He’s forged an elusive yet mainstay presence in production and creative pacts ranging between techno and global influences, alongside formative links with genre linchpins such as Aphex Twin. Yorke’s collaboration with Pritchard represents the former’s Warp debut and one that plays to their respective artistic spheres, having previously crossed paths via the latter’s record Under The Sun back in 2016 and a remix of The King of Limbs-era track “Bloom”.
Tall Tales covers familiar socio-political turf for the Radiohead frontman, zeroing in on the fables dutifully told from an early age as a vehicle to assuage untamed emotions and passions – torn with its application to the modern climate. Where Yorke’s previous solo outing ANIMA spoke cautiously of technological dependency through electronic topographies, this latest project sees his lyricism and unmistakeable drawl inspiring twilight conditions for similar societal themes to be platformed - interchanging between deceptive comfort zones and sequences set to primal fears, elements that would undoubtedly find a home in the bulk of Radiohead’s discography.
From the marauding evolution of “A Faker in a Faker’s World”, with its fidgeting John Carpenter-esque synth fractals interlocked in cavernous layers In Rainbows fashion, Pritchard’s cyber crushing soundscapes set the stage for Yorke pinpointing the dystopic byproducts of social media: “A line that’s just so absurd / A space for some more to come / A click and a thudding hum / A fake in a faker’s world”. Where the latter track finds space in a thematic throwback to The Bends, “Bugging Out Again” broods in its own private celestial dimension, a crawling early-80s era Eno sweep cratered with ambient drops. Adding to the record’s hypnagogic allusions, the ether-scraping highs of “The White Cliffs” eerily echoes David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti’s subconscious sonic realm in its plush percussive plod and corrupted music box delivery.
Pointed electro patter caves into subsumed ambience on
“Gangsters” in a clustering synth shower, whilst an off-kilter polka
beat lays the foundation of “Happy Days”. A sea of vocoder-like
processed spoken words disperse on the album’s unsettling title track,
resembling the perfunctory instinct of an AI-generated nightmare,
simultaneously recalling the dark electronic lullabies of OK Computer and Kid A. Steering between Yorke’s foreboding score to the 2018 remake of Suspiria and previous collaboration with Burial and Four Tet, Tall Tales
finds its feet in unifying analogue and digital worlds; at its most
vivid via the ghostly harmonium imprint reverberating through “The Men
Who Dance In Stags’ Heads”, summoned into being as if some residual
ceremonial spirit of ancient pagan memory.
Perth-hailing multidisciplinary artist Jonathan Zawada’s involvement further reaffirms Tall Tales
as an innately conceptual project, the frequent Flume collaborator’s
background in exploring the intersection of technology and nature
finding symmetry with Yorke’s own track record of interest. Zawada’s
visuals lend a decidedly disturbing lens to the tracks, a series of
videos populated by a carnival of uncanny creatures animated by
Pritchard’s synth tapestry, most notably “Back in the Game” and
“Gangsters”. The latter’s video presenting a town square of contorting
entities engaged in daily routines, in sync with shared rhythms and
lyrics touching on vapid superficiality, a world where hyper materialism
and self-affirming lies reign: “We are Gold and we are Bright / Only in
the best hotels / Chewing on Glass.”
“This Conversation is Missing Your Voice” pits the
question: “I'm not your problem to be corrected / How can you function
with a mind ejected?.” In an ever more synthetically intertwined world, Tall Tales
sees Pritchard and Yorke plug into the fragility of social structures
built on sand, a subject that finds voice via a quasi-cryptic sidewind
through vast digital and organic tracts – an at times menacing,
evocative and hypnotically immersive statement on a freefalling societal
state of play.
