Amok CD

MUSIC

ELECTRONICA

Song Listing

Disc 1

Song Title

1. Before Your Very Eyes...

2. Default

3. Ingenue

4. Dropped

5. Unless

6. Stuck Together Pieces

7. Judge Jury and Executioner

8. Reverse Running

9. Amok

Album Notes and Credits

Notes & Personnel Info
	Personnel: Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, keyboards, programming); Joey Waronker (drums); Mauro Refosco (percussion); Nigel Godrich (programming).
	Recording information: Joey's; ocean way; The Hospital.
	Unknown Contributor Role: Stanley Donwood.
	Thom Yorke's Atoms for Peace involves longtime Radiohead engineer/producer Nigel Godrich (Ultra¡sta) and bassist Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), as well as two session veterans in drummer Joey Waronker (R.E.M., Ultra¡sta) and percussionist Mauro Refosco (Forro in the Dark). For their first public performance, back in 2009, they performed Yorke's Godrich-assisted 2006 album The Eraser in its entirety, as well as some fresh material. Over three years later, they've come up with this, a product of jam sessions formed -- by Yorke and Godrich -- into a uniform nine-track album. It sounds more like a fleshier successor to Yorke's first solo album than it does a first step, and it's presented that way, from Stanley Donwood's woodcut illustrations to the band's name -- the same as a track title on The Eraser. Due to the nature of the recording process, the material is more about sounds -- rippling rhythms, more specifically -- than songs. Attempting to discern the organic from the mutated and the processed is a fool's errand yet part of the appeal. Listeners will be either unnerved or fascinated by the use of Flea's low-throbbing lines, which add warmth, rarely propel, and are sometimes obscured beneath piles of shifting percussion. Given all the thick layering of sounds, Yorke's words -- normally enunciated and mixed in such a way to enable transcription with only a slight headache as a reward -- tend to act as another element rather than as a focal point. The lyrics probably weren't written at the bassist's house after some drunken pool playing. They're in typical Yorke character, consisting of vaguely conveyed altercations and conflicts: "You got me into this mess," "I couldn't care less," "But it's eating me up," "They try to jump me," "Go back to where you came from," "I'm like the wind and my anger will disperse." In other words, this is another Thom Yorke solo album, and it sounds really nice on decent headphones. ~ Andy Kellman
Producer: Nigel Godrich
Engineer: Drew Brown

Artist Overview

The band eventually named Atoms for Peace debuted at Los Angeles, California's Echoplex on October 2, 2009. Thom Yorke, Nigel Godrich, Flea, Joey Waronker, and Mauro Refosco performed Yorke's 2006 album The Eraser and some fresh material. Additional dates and an appearance at Coachella followed through 2010. The first release to bear their name was a 12" on the 50 Weapons label, released in July 2012; an Atoms for Peace remix of Other Lives' "Tamer Animals" appeared on the A-side, while the group's own "Other Side [Stuck Together Mix]" was on the B-side. Their first true single, "Default," followed that November on XL, with its parent album, the subdued yet rhythmically knotty Amok, issued the following February. ~ Andy Kellman

Compilation Appearances

50 Weapons Of Choice 30-39

Associated Artists and Works

Other Lives

Technical Info

	Release Date : 02/25/2013
	Original Release Date : 2013
	Catalog ID : XLCD 583
	Label : XL (UK)
	Number of Discs : 1
	SPAR Code : n/a
	UPC : 00634904058326

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone (p.65)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "Driving it all forward are Flea's deftly looped bass lines, skipping from playful melody to rumbling menace as Yorke's voice weaves merrily around the beat."

Entertainment Weekly (p.65)
- "'Ingenue' and 'Reverse Running' are heady pleasures..."

Q (Magazine)
(p.92)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "AMOK shows Yorke successfully synthesizing his obsessions into a compelling and complete universe."