Idioteque

"Idioteque" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on their fourth album, Kid A (2000¹). Radiohead developed it while experimenting with modular synthesisers. It contains samples of two 1970s computer music compositions. "Idioteque" was named one of the best songs of the decade by Pitchfork and Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone also named it one of the greatest songs of the century so far, and ranked it number 48 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". A live version appears on the 2001 album I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings. "Idioteque" was included on Radiohead: The Best Of (2008).

"Idioteque" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on their fourth album, Kid A (2000). Radiohead developed it while experimenting with modular synthesisers. It contains samples of two 1970s computer music compositions. "Idioteque" was named one of the best songs of the decade by Pitchfork and Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone also named it one of the greatest songs of the century so far, and ranked it number 48 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". A live version appears on the 2001 album I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings. "Idioteque" was included on Radiohead: The Best Of (2008).

Recording

composition by Paul Lansky, for "Idioteque". "Idioteque" began with an electronic rhythm created by Jonny Greenwood. Greenwood created a drum machine using synthesiser modules similar to those available in the 1970s, using components such as filters to create and shape sounds. Feeling the rhythm "needed chaos", Greenwood experimented with found sounds and sampling. He sampled the four-chord synthesiser phrase from , a computer music piece by the American composer Paul Lansky. Lansky wrote during 1973 74 at Princeton University on an IBM mainframe computer. It was released on the 1976¹ compilation Electronic Music Winners, which Greenwood discovered in a second-hand record shop while Radiohead were touring the US. Greenwood wrote to Lansky asking for permission to use the sample. Lansky wrote that he found Radiohead's use of the sample "imaginative and inventive" and that he had himself "sampled" the chord progression by using the Tristan chord. "Idioteque" also briefly samples another composition on Electronic Music Winners, "Short Piece", by Arthur Kreiger, who became a professor of music at Connecticut College. Greenwood recorded 50 minutes of improvisation and gave it to the singer, Thom Yorke, who took a short sequence and used it to write the song. Yorke said: "Some of it was just 'what?', but then there was this section of about 40 seconds long in the middle of it that was absolute genius, and I just cut that up." He described it as "an attempt to capture that exploding beat sound where you're at the club and the PA's so loud, you know it's doing damage". As with other songs on Kid A, Yorke wrote lyrics by cutting up phrases and drawing them from a hat. In the second chorus, his vocals are rearranged and looped so that he seems to say "the first of the children" in 5/4, creating a grouping dissonance against the original 4/4 chorus.

Other versions

Radiohead have regularly performed "Idioteque" live. A performance was included on the 2001 album I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings. The drummer, Philip Selway, said Radiohead wanted to "give that sense of the electronic in the piece" while performing with live instruments, and that this changed how he approached drum parts. In July 2010, Amanda Palmer released a cover of "Idioteque" as the first single from her Radiohead covers album. It was National Public Radio's Song of the Day for January 11, 2011. In 2010, Yoav used a loop pedal to perform an acoustic version.

References

External links

Radiohead Official Site Homepage of Paul Lansky: explanation by the composer of the song's relationship with his piece mild und leise, including a sample of it.

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