Radiohead's Kid A and OK Computer, Now in 8-Bit

Ever wanted to hear two full albums of Radiohead music, rerecorded in the style of old-school video-game soundtracks? You're welcome

Theres something undeniable about a good 8-bit cover. Maybe its because they evoke fondremembrancesof Super Nintendo game sessions past. Or perhaps its that the digitized tracks were already irresistibly hooky in the first place.

This week, the Internet greeted the latest foray into 8-bit composition a couple albums worth of Radiohead. AYouTube user named Quinton Sung uploaded full-length 8-bit versions ofOK Computer and, fittingly,Kid A, along with other selections from the bands canon. While the introduction to Airbag and the pleasure of hearing the trippy Karma Police chorus are immediate draws on OK Computer, the technique works especially well forKid A.

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The 2000 album, the one where the band ditched the guitars, as every review said at the time, isso isolated and ethereal, the fuzzy new video-game rendition seems almost warm and inviting by comparison. Example: National Anthem, which on the Radiohead album feels menacing, plays in 8-bit like the soundtrack to aboss level on some dustyMario Bros. title.

While none of Sungs Radiohead remixes can be deemed typical chiptune earworms(see: 8-bit Beat It, Michael Jackson), they also avoid the production mess that can plague a cover (see: 8-bit Buddy Holly, Weezer. Youll be hitting close tab instantly).

The only song that sounds mostly unrecognizable, disappointingly, is How to Disappear Completely. If the original version of this song, as the tastemakers at Pitchfork originally wrote years ago, boils down Radioheads music to its spectral essence, then the 8-bit version just ended up lost in translation.

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Radiohead's Kid A and OK Computer, Now in 8-Bit

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