Idioteque

"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 and sampling.

"Idioteque"
Promotional single cover
Promotional single by Radiohead
from the album Kid A
Released2 October 2000 (2000-10-02)
Recorded31 January[1] – April 2000
Genre
Length5:09
Label
Songwriter(s)
  • Radiohead
  • Paul Lansky
  • Arthur Kreiger
Producer(s)

A live version appears on the 2001 EP I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings. "Idioteque" was included on Radiohead: The Best Of (2008). It was named one of the best songs of the decade by Pitchfork. In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked it number 48 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Recording

The Radiohead singer, Thom Yorke, described "Idioteque" 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".[4]

The song began with an electronic rhythm created by Jonny Greenwood.[5] Greenwood attempted to create a drum machine using synthesiser modules similar to those available in the 1970s, using components such as filters to create and shape sounds.[5] Feeling the rhythm "needed chaos", he experimented with found sounds and sampling.[5] He 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.[6] 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."[6]

As with other songs on Kid A, Yorke created lyrics by cutting up phrases and drawing them from a hat.[7] In the second chorus, Yorke's vocals are rearranged so that he seems to say "the first of the children" in 5/4, creating a grouping dissonance against the original 4/4 chorus.[8]

Samples

Greenwood could not remember where the four-chord synthesiser phrase had come from, and assumed he had played it himself. He later realised he had sampled it from mild und leise, a computer music piece by the American composer Paul Lansky. Lansky wrote mild und leise in 1973 at Princeton University on an IBM mainframe computer using FM synthesis. It was released on the 1975 compilation First Recordings – Electronic Music Winners, which Greenwood discovered in a second-hand record shop while Radiohead were touring the US.[9]

Lansky allowed Radiohead to use the sample after Greenwood wrote to him with a copy of "Idioteque".[5] In an essay about the experience, 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.[9] "Idioteque" also samples another composition from Electronic Music Winners, "Short Piece", by Arthur Kreiger, who became a professor of music at Connecticut College.[10]

Reception

"Idioteque" was named the eighth-best song of the decade by Pitchfork[11] and the 56th-best by Rolling Stone.[12] In 2018, Rolling Stone ranked it the 33rd greatest song of the century so far.[13] In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked "Idioteque" number 48 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time", describing it as "the foreboding, spellbinding centrepiece of Kid A".[14]

Cover versions

Levi Weaver covered "Idioteque" live on his 2006 tour supporting Imogen Heap, using multiple loop pedals to build a layered effect.[15] A studio version is also on his 2007 album You Are Never Close to Home, You Are Never Far from Home. In July 2010, Amanda Palmer released it as the first single from her Radiohead covers album;[16] her cover was National Public Radio's Song of the Day for January 11, 2011.[17] In 2010, Yoav used a loop pedal to build a layered acoustic version.[18]

Personnel

Radiohead

Additional personnel

  • Nigel Godrich – production, engineering, mixing
  • Gerard Navarro – production assistance, additional engineering
  • Graeme Stewart – additional engineering

References
  1. O'Brien, Ed. "Ed's Diary". Green Plastic. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  2. "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 31 May 2009. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  3. Domanick, Andrea (13 April 2017). "The Guide to Getting Into Radiohead". Vice. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  4. Reynolds, Simon (July 2001). "Walking on Thin Ice". The Wire. Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2007.
  5. Nic, Harcourt (20 October 2000). "Radiohead – Morning Becomes Eclectic". Morning Becomes Eclectic (Interview). Jonny and Colin Greenwood. KCRW. Archived from the original on 13 October 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  6. "Thom Yorke Talks About Life in the Public Eye". NPR. 12 October 2007. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  7. "Radiohead - Reflections on Kid A". YouTube. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  8. Osborn, Brad (2016). Everything in its Right Place: Analyzing Radiohead. Oxford University Press.
  9. Lansky, Paul (2012). Cateforis, Theo (ed.). My Radiohead Adventure (2nd ed.). Taylor & Francis/Routledge. p. 8. doi:10.4324/9780203086612. ISBN 9780203086612. S2CID 221172298.
  10. "Arthur Kreiger, Sylvia Pasternack Marx Associate Professor of Music". Connecticut College. Archived from the original on 29 December 2008.
  11. "The Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s". Pitchfork. 21 August 2009. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  12. "100 Best Songs of the 2000s". Rolling Stone. 17 June 2011.
  13. Hoard, Christian; Weingarten, Christopher R.; Dolan, Jon; Leight, Elias; Spanos, Brittany; Exposito, Suzy; Grow, Kory; Grant, Sarah; Vozick-Levinson, Simon; Greene, Andy; Hermes, Will (28 June 2018). "100 Greatest Songs of the Century - So Far". Rolling Stone.
  14. "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. 15 September 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  15. Idioteque on YouTube
  16. Padgett, Ray (20 July 2010). "Review: Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele". Cover Me. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  17. Butler, Will (11 January 2011). "Amanda Palmer: Radiohead For Four Strings". NPR. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  18. Padgett, Ray (20 August 2010). "Consequence of Sound Presents…Best Fest Covers". Cover Me. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
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