Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard are ‘Back In The Game’ on new collaborative single

Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard have joined forces for the second time on a new collaborative single, aptly titled ‘Back In The Game’.

The Radiohead and The Smile frontman last worked with the ’90s electronic titan nine years ago, on 2016 number ‘Beautiful People’ (which featured on Pritchard’s solo LP, ‘Under The Sun’). 

This latest track finds the pair on characteristically experimental form, with Yorke’s vocals - distorted by an H910 Harmonizer, one of the world’s first devices for audio digital effects - gliding over a glitchy, immersive electronic soundscape. 

‘Back In The Game’ also comes accompanied by a frankly fever dream video (directed by Jonathan Zawada), in which gaudily garbed masked figures march their way through the streets.

Of the concept behind the visualiser, Zawada has explained that “On first hearing the original demo of ‘Back In The Game’, I was immediately struck by the deranged bassline that made me think of the final scene of Staying Alive, where John Travolta is cockily strutting through the New York streets, but I saw it with a more sinister overlay.

“Slowly a version of that visual arose around a character wearing a kind of giant parade head with a fixed expression of mania stuck on their face, such that you couldn’t tell if their endless march was one of aggression or celebration.

“Ultimately the film for ‘Back In The Game’ ended up depicting a sort of blind celebration taking place as civilization slowly deteriorates around it, a kind of progression through regression. Overlaid onto this is an exploration of how and where we choose to place value in our collective cultural expression and how we collectively confront major cultural shifts in the 21st century.”

Check it out for yourself below…