Month: October 2023

Idioteque is a Radiohead song from their 2000 album Kid A, which is one of their earliest, most obviously electronic and sampled songs. The song primarily revolves around a 5 bar sequence of sampled chords, a drum loop made from a modular synthesiser and Thom Yorke’s vocals. The unconventional use of synthesiser modules and filters to create the drum machine lends a very unique sound to the rhythms of the song, along with the samples from the experimental track ‘short piece’ used as ambient noise and swells throughout the song.

The songs starts with the drum machine, which was made up of synthesiser modules and components such as filters to shape the sounds into discernible parts of a pattern (kick, snare, etc.). Johnny Greenwood also stated that he used field recordings to create ambience and texture inwithinthe track, but also as parts of the drum machine, using filters and other editing techniques to alter the samples to become more rhythmic. This is quickly joined by an ambient sample from ‘Short Piece’ by Arthur Kreiger, an experimental electronic track similar to music concrete. This sample seems to have been put through some sort of filter, as it swells into the next sample used. This sample is the core harmony of the song, taken from Paul Lansky’s 1973 computer generated piece ‘mild und leise‘. The original sample was played through an FM synthesiser and constructed by an early algorithm created by Lansky, which was discovered by Johnny Greenwood on an American CD ‘First Recordings – Electronic Music Winners‘. However, Lanky himself stated that he had already ‘sampled’ the chord progression from an operatic piece that used the ‘Tristan chord’. Paul Lansky Is known for his experimental use of technology and sampling within his composition, with one interesting piece being ‘idle chatter’, which sampled and ‘fragmented’ voices to create rhythmic and percussive patterns which he likened to rap. This is reflected in Radiohead’s experimentation too, with later songs from the recording sessions such as ‘like spinning plates’ and ‘pulk/pull revolving doors’ manipulating the vocal lines in similar ways to Lansky.

Field recordings are also used throughout, such as what sounds like pennies rattling starting at about 0.40 seconds. These samples all seem to be manipulated using similar techniques and principles as music concrete, speeding up and slowing down audio in rhythmic ways, in Radiohead’s case to make them more musical within the composition. The instrumental break at 3.10 sounds very reminiscent of the tape manipulation techniques used in music concrete, and ambient field recordings/samples are used more prominently from here within the song.

While there isn’t too much information I could find about the samples in ‘idioteque’ except from Paul lansky’s and ‘short piece’, it is clear that this song is primarily an electronic synthesis and sample based track, being one of the first in Radiohead’s catalogue. This was evidently a turning point for the band, setting them on a path based around experimenting with synthesis and sampled based methods, used extensively in their later career.

My radiohead adventure (no date) Princeton University. Available at: http://paul.mycpanel.princeton.edu/radiohead.ml.html (Accessed: 02 December 2023). 

Thom Yorke talks about life in the public eye (2007) NPR. Available at: https://www.npr.org/2007/10/12/15226006/thom-yorke-talks-about-life-in-the-public-eye (Accessed: 02 December 2023). 

Lights In The Sky is a song by Nine Inch Nails that arrangement wise, is extremely stripped back. It’s extremely minimalist with its instrumentation, however it’s a deeply emotional song that I feel couldn’t work with any other instrumental set up. While somewhat cliched, the solo nature of just a piano and sole vocal creates a very isolated and depressing atmosphere across the track. Similarly, this instrumentation and arrangement, while not unheard of, was rarer within the bands discography as they had established themselves as an industrial rock/electronic act.

The piano chords pulsing throughout the verse are played at a low register, and accompanied by a vocal in a similar low register. this seems to reflect the verse’s lyrical themes, mentioning loss and finding ways in which the singer is ‘getting by’ afterwards. This arrangement of just a piano and vocal and the lower register of both immediately capture an apathetic, depressed tone which perfectly sync with the lyrical theme’s of the song, feeling beaten down already. When we reach the first chorus, a higher piano counter-melody enters, to me symbolising either a potential hope in the character, or perhaps the ‘lights in the sky’ mentioned in the lyrics. The piano continues its lower register quarter note pulses, except rather than the chords ascending at the beginning of each phrase like the verse, they descend here, mirroring the lyrics of ‘watching you drown, i’ll follow you down’.

Again, the song repeats the verse and chorus again with the piano and vocal capturing this low and Beaton down atmosphere. During the second and last chorus there’s a change, as we finally have another instrument. A violin or flute-like synth plays a high pitch pedal note lightly, jarring against the descending chords, until the last bar of the passage, playing a descending harmony. I feel this was chosen in terms of arrangement and instrumentation as it fills out the higher range of the track for the final chorus, but also could symbolise the ease of missing help or a ‘light in the sky,’ as its mixed very low in the track and is easy to miss on the first few listens.

While not arrangement based, I feel that the production is also crucial to creating this worn down atmosphere, with the vocal and piano feeling almost meshed into one, with little clarity.

In conclusion, the instrumentation and arrangement feels like the perfect artistic choice for the song, mirroring the lyrical themes of isolation and capturing a down-beat depressing tone. I feel that the song wouldn’t be able to carry the same emotional weight with any other instrumentation or arrangement.

While Nine Inch Nail’s song ‘March of the Pigs’ doesn’t have a largely unorthodox structure, the contrast between sections and the use of dynamics and tension is very strange for such a popular song within the band’s catalogue.

The song starts with a drum beat consisting of 3 bars of 7/8 and a bar of 8/8 and after 2 loops of this is joined by the bass for another 2 loops of this time signature switch. This could be considered the intro as after these 4 repetitions the guitar and vocals enter for a verse. The verse feels frantic with lyrics about ‘losing it’ and talking pieces of something. After this comes a pre chorus which goes half time from the 269 bpm of the verse. The use of dynamics here is crucial to the structure as the pre chorus feels more steady, the instrumentation goes back to just the drums and bass in 4/4 now with a 8th note riff on the bass and a quarter note kick pattern. The chorus then hits, being the greatest dynamic shift in the song. The instrumentation strips back to just piano and vocals, as the piano plays three jazz inspired chords over 2 bars. The lyrics here are at odds with the frantic and uneasy verse, singing ‘doesn’t it make you feel better’. This verse/pre chorus/chorus structure repeats again after a few seconds of rest, however the second chorus is extended with the jazzy chords playing 3 times more this time.

While nothing here is individually that odd, it’s a polar opposite use of this structure than the usual in a pop song. Rather than having a sparse verse, a dramatic pre chorus that builds up and a huge anthemic chorus, this song goes in reverse with a hard & fast verse, a less dramatic pre chorus and an anti-climactic almost non-chorus of just a few seconds. Despite this the song still works as intended, working as a metaphor for a high and a subsequent come down. The verse is almost incoherent, while the pre chorus strips back and the chorus has the most clarity to any section, telling a story not only through the lyrics but through the structure and production of the track.

I’d like to try a song similarly structured, with hard dynamic shifts from section to section and instrumental switch ups out of nowhere. Similarly using production and songwriting as tools to add to a narrative is a fascinating idea i’d like to study and implement in my own songwriting.

Krovatin, C. (2019) Nine inch nails’ March of the pigs is still as intense as ever, Kerrang! Available at: https://www.kerrang.com/remembering-nine-inch-nails-march-of-the-pigs-25-years-later (Accessed: 02 December 2023).