Eclectic Analysis - Radiohead "Idioteque" - Formal Analysis

Key: Eb Major/ G minor

Meter: 4/4

Form: A B C B B  D E

            intro | verse

      | chorus

      | interlude

      | chorus     | chorus

      | bridge

      | coda

Transcription of harmony by Paul Lansky:

The harmonic progression is Eb > G > Bb > D. The synth pad, borrowed from Lansky, is the only instrument creating a harmony. The rest of the texture, save the vocals (which primarily rides between D and Eb in the verse, and B in the chorus), is percussive. The verses and choruses can be sub-divided into 5-bar phrases.

Since there is no other melodic content, a method by William Moylan was used to plot, as he calls, sources versus a timeline. It is especially useful with the amount of sampling that takes place in the track. Sources (Y) are plotted against time (X; marked in measure numbers), and color-coded. Sections are clearly marked under the measure markings. (Please excuse the scanning bleed from the back of the paper.)

The drum loop enters alone, and continues throughout the piece, altering only a couple bars when it is reversed (section D). Sample's from Kreiger's Short Piece, introduced in the historical critique, are interspersed through the composition as a percussive ornament. Not each entrance is the same material, but it can be recognized easily after a couple listening of the source work. Lansky's synth pad is prominent in the verse (A), each repetition of the chorus, and the coda. It enters 7 measures into the introduction, and ducks out for 10, leaving the drum loops, a Kreiger sample, and what the author is referring to as "Jingle sample" (it sounds like jingling coins). O'Brien sings harmony with Yorke during the choruses, as marked in pink. On the first repeat (or second entrance) of the chorus, Yorke and O'Brien are joined by a sample of Yorke's vocal "the first and the children". It also re-appears during the coda. There is a sole instance of a small percussion sounding sample in the C-section, which fades into the repeat of B. Roughly two-thirds of the way through Idioteque, the bridge (D) hits, and introduces an eerie, long dark hallway sound, which lasts through that section, and the entire coda. The D section is spare, only containing the long hall sound and the drum loop, although the jingling reappears briefly. Near the end of the D section a second beat (referred to as "break-beat" since it creates polyrhythm), which is much quicker in tempo, enters, and runs through the coda. Shortly into the coda, Yorke's sample returns ("the first and the children"), and rides us through to the end, repeating at different occurrences within the sample ("first and the children, the first and the children, the first, the first and the children...").