'Like Spinning Plates' was born out of frustration over an electronic version of 'I Will' from the Kid A sessions, which is not available (yet), but we can get an idea what it might have sounded like. This reconstruction uses the vocals of the Hail to the Thief version of 'I Will' and some instrumental stems from the KID A MNESIA Exhibition:
'I Will' was not going to stay like this, the band was not satisfied with this version. Thom would later dub it "dodgy Kraftwerk". Not knowing what to do with this, someone had the idea to reverse it and played it backwards, which - using our reconstruction - must have sounded something like this:
The reversed backing with its eerie pulse was apprently way more exciting than the ill-fated forward recording, and Thom was also hearing a melody in parts of his reversed vocal of 'I Will', which inspired him to write something he could sing over this recording. He went to his notebooks, pieced a set of lyrics together (perhaps using the "cut up lines pulled out of a top hat" method again), thereby creating a new song, 'Like Spinning Plates'.
However, just singing the new melody and lyrics straight over the pulsing backing track was not good enough. Something different was needed. Perhaps someone had the idea to reflect the fact, that this song came out of turning something backwards, in the singing as well. How about having a backwards vocal track that sounds as if it was sung forwards?
To illustrate what happened now, this site's owner had to sing the bits himself, since we don't have access to the band's archive. You start by singing the melody and words very normal and make a recording of that:
Good. Now you reverse that recording and listen to it:
You listen to it again and again, and you study the backwards sounds and learn to imitate them. When you think you can do a good copy of what you heard, you make a recording of that imitation in a session that promises lots of hysterical laughter... or endless frustration:
And if you now reverse this new recording, you get the following, and that's exactly how the eery vocal of the studio version was made:
The result is exciting, but it is decided that this vocal is not used in the whole song. The backwards vocal is used for the "verse", the "chorus" uses the normal vocal, but on its last two lines the backwards vocal is flown in as well and you hear a combination of both. One example of this is in the "cloud cuckoo land" line.
'I Will' was not going to stay like this, the band was not satisfied with this version. Thom would later dub it "dodgy Kraftwerk". Not knowing what to do with this, someone had the idea to reverse it and played it backwards, which - using our reconstruction - must have sounded something like this:
The reversed backing with its eerie pulse was apprently way more exciting than the ill-fated forward recording, and Thom was also hearing a melody in parts of his reversed vocal of 'I Will', which inspired him to write something he could sing over this recording. He went to his notebooks, pieced a set of lyrics together (perhaps using the "cut up lines pulled out of a top hat" method again), thereby creating a new song, 'Like Spinning Plates'.
However, just singing the new melody and lyrics straight over the pulsing backing track was not good enough. Something different was needed. Perhaps someone had the idea to reflect the fact, that this song came out of turning something backwards, in the singing as well. How about having a backwards vocal track that sounds as if it was sung forwards?
To illustrate what happened now, this site's owner had to sing the bits himself, since we don't have access to the band's archive. You start by singing the melody and words very normal and make a recording of that:
Good. Now you reverse that recording and listen to it:
You listen to it again and again, and you study the backwards sounds and learn to imitate them. When you think you can do a good copy of what you heard, you make a recording of that imitation in a session that promises lots of hysterical laughter... or endless frustration:
And if you now reverse this new recording, you get the following, and that's exactly how the eery vocal of the studio version was made:
The result is exciting, but it is decided that this vocal is not used in the whole song. The backwards vocal is used for the "verse", the "chorus" uses the normal vocal, but on its last two lines the backwards vocal is flown in as well and you hear a combination of both. One example of this is in the "cloud cuckoo land" line.