Whether it’s letting fans decide how much they want to pay for a record, making 16 hours of stolen MP3 demos available for download and donating the proceeds to Extinction Rebellion, or releasing solo albums via BitTorrent, the members from Radiohead have never shied away from doing things differently.
The latest addition to the band’s list of unconventional activities is Kid A Mnesia Exhibition – an “upside down digital / analog universe” created using original artwork from two of the band’s recently reissued albums: Kid A and Amnesiac .
Originally conceived as a physical exhibit that was to travel around the world, Covid forced frontman Thom Yorke and regular contributors, artist Stanley Donwood and producer Nigel Godrich, to go virtual and enlist the help of computer artists, set designers and game developers Radiohead album you can go through.
Why is?
Exploring the halls, corridors, tunnels and chambers of the Kid A Mnesia Exhibition is a bit like playing a running simulator with the best soundtrack ever. The only controls you have are sprint and zoom. The latter allows you a closer look at the artwork, slogans, and graffiti that grace many walls.
Its different sections are dedicated to different tracks on the album; some just pass you by as a passive observer while a version of the song is played, others change subtly depending on your movement and position in space. For example, the one dedicated to Packt Like Sardines In a Crushd Tin Box almost lets you create a walking remix of the song, triggering various audiovisual elements as you move around a large floating cube in the center of the room.
Is it any good
Some parts are more compelling than others – the otherworldly displays for How to Disappear Completely, Pyramid Song, and You and Whose Army? are clear highlights – but any Radiohead fan will easily be able to spend a few hours exploring and uncovering the various secrets of the world. Some definitely have room for repetition as well.
It’s a shame the PS5 version doesn’t take advantage of any of the haptic tricks of the DualSense controller or its built-in speaker to make things even more immersive, and of course you want a decent sound system plugged into your TV to make the most of it of making music, but the lack of VR support feels like the only really missed opportunity.
Where can i get this
Kid A Mnesia Exhibition can be downloaded for free on PS5 from the PlayStation Store or from the Epic Games Store on PC and Mac.
