Idioteque

"Idioteque" began with a rhythm created by Jonny Greenwood on a modular synthesiser. Feeling it "needed chaos", he experimented with found sounds and sampling.[1] He recorded 50 minutes of improvisation and gave it to singer Thom Yorke, who took a short sequence and used it to write the song.[1] 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."[1] He created some of the lyrics, like others on Kid A, by cutting up phrases and drawing them from a hat.[2] 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.[3]

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.[4] 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.[4] "Idioteque" also samples another composition from Electronic Music Winners, "Short Piece", by Arthur Kreiger, who became a professor of music at Connecticut College.[6]

"Idioteque" was named the eighth best song of the decade by Pitchfork[7] and the 56th best by Rolling Stone.[8] In 2018, Rolling Stone ranked it #33 on its list of the "100 greatest songs of the century so far".[9] 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".[10]

Levi Weaver covered "Idioteque" live on his 2006 tour supporting Imogen Heap, using multiple loop pedals to build a layered effect.[11] 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;[12] her cover was National Public Radio's Song of the Day for January 11, 2011.[13] In 2010, Yoav used a loop pedal to build a layered acoustic version.[14]

• 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.