Radiohead Secretly Hide Archaic Computer Message on OKNOTOK Cassette
By Noah Yoo.
Radiohead’s OK Computerreissue continues to reveal its mysteries. As Ars Technica reports, the end of the cassette tape that comes packaged with the OKNOTOK special edition box set concludes with two minutes of computer tones that are largely meaningless—unless, of course, they’re fed into a ZX Spectrum, a vintage 8-bit computer that was first launched in the 1980s. The Spectrum was already an old computer when Radiohead were recording OK Computer; sounds generated from one such unit can be found on the track “Let Down.” Some keen Reddit users fed the tones into a ZX Spectrum emulator, which resulted in a program with “roughly 30 lines of code” which displays the band members’ names and the brief messsage, “With all our love.” The message is dated December 19, 1996, but it’s unclear when the code was developed. Check that out below.
It’s worth noting that Radiohead’s first Twitter teaser for the OK Computer reissue was a snippet from the beginning of this hidden message. The band recently shared a creepy new unboxing video for the OKNOTOK special edition starring recurring character Chieftain Mews. They also uploaded their recent Coachella weekend 2 set in its entirety.
Read our feature, “Internet Explorers: The Curious Case of Radiohead’s Online Fandom.”
This story originally appeared on Pitchfork.
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