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A post shared by Nigel Godrich (@nigel_godrich)

Nigel Godrich shared his instagram account today and posted this video… Interesting…

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‘Fake Plastic Trees’ - Jonny’s 2018 Effects Techniques

Given that Fake Plastic Trees is one of the oldest songs that the band still plays, it’s no surprise that Jonny has varied his playing over the years to match his changing tastes. And as is common with Jonny, these “new” sounds are primarily new combinations and settings of his standard pedals. On the 2018 tour, he’s made several tweaks to the chorus and outro guitar parts in order to bridge his imitation of the album recording’s hammond organ part with the band’s current sound.

A screenshot showing Jonny’s pedalboard in 1996, from the band’s performance of Lucky at the Pinkpop Festival. One can see Jonny’s original Electro-Harmonix Small Stone V2, Demeter ‘The Tremulator’, and Digitech Whammy WH1 – all three have since been replaced by very similar but more recent versions from the same manufacturers.

Pedals and Settings

On 2018 performances of Fake Plastic Trees, Jonny is using his Electro-Harmonix Small Stone V4 phaser, his Demeter TRM-1 Tremulator tremolo (he stopped using his ‘The Tremulator’ in 2017), his Digitech Whammy 4 pitch-shifter, and his BOSS RE20 Space Echo delay. All of those effects are more recent versions of ones that he’s used since the mid-90’s, and he seems to have switched to them only when his originals stopped working after decades of touring.

Throughout the song, Jonny keeps the same settings on each of his pedals. The Small Stone is set for a slow sweep with the color switch up. The Tremulator is set for a medium speed and a high depth. The Whammy is set for an octave up pitch-shift. The Space Echo is set for a single repeat, and Jonny has tapped in a delay time of a dotted quarter note. Delays set for a single repeat, especially ones with a distinct rhythm, have become one of Jonny’s favorite techniques in recent years, and he’s used them on tracks including Staircase, Present Tense (live only), and Identikit.

You can read more about Jonny’s 2016 tour pedalboard here. His 2017-2018 board is identical, except that his old Demeter ‘The Tremulator’ was replaced by a modern Demeter TRM-1 Tremulator by the start of the 2017 tour.

A photo of Jonny from during the Santa Barbara performance of Like Spinning Plates on April 11, 2017 (reddit).

Section by Section

Jonny enters during the first “it wears her out” chorus, using his Small Stone, Tremulator, and Space Echo. Here, the Small Stone’s slow and resonant sweep gives a spacey character to Jonny’s guitar sound, the Tremulator’s deep pulses give it rhythmic motion, and the Space Echo both adds to the atmosphere and makes the rhythm more complex. Jonny used the same effects for this section in performances from 2006 to 2017, but had set the Space Echo for more repeats and set its length to be roughly in sync with the Tremulator. With a single repeat and a dotted dotted quarter note length, the 2018 version of the section is deliberately just a little more peculiar and unsettling.

During the second verse of Fake Plastic Trees, Jonny turns off all of his effects in order to a play a delicate clean part – no different than during mid-90’s performances. Then, during the second “it wears him out” chorus, Jonny re-activates the Small Stone and Space Echo, both with the same settings, but doesn’t use the Tremulator. In performances from 2006 to 2017, Jonny used the same effects during this verse as during the first. Interestingly, he did use the Tremulator during the 2018 Santiago performance, but by the São Paulo performance (11 days later) Jonny seems to have decided against using the pedal.

For the climactic third verse, Jonny switches to his “distortion channel”, using his classic combo of a Marshall Shredmaster and Fender Eighty-FIve for a focused high-gain sound. The “distortion channel” bypasses the Space Echo, so it is not used during the third verse, but the Small Stone is sometimes still used during this section.

For the rest of the song, Jonny switches back to his “clean channel”. As on the first chorus, Jonny’s new Space Echo setting gives a new sound to a part which is otherwise similar to past performances. Since the OK Computer tour, Jonny has used his Small Stone, Whammy, and Space Echo during this section, and since 2000 he’s played near-identical arpeggios. In 2018 performances, the Space Echo’s new dotted rhythm interacts melodically with Jonny’s arpeggios (this is particularly notable on the high notes), rather than providing a supportive ambience as in the past. Perhaps the most notable – and the most subtle – use of effects during this section is that of Jonny’s Whammy pedal.

A screenshot of Jonny adjusting his Digitech Whammy WH1 pedal with his foot, from during the 2003 performance of Fake Plastic Trees on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross.

Outro Warbles

Starting in 1997, Jonny began using his Whammy at the end of each measure during this section. He would do so only after he had finished playing each arpeggio, and would activate the Whammy and move its treadle to the toe position (octave up) while the notes were ringing out. Just before the next measure began, he would deactivate the Whammy and move its treadle back to the heel position (no pitch-shift). By turning on the Whammy after he’d plucked each note of the arpeggio, but while the notes still were ringing out, he was able to shift only the “sustain” of the notes up an octave. When done in combination with Jonny’s original Space Echo setting, the result was a layering of delayed repeats of the un-shifted arpeggio with the “washy” sound of the pitch-shifted sustain. This technique can be seen and heard very clearly during the band’s 2003 performance of the song on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross.

At the first two 2018 performances of Fake Plastic Trees (in Santiago and Lima), Jonny played the part in the same way, albeit with his new Space Echo setting. But on the third (and latest) performance in São Paulo, Jonny played a new – seemingly improvised – guitar part during the short outro section, when Thom sings wordlessly. Jonny accents this new, melodic guitar part by using more Whammy, bringing out certain notes by shifting them up the octave. The distinctive “warble” of the Whammy’s pitch-shifting algorithm is a lot more audible on these prominent notes, giving a shimmer to them (this is likely why it was though by one fan to be a ring modulator). We’ll need to wait until Radiohead’s upcoming performances to determine whether Jonny’s new outro part was a one-time improvisation, or a new tweak to the song.

A screenshot showing Jonny with his No.2 Telecaster during the 2018 São Paulo performance of Fake Plastic Trees (youtube). The gig was possibly the only time that Jonny has ever used this guitar for that particular song.

[yaniuss]

Thom’s Looping on ‘Daydreaming’

The question has been addressed in the past, but it comes up so frequently on each tour that it seemed sensible to dedicate a post to it: what is Thom doing on live performances of Daydreaming?

A screenshot of Jonny at the piano and Phil at the glockenspiel during the 2017 Best Kept Secret festival performance of Daydreaming.

For almost two decades, other members of the band have sampled Thom on performances of Everything In Its Right Place and The Gloaming. For the first time, however, Thom is sampling them! At the start of performances of Daydreaming, Thom samples both Jonny and Phil. Thom first samples Jonny’s piano playing. Performance of Daydreaming start with a sparse, atmospheric intro section, and in 2017 the band started the intro while their walk-on music continued playing. During the intro, Jonny plays higher up on the keyboard than at any other point in the song, which allows the piano loop to occupy an independent space from Jonny’s main piano playing (the specific notes which Jonny provides for Thom to loop are F5, G5, A5, C6, D6, and E6, played in a random order at each gig with a ritardando rhythm on each one). Unlike the next samples that we’ll discuss, Thom leaves the piano loop dry.

In order to keep the loop roughly in time with the rest of the track, Thom uses a metronome application on his phone. “Tempo - Metronome” from Frozen Ape Pte. Ltd. It’s clear that Thom has the standard version, not the “lite” version, because he’s using a custom color scheme with red indicators and a black background. On live performances, Thom can be seen conducting with his right hand in time to the metronome while his left hand controls the looper.

A screenshot of Thom conducting the band during 2016 Lollapalooza Chicago performance of Daydreaming.

Once Thom is satisfied with the piano loop, he switches to sampling Phil. Phil spends the duration of Daydreaming running between two instruments: Jonny’s Premier glockenspiel, and the band’s Dave Smith Instruments Prophet 08. He begins on the glockenspiel, usually entering while Jonny is still playing the high notes. Similarly, he plays sparse high notes (specifically D6 and E6), but he lets each one ring out. Thom samples a few of these glockenspiel notes, then reverses them. The result is that each note which rang out now gently fades in. This is really the key to the distinctive sparkling texture that starts of the song.

It’s also worth noting that Ed layers some high, sparse guitar during the song’s intro, but Thom does not sample his playing.

A screenshot showing Thom’s music stand, containing his iphone running the Frozen Ape Tempo application, his Electro-Harmonix 45000, and its power supply, from during the 2017 Best Kept Secret performance of Daydreaming.

From here on, Thom moves to sampling himself, although it’s worth noting that he continues to adjust the volume of the original two loops, muting each in different places during the song. Generally, Thom’s first sample of himself is a soft, wordless A, which he sings as Jonny plays his secondary piano theme, right after the line “the damage is done”. The A is looped and sustained for the rest of the section, right up until Thom sings “this goes beyond me”, giving him a moment to catch his breath.

Thom next samples the wordless melisma which he sings right after the line “beyond you”. This loop is repeated until Jonny switches to the secondary piano theme again, at which point Thom keeps it going but begins overdubbing new vocal layers. He adds both wordless singing and a few iterations of the line “careful my love” (or whatever it really is…). Once satisfied, Thom lets this dense vocal loop continue right up until Jonny switches back to the main piano theme for the last time. As Jonny does so, Thom switches the loop to playback at half speed, lowering it down an octave to create the very distinctive grinding vocal.

All of that said, Thom does vary his vocal loops a bit between performances. Sometimes he’ll do some extra looping during the verses to make the texture richer, for example. And it’s not uncommon for crowd noises to get caught in the recordings as well. Still, we’ve described the core of his looping techniques.

A screenshot of Thom manipulating the volume of one of the loops during the 2016 Lollapalooza Berlin performance of Daydreaming.

So, what looper is Thom actually using for all of this? It’s an Electro-Harmonix 45000 4-Track Looping Recorder. The device has been a favorite of Thom’s since he began using it for DJ performances in 2013, and it remains a part of his DJ setup. It was brought to a lot of people’s attention when Thom used it to sample and reverse his piano playing on the “Pathway to Paris” performance of Bloom. Thom even brought two of the loopers along for his performance with Jonny in Macerata, Italy, using one looper for the piano (on Bloom) and the other for his vocals (on Daydreaming).

It’s likely that Thom favors the 45000 not only for its extensive looping capabilities but also for its push-buttons, which are easier to trigger with one’s hands than pedal footswitches. The device offers four tracks onto which Thom can record loops, allowing him to independently record Jonny, Phil, and himself on Daydreaming, and to manipulate each independently.

A photo from Thom and Jonny’s 2017 performance in Macerata, Italy. One of Thom’s EHX 45000 loopers can be seen to the left, resting on the piano’s music rack, while his other 45000 can be seen to the right on his music stand (lucasparatore).

[yaniuss]

Красотка Кукуня! #belle #beutyfulcat #cat #blackcat #моякошка

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Jonny Greenwood on Twitter (26 April 2018) https://twitter.com/JnnyG/status/989607550080421888

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.@Thayslan Radiohead live @ São Paulo https://www.pscp.tv/ThayslanCosta/1MnGneZdaLjKO?t=36m15s

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https://vimeo.com/265432530 Thom Yorke on Twitter (18 April 2018) https://twitter.com/thomyorke/status/986777968000294912

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South America tour / 17 April 2018 / Soundhearts Festival, Estadio Nacional / Lima, Peru https://instagram.com/p/BhuJBiCHRFy/ https://instagram.com/p/Bht9pkBnYHk/ https://instagram.com/p/Bht9pkBnYHk/ https://instagram.com/p/Bhtu17AHjam/ https://instagram.com/p/BhtwG7aHIsK/ https://instagram.com/p/BhurUM3HVvZ/ https://instagram.com/p/BhuEru-gqkg/

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The Gloaming - 14 April 2018 / Soundhearts Festival, Tecnopolis / Buenos Aires, Argentina  *they had to stop the show for security reasons..

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RADIOHEAD - THE GLOAMING FULL LIVE @ Buenos Aires, Argentina | 14.04.2018

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RADIOHEAD - CREEP LIVE @ Buenos Aires, Argentina | 14.04.2018

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HB Ed

Happy 50th Birthday, Ed O’Brien! (April 15, 1968)

“I’m excited because of the music, i’m excited to have this experience making the music. But also, y’know, to share it with other people, and to see what other people think of it, and also feel… not think about it, feel it. Heart music. It’s not head music, it’s heart music.” 

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South America tour / 14 April 2018 / Soundhearts Festival, Tecnopolis / Buenos Aires, Argentina

01. Daydreaming 02. Ful Stop 03. 15 Step 04. Myxomatosis 05. Lucky 06. Nude 07. Pyramid Song 08. Everything In Its Right Place 09. Let Down 10. Bloom 11. The Numbers 12. My Iron Lung 13. The Gloaming * 14. I Might Be Wrong 15. Weird Fishes / Arpeggi 16. Feral 17. Bodysnatchers encore: 18. Desert Island Disk 19. Climbing Up The Walls 20. There There 21. Exit Music (For A Film) 22. The National Anthem 23. Idioteque encore 2: 24. Present Tense 25. 2+2=5 26. Paranoid Android encore 3: 27. Creep

*The Gloaming “Ok so they stopped it for safety reasons. Trying to get the crowd to step back.” https://twitter.com/radioheadlive/status/985324274796847104

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South America tour / 11 April 2018 / SUE Festival, Estadio Nacional / Santiago, Chile https://instagram.com/p/BheJp8elCmR/ https://instagram.com/p/BheJsoSFLd0/ https://instagram.com/p/BheVucnl9AB/

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South America tour / 11 April 2018 / SUE Festival, Estadio Nacional / Santiago, Chile https://instagram.com/p/BhdbDZTFaaM/ https://instagram.com/p/BhdaIPtlSm1/

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South America tour / 11 April 2018 / SUE Festival, Estadio Nacional / Santiago, Chile   *JUNUN https://instagram.com/p/BhcrW02HtRi/ https://instagram.com/p/Bhcv1vSgexO/ https://instagram.com/p/BhdJX9xlWAC/ https://instagram.com/p/BhdJfSvFOpS/

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Radiohead - SUE Festival 2018 Chile <Full Show>