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).