I think you misunderstood what I meant by the phrase, “pick out”; I was actually referring to Johnny Greenwood’s gift for choosing which musical phrase to sample. I probably should have used a word like “select” instead of “pick out” but I figured the second half of the sentence, “and transform it into something much catchier” would suffice to communicate my intent.

As a Radiohead listener, I recognised the sample as soon as I heard it. It was quite a pleasurable experience to hear it in a very different context and to learn about a chapter of electronic music history that I had not previously been aware of.

As a music consumer (not a musician) and without the gift of hindsight, I probably wouldn’t listen to a piece of music – particularly an 18 minute track – attentively enough to notice and think to myself that there’s something potentially special about those few seconds compared to the rest of the 18 minutes of the track. That’s the gift that I admire sampling artists for: the ability to recognise the potential of a seemingly unremarkable snippet of music and transform it into something special.