Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke Collaborate on Fresh Track, ‘Back in the Game’

Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke are “Back in the Game,” as the duo collaborates once more for a fresh single.

Pritchard, who has dedicated over 30 years to his career in electronic music and production, first collaborated with the Radiohead and The Smile lead vocalist in 2016, when Yorke lent his voice to “Beautiful People” from Pritchard’s Under the Sun album. Five years prior, Pritchard also released a duo of remixes of Radiohead’s “Bloom,” with both iterations (including one under his Harmonic 313 moniker) featured on the TKOL RMX 1234567 compilation.

Similar to their earlier partnership, “Back in the Game” showcases Yorke’s vocals manipulated digitally by Pritchard, this time employing the H910 Harmonizer, the first commercial digital audio effects device available.

The song has become a regular feature in Yorke’s recent live performances, marking its debut in Christchurch, New Zealand in October during his Everything solo tour, with each subsequent show including the track as well.

“Back in the Game” is paired with a surreal, vibrant visual created by Jonathan Zawada, blending both analog and digital methodologies. Zawada shared that an initial demo of the song led him to imagine a confident, swaggering John Travolta in the final scene of Staying Alive, albeit with a darker twist.

“Over time, a visual concept emerged around a character with a massive parade head, their face displaying a fixed expression of madness, making it ambiguous whether their relentless procession was one of hostility or jubilation,” Zawada remarked. “As I delved deeper into the lyrics, more elements began to materialize, eventually forming the idea of a parade of diverse characters passing by a structure from which items were being hurled out of a window into a large bonfire.

“In the end, the video for ‘Back in the Game’ came to illustrate a kind of blind celebration occurring amidst the gradual decline of civilization, portraying a progression through regression. Coupled with this is an examination of how and where we opt to assign significance in our shared cultural expressions and how we face substantial cultural transformations in the 21st century.”

• Source: NEWHD MEDIA