Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, the title an obvious a referent to the medium in which it was released, was set free onto the world wide web via BitTorrent Bundle, a service which allows an artist to sell file archives of content (mp3's, video, artwork) to the consumer. It comes with a $6.00 price tag, is available on limited edition vinyl online and can't be found on the iTunes store or Spotify, the most popular platforms for online media consumption. It features eight fractured dance songs, apocalyptic ruminations, existential doubts, chopped up piano chords, and digital breakbeats. This is familiar sonic and thematic territory for Yorke who has been sharing his end of days premonitions for years with Radiohead and most recently, in his expanded solo endeavors in the supergroup Atoms For Peace. As heard on Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, Yorke's art has shown true evolution; from brooding atmospheric (post-)rock compositions to something much more sensory with a focus primarily on locked grooves and rhythms. His voice has evolved too and he sounds more rooted in it than he ever has before, as if singing from a place of grace rather than the angst ridden panic of his work pre-In Rainbows.
Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, while continuing his obsessions with midtempo IDM, is an update on the musical styles heard on Atoms for Peace's AMOK. While that album focused more on merging Afrobeat poly rhythms with a Warp Records sound, this time around he strips back a lot in favor of keys, beats and his voice, with no guitar to be discerned.