an album, I would buy it. Think Thom and co would do well to make you 6th member.
Posted by Alex on April 26, 2008 at 6:13 p.m.:
Definitely one of the more creative remixes I've heard. Very nice!
Posted by Michael on April 29, 2008 at 10:50 a.m.:
That's very cool. I started listening to Reinhardt after working with Django, as I wanted to see what the framework was named after. Radiohead with Django-influenced guitar is inspired.
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