or: A Review Of The New Nine Inch Nails Album, In 4 Volumes
I: INTRODUCTION (NINE INCH NAILS = TRENT REZNOR)
Trent Reznor seems to know no bounds. Not these days at least. After making a career and lifestyle on hating so much in the world, things have really been going his way, and these last few years have only seen the rich, successful and influential musician grow all the more amitious and fierce, kicking a drug-and-alcohol habit, buffing out into a Herculian version of his former self, and releasing albums at a much-quicker-than-normal pace, going from roughly one new album every 4-5 years in the first 16 years of his career to a healthy 3 albums in less than three year's time frame.
Since his return-from-oblivion release With Teeth, in 2005 at age 40, T. Rez has been thunderously roaring through a new musical swath at a pace much quicker than most strapping young lads less than half his age. And following the release of the Year Zero remixed off-shoot Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D, Nine Inch Nails is now an independent act, having fulfilled its obligations to record labels TVT and Interscope for almost two straight decades. It's all the cooler that, in chosing his next project to be producing beats for poet/MC Saul Williams' Niggy Tardust album (including an amazing cover of U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday"), he only made his indie cred all the better while fulfulling an artistic passion at the same time. Anything seems possible for him, I'm certain.
II: INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM, YOU SAY?
So Trent went all political and danceable on Year Zero, which was a truly stripped-down but heavy-duty experience on par with the best of Bomb Squad/Public Enemy. But there were a few instrumentals (as is customary with most NIN albums) that gave us hints of what's to come. Of course, everyone was so immersed in the online-reality game and tour, not to mention to catchy beats and overlying themes, that those glimpses into the future went unnoticed. Despite rumors of a movie based on Year Zero (with Nine Inch Nails/Trent Reznor no doubt composing the score/soundtrack), instead the next NIN project turned out to be perhaps the greatest testament to their artistic (and business) acheivements.
Ghosts I-IV. Halo Twenty Six. 9 tracks per disc, one disc for each volume (well, two in the packaging, but we'll get to that later). It's entirely instrumental. It's almost two hours. It was recorded and mixed in roughly 10 weeks. It came at a time when such a strange album would have gone through hell with a record label/company trying to distribute and sell it. But that same time happened to be well into the online age, more specifically just a few months after Radiohead released their album for download on their website (at a price to be set by the buyer). A now-independent, well-known, digitally-inclined artist like Trent Reznor could easily make good use of this great technology at hand, but sometimes it's hard to make the art as good as the marketing.
III: SO, HOW IS IT?
It's absolutely great, if you're a Nine Inch Nails fan. Now, if you're not a Nine Inch Nails fan, you're not likely to be won over with this one (unless the only problem you had with NIN all along has been Trent's pop sensibilities and lyrics, in which case, this is the album you've been waiting for; and if you like NIN for strictly these reasons, proceed with caution). Even if you are and always have been a fan, this is still a strange and singular experience kind of unlike anything ever done before, despite being everything Nine Inch Nails stands for in just about every way they've established through the albums and years.
Each track suggests a scene, a mood, an idea. This is Nine Inch Nails' jam band mode, a group of talented musicians working fervently at capturing each other's sounds into a solid structure. You can feel the live touches, but it's sequenced to loving perfection in that NIN way we're all expectant of by now. The experience unfolds like an in-the-mix collage of beats and melodies. Clearly Trent's been listening to a lot of Sigur Ros, Angelo Badalementi, Mogwai, Can, and Explosions In The Sky lately, perhaps some Madlib, later Jimi Hendrix, Brian Eno and Prefuse 73 to boot. Unlike J Dilla, however, T Rezna cannot lock 30+ tracks into one disc. And record labels are quick to point out (to artists, stores and consumers) that double albums means double production costs (sorta) and double the sales price (nearly). But by taking advantange of this digital era, Trent made it cheap and easy to make that fact obselete.
IV: GREAT, GET ME A COPY!
Well, if you want it free, you can't have all of it, but you can get all of Vol I FREE at ghosts.nin.com. Pretty cool, and if you're feeling it and want the whole package, well, you have to choose what you believe to be the whole package. There are quite a few options, from a simple "let me download the whole thing, DRM-free, with a pdf of all the photos, artwork and credits" option to varying levels of physical products on CD, vinyl, DVD (for track remixing) and even Blu-Ray (containing the entire four volume album mixed in surround sound with accompanying visuals). The cream of the crop, the $300 all-inclusive limited edition box set signed by Trent himself, sold out in less than a day.
Apparently, Mr. Reznor still understands business, because the album made more than $1.6 million in orders (781,917 orders by his account) in the first week of making it available, March 3rd. And the fact that he is doing so well financially at something that is so purely artistic and exploratory is the testament to how established an entertainer he still is, and how crafted an artist he has become. This all happened with no advertising or mention prior to two weeks before the album dropped. What an exciting time, not just for Trent Reznor, but for his fans and peers as well.
FOR MORE INFO:
-Those snarky folks down at Pitchfork give a pretty thorough report of the online ordering and product packaging surrounding Ghosts I-IV.
-An interesting article about Trent's thoughts on "that Radiohead album" and the music industry in general's standing in the full-swing digital era.
-A track-by-track review.
-An interview with Halo 26 session drummer Brian Viglione, who just so happens to be in The Dresden Dolls, who opened for Nine Inch Nails on the With Teeth tour.
-And as if all this was not enough, here's a video of Trent explaining his latest new Ghosts experiment/expansion.
I: INTRODUCTION (NINE INCH NAILS = TRENT REZNOR)
Trent Reznor seems to know no bounds. Not these days at least. After making a career and lifestyle on hating so much in the world, things have really been going his way, and these last few years have only seen the rich, successful and influential musician grow all the more amitious and fierce, kicking a drug-and-alcohol habit, buffing out into a Herculian version of his former self, and releasing albums at a much-quicker-than-normal pace, going from roughly one new album every 4-5 years in the first 16 years of his career to a healthy 3 albums in less than three year's time frame.
Since his return-from-oblivion release With Teeth, in 2005 at age 40, T. Rez has been thunderously roaring through a new musical swath at a pace much quicker than most strapping young lads less than half his age. And following the release of the Year Zero remixed off-shoot Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D, Nine Inch Nails is now an independent act, having fulfilled its obligations to record labels TVT and Interscope for almost two straight decades. It's all the cooler that, in chosing his next project to be producing beats for poet/MC Saul Williams' Niggy Tardust album (including an amazing cover of U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday"), he only made his indie cred all the better while fulfulling an artistic passion at the same time. Anything seems possible for him, I'm certain.
II: INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM, YOU SAY?
So Trent went all political and danceable on Year Zero, which was a truly stripped-down but heavy-duty experience on par with the best of Bomb Squad/Public Enemy. But there were a few instrumentals (as is customary with most NIN albums) that gave us hints of what's to come. Of course, everyone was so immersed in the online-reality game and tour, not to mention to catchy beats and overlying themes, that those glimpses into the future went unnoticed. Despite rumors of a movie based on Year Zero (with Nine Inch Nails/Trent Reznor no doubt composing the score/soundtrack), instead the next NIN project turned out to be perhaps the greatest testament to their artistic (and business) acheivements.
Ghosts I-IV. Halo Twenty Six. 9 tracks per disc, one disc for each volume (well, two in the packaging, but we'll get to that later). It's entirely instrumental. It's almost two hours. It was recorded and mixed in roughly 10 weeks. It came at a time when such a strange album would have gone through hell with a record label/company trying to distribute and sell it. But that same time happened to be well into the online age, more specifically just a few months after Radiohead released their album for download on their website (at a price to be set by the buyer). A now-independent, well-known, digitally-inclined artist like Trent Reznor could easily make good use of this great technology at hand, but sometimes it's hard to make the art as good as the marketing.
III: SO, HOW IS IT?
It's absolutely great, if you're a Nine Inch Nails fan. Now, if you're not a Nine Inch Nails fan, you're not likely to be won over with this one (unless the only problem you had with NIN all along has been Trent's pop sensibilities and lyrics, in which case, this is the album you've been waiting for; and if you like NIN for strictly these reasons, proceed with caution). Even if you are and always have been a fan, this is still a strange and singular experience kind of unlike anything ever done before, despite being everything Nine Inch Nails stands for in just about every way they've established through the albums and years.
Each track suggests a scene, a mood, an idea. This is Nine Inch Nails' jam band mode, a group of talented musicians working fervently at capturing each other's sounds into a solid structure. You can feel the live touches, but it's sequenced to loving perfection in that NIN way we're all expectant of by now. The experience unfolds like an in-the-mix collage of beats and melodies. Clearly Trent's been listening to a lot of Sigur Ros, Angelo Badalementi, Mogwai, Can, and Explosions In The Sky lately, perhaps some Madlib, later Jimi Hendrix, Brian Eno and Prefuse 73 to boot. Unlike J Dilla, however, T Rezna cannot lock 30+ tracks into one disc. And record labels are quick to point out (to artists, stores and consumers) that double albums means double production costs (sorta) and double the sales price (nearly). But by taking advantange of this digital era, Trent made it cheap and easy to make that fact obselete.
IV: GREAT, GET ME A COPY!
Well, if you want it free, you can't have all of it, but you can get all of Vol I FREE at ghosts.nin.com. Pretty cool, and if you're feeling it and want the whole package, well, you have to choose what you believe to be the whole package. There are quite a few options, from a simple "let me download the whole thing, DRM-free, with a pdf of all the photos, artwork and credits" option to varying levels of physical products on CD, vinyl, DVD (for track remixing) and even Blu-Ray (containing the entire four volume album mixed in surround sound with accompanying visuals). The cream of the crop, the $300 all-inclusive limited edition box set signed by Trent himself, sold out in less than a day.
Apparently, Mr. Reznor still understands business, because the album made more than $1.6 million in orders (781,917 orders by his account) in the first week of making it available, March 3rd. And the fact that he is doing so well financially at something that is so purely artistic and exploratory is the testament to how established an entertainer he still is, and how crafted an artist he has become. This all happened with no advertising or mention prior to two weeks before the album dropped. What an exciting time, not just for Trent Reznor, but for his fans and peers as well.
FOR MORE INFO:
-Those snarky folks down at Pitchfork give a pretty thorough report of the online ordering and product packaging surrounding Ghosts I-IV.
-An interesting article about Trent's thoughts on "that Radiohead album" and the music industry in general's standing in the full-swing digital era.
-A track-by-track review.
-An interview with Halo 26 session drummer Brian Viglione, who just so happens to be in The Dresden Dolls, who opened for Nine Inch Nails on the With Teeth tour.
-And as if all this was not enough, here's a video of Trent explaining his latest new Ghosts experiment/expansion.
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