Easy Star Allstars
Radiodread
on East Star RecordsA-

Of all the bands out there, Radiohead is undoubtedly one of the most difficult to cover. To call its sound unique would be a gross understatement; in any given song, both the composition and the production-to say nothing of the lyrics-have a certain ethereal quality that most bands are too tragically earthbound to capture.

With this in mind, it might seem strange to consider that a group of reggae musicians would cover an entire Radiohead album-in this case, the band's 1997 masterpiece OK Computer. After all, reggae seems about as different from Radiohead as any music could be. Reggae compels us to move; it has a steady beat and its specific geographic and ethnic associations evoke all sorts of material images in our minds. Most of all, reggae is music of the earth; it makes us dance, but it does not take us beyond the ether.

Radiohead, on the other hand, offers us a different sort of trip. The quintet's sound is a vortex that sucks the mind out beyond the exosphere in different directions and through various spectacular dimensions. While our bodies may not respond to a timed rhythm, we nevertheless perceive ourselves to be in a wavy, floating sort of motion, as if some external force has disconnected us from our physical selves. Reggae is a sound grounded in matter-horns blowing and drums beating-while Radiohead offers an escape into the infinite expanses of space.

The Easy Star All-Stars have made it clear they have the skills to resolve the differences between these two diametrically opposed types of music and, in doing so, create a sound which retains and combines the core elements of both. Personally, as an avid fan of Easy Star's 2003 album, Dub Side of the Moon-which is a reggae cover of the epic Pink Floyd album-I never doubted the group's ability to take on the challenge for a second. Admittedly, much of the capacity of this New York-based quartet to generate sound which nearly matches OK Computer in its eerie, extraterrestrial desolation can be attributed to the band's use of the profoundly weird dub style. This is to say that a few effects, in combination with emphasized chops on the back beat, are all that make Radiodread a success-Easy Star is able to make perfect sense while replicating the entire album, note-by-note, with a set of instruments (and accents) that seem incompatible with the compositions.

The result is an album that deserves the attention of both fans of Radiohead and reggae everywhere, if only for the unique way in which it exists as an oddly comfortable bridge crossing the vast chasm between the vibrant and accessible steady rhythms of Jamaica's most famous indigenous music-a style evocative of terrestrial people, events and places-and the inhospitable, discordant, liberating soundscapes of Oxford's finest.