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Video by James Houston
jim@1030.co.uk
1030.co.uk
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I graduated from the Glasgow School of Art's graphic design course. This was my final project.

Radiohead held an online contest to remix "Nude" from their album - "In Rainbows" This was quite a difficult task for everybody that entered, as Nude is in 6/8 timing, and 63bpm. Most music that's played in clubs is around 120bpm and usually 4/4 timing. It's pretty difficult to seamlessly mix a waltz beat into a DJ set.

This resulted in lots of generic entries consisting of a typical 4/4 beat, but with arbitrary clips from "Nude" thrown in so that they qualified for the contest.

Thom Yorke joked at the ridiculousness of it in an interview for NPR radio, hinting that they set the competition to find out how people would approach such a challenging task.

I decided to take the piss a bit, as the contest seemed to be in that spirit.

Based on the lyric (and alternate title) "Big Ideas: Don't get any" I grouped together a collection of old redundant hardware, and placed them in a situation where they're trying their best to do something that they're not exactly designed to do, and not quite getting there.

It doesn't sound great, as it's not supposed to.

I missed the contest deadline, so I'm offering it here for you to enjoy.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Guitars (rhythm & lead)
Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer - Drums
HP Scanjet 3c - Bass Guitar
Hard Drive array - Act as a collection of bad speakers - Vocals & FX
Credits
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3,254 Likes
  • Ian 1 year ago
    This is amazing!
  •  
  • Slippy Jenkins 1 year ago
    All kinds of amazing.
  • Will H 1 year ago
    thanks for posting this to your tumblr - it's incredible.
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  • Zach Hale 1 year ago
    Fantastic!
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  • Matt Thomas 1 year ago
    This made me smile.
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  • kitschpatrol plus 1 year ago
    brilliant
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  • Yours Truly 1 year ago
    Lovely!

    You should definitely send this to the band or post it over at their social networking site...

    waste-central.com
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  • michal bogdanowicz 1 year ago
    love it!
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  • Jonic 1 year ago
    You are surely amongst the most best humans alive. Well done you.
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  • Jon Lawrence 1 year ago
    Incredible job!
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  • thincvox 1 year ago
    this is just insanely creative and unbelievably beautiful, great work!
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  • John Earnest 1 year ago
    Please, man- hook us up with a download for the music and/or the video- this is beautiful
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  • sean berry 1 year ago
    dear lord man, this is beautiful.

    How'd you drive the voice coils?
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  • Dion Almaer plus 1 year ago
    This took me back to when I was a kid. Great stuff, and thanks for taking the time to do the crazy.
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  • Daniel Smith 1 year ago
    Insanely awesome.
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  • Dave McCaig 1 year ago
    Holy crap! This is the coolest thing ever.
    Seriously, I have no words. :D
  •  
  • Benjamin Ryzman 1 year ago
    I want some more!

    please!
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  • Sven Ellingen 1 year ago
    This is fantastic.
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  • James Houston plus 1 year ago
    Thanks for the comments everybody. :)
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  • Cameron Yule 1 year ago
    Fucking amazing!
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  • Sam Rayner 1 year ago
    Magnificent... You're a hero.
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  • Philip Kendall 1 year ago
    Are you aware Radiohead are known to have been Spectrum fans in the past? If not, this is perhaps a little bit spooky :-)
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  • Martin 1 year ago
    A song about big ideas on redundant hardware.

    Deliciously taking the irony naively seriously... or something like that. Great stuff!
  •  
  • Daniel da Rocha 1 year ago
    brilliant!
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  • james sandham 1 year ago
    Holy mother of f**k
    that is truly amazing!

    has the "radiohead commiunity" seen this?
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  • Raúl García 1 year ago
    "Acojonante" . Really i consider radiohead the best music band since Ok Computer, and your version is product of a superb job, GREAT DONE from Spain. I think your version should be a "b" side or bonus track on the next album of the band.
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  • Chema Se 1 year ago
    Brutal!!!!!
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  • visual-hybrid plus 1 year ago
    mate thats fantastic.. i'd trim the opening bit as is quite long..

    good work!
  • Will plus 1 year ago
    2400bps isn't as fast as it once was.
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  • t1mmyb 1 year ago
    I love that song, and once the intro ended and it kicked in, I was literally staring open-mouthed at the screen.

    Entirely awesome :)
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  • mk3 1 year ago
    Awesome... this is the latest thing that made me say WOOOW :)
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  • Jurkki FFobb 1 year ago
    This is one of the finest things i've seen.
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  • matteo 1 year ago
    great!! really astonishing
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  • Jordan Brock plus 1 year ago
    Just brilliant. Fantastic job. how long did the programming take?
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  • Nacho el Nacho 1 year ago
    Incredible... that must've take a fairly strong effort to set up. Congrats, the final result is just amazing.

    Kinda miss the strings, though :)
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  • tato 1 year ago
    Sorry this video no longer exists??
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  • Vincent van Haaff 1 year ago
    i want to have your baby
  • flatcat 1 year ago
    I will second that notion
  •  
  • Iko Tikashi 1 year ago
    A.b.s.o.l.u.t.e.l.y. b.r.i.l.l.i.a.n.t.
  •  
  • John Robinson Jr. 1 year ago
    Wow... I feel really uncreative. Good job!
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  • John Dill 1 year ago
    pure sex.

    can we get a link to an ogg, flac or mp3?
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  • Geekwrench 1 year ago
    This is enough to make an old geek like me cry.
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  • Spatulated 1 year ago
    this is terrific. I love it.
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  • Matt Silas 1 year ago
    did you win? Fantastic!
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  • Quiet Color 1 year ago
    This video is amazing. I want to say more about how great it is but I read the following comment and can't stop giggling....

    "Really i consider radiohead the best music band since Ok Computer"
  • sebomoto 1 year ago
    i think, he meant he likes radiohead since they've published their album "O.K. Computer"
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  • Jay Cruz 1 year ago
    Thom Yorke would be proud.
  • The Mount 1 year ago
    in_deed hE wo(ul)d.
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  • dave Seidman 1 year ago
    I am speechless! What a great transition
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  • Jim Stroud 1 year ago
    VERY, VERY NICE!!! Kudos to you sir...
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  • yeag3r 1 year ago
    Unbelievable. The only Radiohead remix I have ever wanted to listen to more than once. And frankly, I'm not so keen on listening to most of them once.
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  • Aaron Smitthipong 1 year ago
    absolutely awe inspiring. great job.
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  • Casey Donahue staff 1 year ago
    This is so brilliant.
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  • AntiVJ 1 year ago
    Genius !
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  • Vicky k 1 year ago
    GOOD
    JOB
    JIM!
    YOU'VE CONQUERED THE INTERNET...
  • James Houston plus 1 year ago
    Thanks Vicky.
    See you Monday.
  • Roddy MacNeill 10 months ago
    hiya.use urr pish
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  • tsparks 1 year ago
    Let me add my voice to the throng Bravo!
    I will watch for your next creation with great anticipation.
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  • Viperos 1 year ago
    WOOOW, this is so great. And all the memories come back. Thank You for this. I hope You won.
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  • Roy Verhaag 1 year ago
    I was thinking of still doing something with the Garageband files on my computer. But after watching this, it seems kind of pointless. Brilliant and definitive.
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  • sweeet!
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  • Joshua Neds-Fox 1 year ago
    holy wow.
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  • Michael LaPorte 1 year ago
    You make me cry!
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  • Greg Benedict 1 year ago
    Great execution. I'm stumped on one thing though. How did you get the hard drives working?
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  • unrinoceronte 1 year ago
    unbelievable!! i am still drooling!!!

    " Hard Drive array - Act as a collection of bad speakers - Vocals & FX " !!!!?????
    HOW?!!! HOW? HOW HOWW???!!!!! not to kill the magic, but how is this possible!!???? ... i feel so dumb...
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  • unrinoceronte 1 year ago
    ...genius definetely! you should be a new member of the band!
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  • AiboPet2003 1 year ago
    Oh MAN!! LOVE this, but alas no way to download this to show friends and play at HOME
  •  
  • Andrea Noll 1 year ago
    Absolutely fantastic. You are my hero. I love it so much it hurts inside. (in a good way)
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  • Lodi 1 year ago
    I'm in love with it :)
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  • Simon Whitaker 1 year ago
    Wow! Just bloody brilliant. My true loves, the ZX Spectrum and Radiohead, together at last! Nice work fella!
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  • benfRank plus 1 year ago
    this is outstanding.
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  • Cyb3rBl@ck 1 year ago
    I've no word to describe what i feel.
    THX!
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  • Kevin Forrest 1 year ago
    Really great stuff.Incredibly creative!
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  • Gunnar Hafdal 1 year ago
    Awesome take on the song and I find the HDD Speakers to be really cool. Nice work.
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  • j. youngblood 1 year ago
    i will be the 10248935th person to say this is fucking amazing.
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  • radiotnt 1 year ago
    wowwwwwwwww

    amazing!!!!!!!!!!

    me hiciste pasar un hermoso momento

    saludos desde Mexico
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  • Hak en Haai 1 year ago
    kewl!
    and what I admire the most, is that you make us believe that the pictures really belong to the sounds.
    ;-)
  • Dani 1 year ago
    al final se puede oir como el supuesto sonido de los discos duros deja escapar palabras. como dice hak los sonidos no pertenecen a los instrumentos del video pero admiro y me intriga el tratamiento que le has dado a la canción para conseguir ese efecto
  • What makes you think that it is not?
    Certainly there are dotmatrix synth softwares available out there, and you could effectively program each one of these to make these noises. Not sure about the hard drive arrray (never seen one) but the rest have no reason to not be "real"
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  • Antti Auvinen 1 year ago
    This is so great.
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  • Voideka 1 year ago
    This is the best thing. The music was amazing, and I also loved the visual style and pacing.
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  • Charles Huettner 1 year ago
    at first i was like "what?" then the music started comming together and i was like "woah" great job. this is an excelent video and song.
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  • This is beautiful
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  • Roz L 1 year ago
    Brilliant.

    Congratulations, you made it on to radiohead's blog! They love it - or at least, Colin and Jonny do.

    Check it: radiohead.com/deadairspace/index.php?a=377
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  • cknight 1 year ago
    that was cool
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  • Jon Bell 1 year ago
    Brilliant work. I'd love to see or read a bit on how you created this piece.
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  • JP Hastings-Spital 1 year ago
    Kick ass!
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  • robert 1 year ago
    you know, I think that those machines did get there.
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  • beckel 1 year ago
    Perfect from conception to execution. I am now speechless.
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  • M2 plus 1 year ago
    Bad Ass!
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  • crowley 1 year ago
    you made me happy tonight, you and your machines are my new gods.
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  • Bonnie*B 1 year ago
    Love.
    This is brilliant ;-)
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  • Chrissie 1 year ago
    Great work! Love it! Love it! Love it!
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  • Ariel van Meow 1 year ago
    Brilliant! That'll show that smug Thom.
  • AnnieR 7 months ago
    Thom Yorke is not smug. That was only a challenge and the result is amazing.
    Don't be in bad faith!
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  • Adam Douglas 1 year ago
    The Band posted this on deadairspace, this is amazing man, love it!
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  • Framecut 1 year ago
    It packs an emotional punch. Can't explain it.
  • Kenton Smith 2 months ago
    mhhmm this is something else...
    The vocals... just wow...
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