Boiler Room: Thom Yorke in London, Oct 11, 2011 (DJ Mix)

Radiohead have long been torchbearers for leftfield electronic music—as James Murphy might put it, they were the first to play Autechre to the rock kids—but Thom Yorke rarely DJs, which makes the chance to catch him behind the decks an occasion to celebrate. Kicking off with Blawan’s thundering remix of Radiohead’s own “Bloom,” which was fresh from the record plant at the time, Yorke’s 2011 set for Boiler Room doubles as a cross-section of his esoteric tastes—and a snapshot of the era’s cutting-edge club music. After cruising through sleek, mechanical techno from Alex Cortex and Steve Moore, he spends the bulk of his energies exploring bass music’s craggy corners. Anstam’s “Baldwin” is an ominous slice of post-dubstep; 2562’s “The Wind-Up” wraps muscular syncopations in lush pads; and Africa HiTech’s “Blen (Remix)” puts a Caribbean spin on broken beat. Toward the end, Yorke takes a surprising detour through Chicago juke via DJ Slugo’s booming 808s before looping back to Radiohead’s wheelhouse with a cut from Aphex Twin, a towering influence on Radiohead’s own electronic conversion on *Kid A*.