"Idioteque" | |
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Promotional single by Radiohead | |
from the album Kid A | |
Released | 2 October 2000 |
Recorded | 31 January [1] –April 2000 |
Genre | |
Length | 5:09 |
Label | |
Songwriter(s) |
|
Producer(s) |
"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" was named one of the best songs of the decade by Pitchfork and Rolling Stone . In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked it number 48 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
A live version appears on the 2001 EP I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings . "Idioteque" was included on Radiohead: The Best Of (2008).
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 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]
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]
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"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 and 2024, Rolling Stone ranked "Idioteque" number 48 on its lists of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time", describing it as "the foreboding, spellbinding centrepiece of Kid A". [14] [15]
Levi Weaver covered "Idioteque" live on his 2006 tour supporting Imogen Heap, using multiple loop pedals to build a layered effect. [16] 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; [17] her cover was National Public Radio's Song of the Day for January 11, 2011. [18] In 2010, Yoav used a loop pedal to build a layered acoustic version. [19]
Additional personnel
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. They comprise Thom Yorke ; brothers Jonny Greenwood and Colin Greenwood (bass); Ed O'Brien ; and Philip Selway. They have worked with producer Nigel Godrich and cover artist Stanley Donwood since 1994. Radiohead's experimental approach is credited with advancing the sound of alternative rock.
Kid A is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 2 October 2000 by Parlophone. It was recorded with their producer, Nigel Godrich, in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.
Amnesiac is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 30 May 2001 by EMI. It was recorded with the producer Nigel Godrich in the same sessions as Radiohead's previous album Kid A (2000). Radiohead split the work in two as they felt it was too dense for a double album. As with Kid A, Amnesiac incorporates influences from electronic music, 20th-century classical music, jazz and krautrock. The final track, "Life in a Glasshouse", is a collaboration with the jazz trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton and his band.
The Bends is the second studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 13 March 1995 by Parlophone. It was produced by John Leckie, with extra production by Radiohead, Nigel Godrich and Jim Warren. The Bends combines guitar songs and ballads, with more restrained arrangements and cryptic lyrics than Radiohead's debut album, Pablo Honey (1993).
Hail to the Thief is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was released on 9 June 2003 through Parlophone internationally and a day later through Capitol Records in the United States. It was the last album released under Radiohead's record contract with EMI, the parent company of Parlophone and Capitol.
Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood is an English musician. He is the lead guitarist and keyboardist of the rock band Radiohead, and has composed numerous film scores. He has been named one of the greatest guitarists by numerous publications, including Rolling Stone.
Thomas Edward Yorke is an English musician who is the main vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. A multi-instrumentalist, he mainly plays guitar and keyboards and is noted for his falsetto. He has been described by Rolling Stone as one of the greatest and most influential singers of his generation.
Edward John O'Brien is an English guitarist, songwriter and member of the rock band Radiohead. He releases solo music under the name EOB.
"Paranoid Android" is a song by English alternative rock band Radiohead, released as the lead single from their third studio album, OK Computer (1997), on 26 May 1997. The lyrics were written by singer Thom Yorke following an unpleasant experience in a Los Angeles bar. The song is over six minutes long and contains four sections. The name is taken from Marvin the Paranoid Android from the science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
"Creep" is the debut single by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 21 September 1992. It was included on Radiohead's debut album, Pablo Honey (1993). It features "blasts" of guitar noise by Jonny Greenwood and lyrics describing an obsessive unrequited attraction.
"Karma Police" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 25 August 1997, as the second single from their third studio album, OK Computer (1997). It reached number one in Iceland and number eight on the UK Singles Chart. In the US, it reached number 14 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. It was included on Radiohead: The Best Of (2008).
"Pyramid Song" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the lead single from their fifth studio album, Amnesiac (2001), in May 2001. It features piano, strings, an unusual "shuffling" rhythm and lyrics inspired by the Egyptian underworld.
"Everything in Its Right Place" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on their fourth album, Kid A (2000). It features synthesiser and digitally manipulated vocals. The lyrics were inspired by the stress felt by the singer, Thom Yorke, while promoting Radiohead's album OK Computer (1997).
The Eraser is the debut solo album by the English musician Thom Yorke, released on 10 July 2006 through XL Recordings. It was produced by Nigel Godrich, the longtime producer for Yorke's band Radiohead.
"How to Disappear Completely" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead from their fourth studio album, Kid A (2000). It was produced by the band with their producer, Nigel Godrich, and was released as a promotional single in the US, Poland and Belgium.
"The Bends" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead from their second studio album, The Bends (1995). In Ireland, it was released by Parlophone on 26 July 1996 as the album's sixth and final single, and reached number 26 on the Irish Singles Chart.
"FeelingPulledApartByHorses" and "TheHollowEarth" are songs by Thom Yorke, produced by Nigel Godrich. The songs were self-released as a limited double A-side vinyl in September 2009 and as a download on 6 October 2009.
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The Smile are an English rock band comprising the Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood with Tom Skinner (drums). Critics likened them to Radiohead, with more jazz, krautrock and progressive rock influences and a looser, wilder sound.
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