I read recently that Radiohead are touring Europe again; I honestly can't remember them ever playing in the NL in the 16 years I've been living here. Of course, maybe they did and it went by me, or I couldn't get tickets - otherwise I would have been there. Thankfully I did get to see them play live at Lycabettus theater in Athens some 25 years ago, around the time they escaped mainstream indie rock to delve into experimental electronic prog or whatever Kid A was. I just looked at the tour schedule and there aren't any NL dates planned. I don't know if I would go to their concert anyway, because of the boycott call by pro-Palestinian organisation Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS). Musicians like Roger Waters and Brian Eno are on the forefront of that movement, others like Patti Smith, Serj Tankian, Rage Against The Machine etc. have been vocal in their support for BDS. On the other side of the argument there are also some artists I respect, including Radiohead and Nick Cave. In the recent past, they refused to join the boycott arguing that “playing in a country isn’t the same as endorsing its government”, or that one should not "punish" the citizens of a country for the acts of their government. They also cast reasonable doubts over the effectiveness of such measures: it took almost 30 years for the South African apartheid regime to fall, despite a successful boycott in culture, sports, etc. Of course, currently it goes deeper than apartheid: there's a recognized genocide under way, so the argument for a cultural boycott is way stronger now. Yet Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead and The Smile has spent part of 2024 and 2025 in Israel, collaborating with Israeli artist Dudu Tassa. Furthermore, according to BDS, Tassa "has repeatedly entertained genocidal Israeli forces in between these massacres of Palestinians in Gaza, willingly acting as a cultural ambassador for apartheid Israel". So Greenwood isn't just working with a random Israeli but a with supporter of IDF war criminals. Staying, I wager, politely silent while a few kilometers further, the IDF is involved in massacres. I myself am inclined to agree with BDS. I do think that by ignoring calls for boycott, artists are showing support, or at least, tolerance of the genocidal regime. Someone has to tell the Israeli people that shooting and starving children to death is not OK. And it can't be a perceived enemy. It has to be someone they love and respect, ideally one of their favorite artists. Issuing, as Thom Yorke did, a lukewarm statement condemning Netanyahu's "extremism" and asking for moderation by both sides (that is, the butchers and those trying to stop the slaughter) is a cop out, not brave resistance to peer pressure as Mr. Yorke wants us to think.
Wow, it's been some time since I went off topic waxing political like that. Ι really did start writing with nothing but the presentation of this CD in my mind, but stream of consciousness brought me to the Gaza genocide topic. I guess it never completely leaves me, a sense of disgust for Western hypocrisy and the pampering of "our" war criminals. One expects it from the likes of Trump, but not from "sensitive" and "progressive" souls like Yorke.
Anyway, I may disagree with Mr. Yorke and Mr. Greenwood's artwashing of Israel, but I wouldn't put them in a box together with active supporters of Netanyahu's actions, so I'm not about to stop listening to their music. It would have been a pity to do so, when it's as interesting as their recent collaboration with drummer Tom Skinner (ex-Sons of Kemet) in The Smile. The three of them started playing together during the COVID-19 pandemic, releasing their debut A Light for Attracting Attention in 2022. The inactivity in the Radiohead front, combined with the appearance of this second Smile album, must have worried Radiohead fans - I'm sure they welcomed the announcement of this mini European tour with sighs of relief. But even if Radiohead's absence from recordings continues, The Smile have provided us with a great alternative: Thom Yorke's fragile falsetto and Greenwood's symphonic ambition and electric guitar outbursts, together with their willingness to experiment, are the main features of Radiohead's music anyway. Skinner brings a jazz-informed elasticity with complex, feel free-flowing rhythms, and constant time changes. "Wall of Eyes" opens the album with a soft bossanova beat and atmospheric strings. It's almost too pretty, so The Smile purposefully destroy the melody by adding some dissonant notes during the last half minute. "Teleharmonic" has a hypnotic quality with woozy synths and inventive drumming, while "Read the Room" is more tense with spiky post punk guitar and fluctuating speed and volume. "Under Our Pillows" shows the band's kraut rock obsessions: I liked its motorik beat, the electronic bleeps and Tangerine Dream-like synth coda not so much. In contrast "Friend of a Friend" is almost Beatlesy melodic, featuring nice piano, soft vocals and lush strings culminating in "A Day In The Life"- like crescendo. In contrast to the sweet music, the lyrics are an attack to corrupt politicians and their business friends using the pandemic for personal profit. "I Quit" is another atmospheric piece with a sampled guitar loop and cinematic strings. "Bending Hectic" is an 8-minute epic: an orchestral ballad with soft fingerpicked guitar for 5,5 minutes, it then ups the tension with screeching guitar and sinister strings. "You Know Me!" closes the album with Yorke's familiar falsetto, clanging piano and swirling strings. All in all, Wall of Eyes comes across a lot like a new Radiohead album - with a twist. Which tells you all you really need to know about it.
**** for Wall of Eyes, Teleharmonic, Read the Room, Friend of a Friend, I Quit, Bending Hectic
*** for Under Our Pillows, You Know Me!
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