Art Rock Show – Wall of Eyes (Week 10)

The Smile is een Engelse rockband bestaande uit de Radiohead- leden Thom Yorke (zang, gitaar, bas, toetsen) en Jonny Greenwood (gitaar, bas, toetsen) met Tom Skinner (drums). Critici vergeleken ze met Radiohead, met meer jazz-, krautrock- en progressieve rockinvloeden en een losser, wilder geluid.

Sam Small van Paste: “Wall of Eyes, on the other hand, has a distinctive stride. Although only eight songs long, not one track on the album clocks in under five minutes. There are frequent lush, open spaces coalescing into pensive, jammy meandering. Heavy guitar and arpeggiated picking are subbed out for more string arrangements from both Greenwood and The London Contemporary Orchestra.

Wall of Eyes is a sweeping, Smile-ing symphony. This could be attributed to production duties going to Sam Petts-Davies—A Moon Shaped Pool engineer and Suspiria soundtrack co-producer—rather than long-time collaborator Nigel Godrich. Like A Moon Shaped Pool and Suspiria, Wall of Eyes is moodier and more sparse, like how a tree is in the winter. The tracks are like long branches stretching out, each textured by their own idiosyncrasies, complications and sonic movements, but are still clearly part of the same root. (…)

Right now, it isn’t Radiohead. You could endlessly speculate on why this is the case. Maybe it’s a “where do we even begin” kind of arresting dilemma, but this vacation away from the routine tunings of Yorke and Greenwood’s high school band might allow them to return, one day, more relaxed and tanned. Until then, I’m eager to see where the Smile goes next. So far, so, so good.”

Naast The Smile (Wall of Eyes), Black Country, New Road (Ants From up There), Yoo Doo Right (Don’t Think You Can Escape Your Purpose), Swans (The Glowing Man), Kikagaku Moyo (Mammatus Clouds), dEUS (In a Bar, Under the Sea) & Radiohead (OK Computer).

• Thursday/Donderdag 12.00 – 24.00
• Friday/Vrijdag 12.00 – 24.00
• Saturday/Zaterdag 12.00 – 24.00