18 hours of Radiohead's OK Computer Sessions Stolen ... and Then Released by Band*

Try to convincing the electronic RH fans in that other thread that there's anything worth listening to here. They all think Radiohead (despite this forum poll results, which obviously do not count at all) started releasing great albums from Hail To The Thief and onward. Why is there a thread like this anyway? What O.K. Computer album are you talking about? The one that sold 7.5million?

 

Damn

How I wish there was a proper 'Immersion' box. With the album newly mixed in stereo and 5.1, Blu Ray incl. Glastonbury 1997, at least a 3CD selection of the finest outtakes, etc

 

Wow, the version of "Lift" about ten minutes into disc 15 is smashing--far more energy with the instruments at the forefront than the very dull one (IMO) released on the OKNOTOK reissue. Why didn't they use this version?

 

Thanks for letting us know.

 

Radiohead might be upset about this because Thom has hinted that something special is coming to commemorate KID A's 20th anniversary, and maybe they were planning on using these early versions of "Motion Picture Soundtrack" in some kind of deluxe Kid A set...

 

What poll?

Nobody in that thread has said that (you know, as opposed to “all”)...

 

Not impossible but I suspect they chose the version that appears on the OKNOTOK cassette from the material that has leaked and that any upcoming Kid A/Amnesiac package will focus on their sessions from 1998 onwards.

I can't imagine they'll be thrilled that this has happened one way or the other. Fans have voracious appetites for their favourites and, in essence, both the group and their audience just had their "Get Back" moment. They're very unlikely to be relishing the prospect of all those tentative jams and demos being heard and dissected, bum notes and all.

 

From the Google sheet:

Disc 3:
26:33 / 808 and acid-like bassline

This definitely sounds like a rough form of the electronica sound that would come to the forefront during Kid A / Amnesiac. The band (or at least a few band members) were tinkering around with this sound for years before those albums.

 

Listening to all of this, I am skeptical of the "document"'s listing of much of these as "studio" takes. It more sounds like soundboard tapes of soundchecks of random venues.

 

From the sheet:

Disc 3:
35:14 / Same piano delay song as before with more layers (sounds more like a song now)

Sounds a bit like an early working version of "Down Is The New Up"? But no vocals or lyrics.


42:14 / Unreleased Thom solo demo #4 3D (Can anyone help us)

This is fairly lovely. Sounds a bit Neil Young-ish.

 

Thanks for the thread. I am listening now and it's like an ok computer fan wet dream.
If something like this was done for dark side of the moon or wish you were here or animals i'd lose my mind as well.

 

I mean, it's a lot like finally getting last year's Beatles White Album box set and some of those takes the public didn't know existed 50 years later, except this is coming a mere 22 years after the album's release (and released illicitly).

 

From what I've read, the 18 MiniDisc archives that make up this leak were the source files used in compiling the bonus cassette included with the deluxe edition of the OKNOTOK set, so it's likely any similar treatment for Kid A and Amnesiac will consist of material recorded later - based on Ed's session diary, most songs attempted during this period were revisited then, so it's likely we'll get to hear further versions (such as more from the electronic arrangement for True Love Waits, as eventually reworked into Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors). On the other hand, it's possible there may end up being some crossover or the original plans might be changed slightly to avoid this... Only time will tell!

 

Someone compiled live tracks, studio tracks and demos (likely all recorded on different formats) to minidisc? In order to then sift through to pick out bonus tracks? Why not just archive all this stuff to a hard drive in WAV format? What's the significance of utilizing minidisc in whatever this is supposed to be?

 

These things were compiled onto minidisc in the late 90s. we have the digital recordings because those minidiscs were digitized a few years back. they didn't recently put them onto minidisc.

 

i liked the quirkiness of that lp/cd at the time. but then there was the girl that gave me the record

i wasn't a huge fan of that guy ( producer, whose names escapes me ATM ) and when jason falkner was going to make a record with him, i thought it ill advised.

ok computer is aok with me tho..

 

This shows how lame the OKC box set was compared to what we could have got.Hard to believe they compiled this stuff and basically binned nearly all of it.Artists are rarely the best people to put in charge of their own archival projects.This may be Exhibit B of this(A of course being 40 years of frustration of Neil Young).

 

So everything has minidisc compression?

 

Yeah, but going even further, everything leaked was in 192 kb/s.

 

Pretty damn incredible, so far I'm really impressed by the demos of Last Flowers. Can't wait to find time to hear more of this!

It would be fantastic if the sessions for Kid A and Amnesiac leaked like this as well.

 

From the Stereogum writeup linked in the OP's post: "If you have no ethical qualms about obtaining this music, I wish you the best of luck in finding it. And if you’ve already heard it, let us know what you think. It’s gonna be a glorious day."

I find a lot about this to be creepy — the unwanted surveillance of private sessions, the questionable motives of whoever leaked this, the eagerness of superfans to dive in the deep end of voyeurism and gluttony. My qualms aren't really about piracy and theft, although embracing this thing that fell off the back of the band's truck seems at least slightly dubious as an expression of respect for the creators.

Yeah, I can also see how it must seem Christmas-y and benign to dig this if you're filled with devotion and fascination for every forensic iota of how the album came into being. But again my first reaction was almost nausea. There's too much music, too many gigabytes, too much grabbing and hoarding and stuffing into earholes.... We're drowning.

 

Wow, pretty nuts if they were really leaked by an XL employee.

I checked out a few titles highlighted in this thread and the one that I like the most on first listen is that band version of True Love Waits on disc1. The final released version is obviously better but I thought this was quirky enough to make it interesting.

 

Yeah, this is like what "True Love Waits" would sound like as covered by U2. Very different vibe.

 

Some damn nice artwork someone on Reddit (user a3poify) came up with:




Made a simple album cover for the leak : radiohead

 

Not that this is particularly important, but that dude also had the stems for "Bloom"... they haven't leaked yet, but I would assume they were working on that Ocean Bloom thing around the same time as OKNOTOK so it makes sense he has em.