Following up his debut album The Eraser; AMOK is the follow-up/debut album from his other band Atoms for Peace. Despite the pretence that the album could produce an entirely new sound; AMOK is strictly a Yorke project; fully electronic with elements of glitch, dance and drone.
Although I really liked The Eraser; AMOK itself is a tad less accessible, suffering from a slow middle with tracks that find themselves needlessly stretched out and nowhere near as entertaining as it's opening and closing moments.
It does have some great moments though; Reverse Running is a superb track with a funky bassline and an outro that sounds like a swarm of insects escaping from an Amiga. Opener Before Your Very Eyes... promises a more upbeat experience with a fast tempo for an album that frankly doesn't, but it helps to sticking it out as one of the better tracks.
The three singles are fantastic for different reasons; Default utilises samples and an addictive beat for something that sounds strangely uplifting despite the lyrics. Judge, Jury and Executioner is stereotypical melancholy with some great falsetto and handclaps, similar to Lotus Flower off of Radiohead's last album but shorter.
And Ingenue is always be remembered for it's music video; but the music has again some soft vocals and high pitched sampling.
But again; it's the album's middle where things slowdown to a crawl and just recover in time which let it down on the whole. If you're a fan of Yorke's previous solo material or adore Radiohead's more electronic tracks, then there's bound to be something here for you, but to everyone else; it's a decent if difficult listen.
7/10
H
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