Okay, let me just say right off the top that I’ve always had a bit of a problem with Trent Reznor. This was purely from an artistic POV. As a huge fan of Ministry’s early industrial output (the landmark records Twitch and The Land of Rape and Honey), I saw Trent’s Pretty Hate Machine as a homogenized version of the Ministry aesthetic. It was as if someone had sawed off all the harsh, jagged edges of a Ministry record. No, let me rephrase that. It was as if someone had taken a basic rock record…you know, verse/chorus/verse stuff…and added a little industrial window dressing.

That the suburbs, malls, and amusement parks were soon littered with suburban kids with NIN logos on their chests and backs was proof positive that Trent Reznor had succeeded in making industrial music palatable for the suburbs. After all, suburban kids wanted to feel “bad-ass” too, but those Ministry records were some scary shit. NIN, on the other hand, was no more frightening than watching The Crow for the hundredth time.

So, yeah, I thought Reznor was a poseur.

That opinion did not change when I saw him have a mini-meltdown at Lollapalooza when his pre-programmed keyboards wouldn’t work. Seriously, Diana Ross, Liza Minnelli, and the rest of their ilk have nothing on this guy.Of course, along the way, the guy actually managed to write “Hurt,” which I heartily believe is a fucking great song, but doing so only made me expect more from the guy. If he was capable of that, then why did we keep getting albums that were, by and large, huge steaming piles of unfulfilled promise?

Because his fans accepted those albums as symbols of musical brilliance, that’s why. (more…)

Trent Reznor strikes again.

So, Ghosts I-IV didn’t satisfy your hunger, it wasn’t like a “real” Nine Inch Nails album, it was instrumental, it didn’t count? Well, that’s fine. ‘Cause here’s another Nine Inch Nails album: The Slip, released just last week. And not only can you download it for free, but you couldn’t pay for it if you wanted to. This album is freer than the air you breathe, and Reznor isn’t going to take your money for it. Quite the opposite, in fact: he released it under a share-alike license, meaning he encourages you to remix it, play with it, post it on your blog, put it on your radio show, use it to stimulate your own creativity. Yeah, that Reznor’s a pretty stand-up guy.

Aesthetically, The Slip sounds like a composite of Nine Inch Nails’ last two proper releases, With Teeth and Year Zero. From Year Zero it borrows some of the grit and bombast, mish-mashed together with the occasional tendency towards hooks that made With Teeth so accessible. The result is an album that those not intimately acquainted with Reznor’s output might enjoy alongside those who know all the ins-and-outs. Initiates will likely be drawn to “Discipline” and “Echoplex,” the bouncier cuts from the album, while veterans may gravitate towards the aggression and complexity of “Head Down” and “Demon Seed.”

Nine Inch Nails, “Letting You” (download) (more…)

Whether or not you’re a fan of his music, it’s hard to argue that Trent Reznor, the creative mastermind of Nine Inch Nails, is constantly at the forefront of innovation. For his last album, Year Zero, Reznor teamed up with 42 Entertainment to develop a massive viral campaign that yielded solid numbers of dedicated fans and press. Sensing the promise of Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want release for In Rainbows (which some claim Reznor suggested to them), he recommended a similar technique to Saul Williams, whose album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust he helped produce and promote. Now, he’s evolved the system for his own use with his new album, Ghosts I-IV, released online this past Sunday with no one the wiser about its impending arrival, save for a few ominous “SOON” messages on his blog.

Ghosts I-IV is a departure from Reznor’s standard for two major reasons. Firstly, this is Reznor’s first collaborative album. Past Nine Inch Nails albums were mostly written solely by Reznor, with a handful of songs that credit others here and there. Ghosts I-IV was written entirely with Atticus Ross, who’s been working with Reznor in various ways for the last seven years. The second major change is that Reznor restricted the period of the album’s creation to 10 weeks, a bold move for a man who’s notorious for taking several years between completed works (the two years between With Teeth and Year Zero was the shortest — on average he takes four or five).

Though the modus operandi might have been different, stylistically Ghosts I-IV will sound vaguely familiar to Nine Inch Nails fans and soundtrack or movie score aficionados. The 36 tracks consist of instrumental, ambient pieces played on some combination of piano, guitar or marimba and a few other ethnic instruments, creating a very cinematic element at times. Occasionally it kicks into electronic industrial moments, as if to remind the listener what or who they’re listening to. (more…)