M. Musick April 2009 An Analysis of Radiohead’s “Idioteque” from the Kid A album “Idioteque” is a song that combines the dark energy of Radiohead with a steady dance beat to help send a message about the state of commercialism and the ignorance of society to the impending social “ice age.” This song appears on the second half or “B-side” of their fourth full length album, Kid A and was a major departure from the melodic guitar driven sound that made them famous on their previous album OK Computer. The Radiohead that produced Kid A, and more specifically the song “Idioteque”, had been almost torn apart by the success of OK Computer. From the depression, torment, and disgust they had with themselves, they were able to create this complex, beat-driven, electronic track that must be listened to a few times through to fully appreciate its sincerity, message, and beauty. Radiohead became popular in the 90’s for their melodic, lyric- and guitar-driven songs. Between their breakout single “Creep” off Pablo Honey and their very popular OK Computer album, they were poised to be the next ‘big’ rock band.1 However as they were forced to perform a two-year concert tour for the OK Computer album, they became sick of their songs. Because of the control placed on them by corporations, they began to detest everything that was happening to them. This caused the band to feel disenfranchised with everything that was going on in their music and lives. When it came time for them to work on a new album, they knew they had to approach it radically different or they would not survive as a band. This manifested itself in a composition process that no longer depended on their individual ‘chosen instruments’, the meaning 1 Reynolds, Simon. “Walking on Thin Ice.” The Wire (July 2001). http://www.followmearound.com/presscuttings.php?year=2001&cutting=131 (accessed April 16, 2009) Writing Sample 3 An Analysis of Radiohead’s “Idioteque” from Kid A M. Musick 2 of the lyrics, or the melodic material. Instead they focused on the textures, colors, and feelings that they could create, primarily relying on electronic instruments for their palate of sounds. The band members had to learn how to be “participants” in the recording of songs without ever actually playing a note.2 Radiohead spent two years in a mansion in the English countryside recording the albums Kid A and its counterpart Amnesiac. These albums are heavily influenced by the Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) style including Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin and the band purchased the entire catalogue of Warp Records during this entire period for listening music.3 Also, guitarist Johnny Greenwood was heavily influenced by the composers Oliver Messaien and Krystof Penderecki. These influences led to the Penderecki style string arrangements on tracks like “How to Disappear Completely” and the use of the Ondes Martonet, an instrument with voice like qualities, on many of the albums’ tracks in place of Greenwood’s guitar.4 These factors define this album in a post-rock style that has come in response to the fading, over-hyped corporate controlled rock world that exists. The major influence for “Idioteque” however came from Guitarist Ed O’Brien. He picked up an early electronic music CD that contained pieces by Paul Lansky and Arthur Krieger. He then created a 50-minute piece based on Lansky’s “Mild Und Leise.” He asked Thom Yorke (Radiohead's lead singer) to listen and from that came the four chord backbone of “Idioteque.” Lansky’s work was not entirely original either; it was based off of the ‘Tristan’ chord from Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde. “Mild und Leise” was composed in 1973 on Princeton University’s massive IBM360/91 mainframe computer using frequency modulation synthesis (better known as FM 2 Ibid 3 Ibid 4 Ibid Writing Sample 3 An Analysis of Radiohead’s “Idioteque” from Kid A M. Musick 3 synthesis) and a special filter. Basic FM synthesis can be achieved by modulating the frequency of one tone with the frequency of another tone (both tones are in the range of human hearing). This then creates more complex wave and side bands that manifest themselves to the listener as additional overtones. Lansky had to put all of the information on individual punch cards, feed them to the computer, which would then translate that data to digital tape. He then would carry it across campus to another machine, which would convert the digital information to analog sound.5 It was a massive undertaking for a song that could now easily be composed on anyone’s laptop. However, the piece has a warm organic beauty in the sound that it is difficult to recreate, hence O’Brien’s attraction to it. This four chord ‘Lansky loop’ is placed to a steady, 4/4 dance beat and creates a five-measure loop. Although Lansky’s contribution has a warm vintage feel to it, the harmonic ‘Tristan’ language of the chords and the complex timbre create an atmosphere that is not comforting. At best it can be described as eerie. After settling on Lansky’s progression the band combined it with a very steady driving beat that creates a cold mechanical atmosphere for the song to be composed upon. The beat centers around a constant white noise burst that sounds similar to an over compressed snare drum with a long decay and reverb on it which relentlessly occurs on two and four throughout the entire song. This is combined with a bass hit, which occurs in the first two bars of each loop. These bass hits achieve an interesting effect by being so overdriven that apart from the fundamental the rest of the sound is grossly distorted. This was a conscious choice to go for the effect of being at a club 5 Lansky, Paul. “My Radiohead Adventure.” Princeton School of Music. http://www.music.princeton.edu/paul/radiohead.ml.html (accessed April 16, 2009). Writing Sample 3 An Analysis of Radiohead’s “Idioteque” from Kid A M. Musick 4 where the “PA is so loud you know its doing damage.”6 Other elements present in this beat are short white noise bursts that play around the long back beat bursts, and a pitched element that happens on the ‘and of 3’ and ‘and of 4’ in the second bar, which supports the Lansky element and sounds similar to a DJ scratching a record. The final touch on this loop is so much compression that you can hear the white noise burst and bass hit both audibly being reduced in gain whenever they occur simultaneously. This loop is heard three times after a short introduction. This introduction is the key to establishing the mood of the piece. In addition to establishing the mood a condensed two-measure loop is established that will trade off with Lansky’s loop throughout the song. This two-measure loop is the first two bars of Lansky’s loop without the harmonic progression. Since the bass hits occur in the first two bars of Lansky’s loop, this two-measure loop allows for a steady bass hit line with no rest. A complex tone is placed in the first 4 bars over this introduction with a downward filter sweep which fades into what seems like a pink noise with a wide band limiting filter and a ring modulation filter placed on it. This helps establish the sense of space and airiness that Lansky’s loop will maintain. The most important feature of this introduction however is the lower gain. Except for the first bass hit, which is the same sound as the bass hits to come, everything is ‘clean’ sounding, lacking distortion or over- compression. As soon as the Lansky loop enters however, the gain is noticeably raised and the distortion sets in for the bass hit. Considering Radiohead has mentioned the bass hits are intended to remind the listener of an overdriven PA system, this choice to have the introduction softer makes it feel as though you are walking up to the club and that you enter inside right as the Lansky loop enters for the first time. 6 Reynolds, “Walking on Thin Ice.” 2001. Writing Sample 3 An Analysis of Radiohead’s “Idioteque” from Kid A M. Musick 5 After the initial seven bar introduction and the Lansky loop playing 3 times, the original 2 bar bass hit loop from the beginning returns (this time at full gain) and is accompanied by the sound of very quick rhythmic jingling of what immediately reminds the listener of change or money. This is panned hard right and perhaps foreshadows the later verses which comment upon Capitalism’s pursuit of money. At exactly the one-minute mark the Lansky loop returns and Thom Yorke finally enters singing the first verse of the song. The vocals on this song are the only traditional contribution from that band. Everything in this song is electronically sequenced except the vocals. But even the vocals take on a slightly different role then is traditional. Radiohead made a conscious choice to do away with overly melodic vocal lines as it is held to the range of a perfect fourth.7 Also the vocal line is not treated as the special precious element of the song but instead Yorke takes the approach that the vocals serve more as an instrumental line, by adding effects or taking away the clear diction.8 This is particularly well established in “Idioteque” by running almost every statement together which takes away emphasis on any one word or phrase.