What effect is this?

["Rainer Straschill" <rs@moinlabs.de>]

Dear Loopers,

I recently saw a Radiohead concert video on Bavarian TV. In one piece, the
singer played Fender-Rhodes and sang like his pet parrot just died 
yesterday
night, all while another guy from the group crouched on the floor with a
small electronic gadget in his lap. The main component of this thingie was 
a
x-y "Ribbon" controller (backlit in red) which he used to sample parts of
the vocal line and then "scratch" them. Could anyone tell me what effect
this was (based on this description or on his knowledge of gear used by
Raidohead) ?

Thanks,

        Rainer

Rainer Straschill
Moinlabs GFX and Soundworks - www.moinlabs.de
LOOP 2001 - www.againinator.net