Atoms for Peace put out “Default” without warning

Atoms for Peace, Thom Yorke's band, put their single “Default” on sale as a download yesterday, 6 September, with no announcement, four days ahead of XL Recordings' release date of 10 September.

Fact picks out a synth line in “Default” that recalls “Everything In Its Right Place”, and The Quietus thinks it close to Yorke's solo record.

Today Yorke has explained the band in a post on Dead Air Space, Radiohead's blog, calling “Default” the first tune they want people to hear. The name, he says, comes from the shows a couple of years ago at which he, Nigel Godrich, Flea, of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Joey Waronker and Mauro Refosco played his solo album The Eraser live. We got a big buzz from them and discovered loads of energy from transforming the music from electronic to live¹⁸, he writes, so they spent a few days in the studio and decided to keep it going as a loose, ongoing thing.

Those shows began at the Echoplex in Los Angeles on 2 October 2009; “Atoms for Peace” is the title of a song on The Eraser. Until now the band had put out only a remix 12-inch, released in August on Modeselektor's label, with their take on Other Lives' “Tamer Animals” on one side and a remix of their own “Other Side” on the other. A 12-inch vinyl version of “Default” follows in October, and Yorke promises an album next year.

Atoms for Peace's “Default”, the single, posted the day it went on sale, 6 September 2012· XL Recordingswatch on youtube →