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This is a concept album in that all of the songs within contribute to a single unified vision: that of a late-80's anti-Thatcher, ludditic, and apocolyptic tale stemming from an actual 1984 news story in which a Welsh taxi driver was killed by a concrete block dropped from an overpass by striking coal miners.
In Radio Kaos, this story is told from the perspective of Billy, a wheelchair bound young adult whose twin brother, Benny, is mistakenly arrested and sent to jail for the concrete block incident. Billy, however, has an astounding ability - he can hear radio waves in his head. He is subsequently sent to live with his uncle and learns to communicate using his radio-wave enabled mind and a cellphone. Using his new-found "voice" he befriends an LA based DJ and they converse. It's these converstations that lead to Billies final oeuvre: a faked nuclear apocolypse (a la "War Games"). When the hour of destruction passes and the world realises that there was no nuclear war, a new "tide" of understanding turns in which - we are left to presume - the great nations lay down arms, learn to harness the power of technology, stop hunting whales, and so on and so on...
Listening to this CD in 2004, the story seems far less relevant. We have seemingly escaped The Bomb, the miners strike is over, Thatcher-Reagan are now distant memories, and Britain is a wealthier place. However, for a thirtysomething like myself, this album survives as a snapshot of the world that was mid-late 1980s Britain. Indeed, listening to the first half of the album, I am transported back to my teenage years; flashbacks of the miners strike, Margaret Thatcher, and concrete blocks come easily.
The album sounds late-80's without being Pop-ish. You can hear the immense experience that is brought to bear in the production; vocals are haunting, the rhythm section is tight, and - as we would expect - all of the Floydish voiceovers and special effects are there.
I suspect that the modern young listener may not connect with this album as the themes and style may seem outdated and irrelevant. However, to those of us who lived through the late 80's this is a piece of work that, thanks to some good writing and great production, remains eminently listenable.
Don't buy this album if you're a casual Waters fan (if that's not an oxymoron) as this one's for those of us too far in to get out now. By the way, £85 for the O2 - you need a mortgage advisor to afford gigs these days. That's worth one star, not this box of frogs.
At the time he was a father of three with a fourth baby born soon after his death. Killed by two 21yr old men trying to stop him from taking a local miner to work during the bitter Miners Strike of 1984-5. The 2 men were sentenced to Life imprisonment but on appeal only served 5 years.
However fascile our endearing you find Radio KAOS, I defy anyone to condemn Waters' knack for confronting hard and uncomfortable storylines leaving the listener with a more enlightened view on the subject.
I remember owning this on vinyl and playing it regularly. Although I feel in some areas it doesn't have a patch against some of Floyd's work, I believe it's sublime and unequalled in others.
6/10
I'm not really sure who would like the album. Read more
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