Deviations 1
August 26, 2017 7:45 AM Subscribe
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile - Deviations 1: 2.5 hours of instrumental tracks, alternate takes, and supplemental material from NIN's seminal 1999 double album The Fragile. #Halo30
I read an article recently that I can't find the right google keywords to refind written by someone brought in from outside to help create The Fragile out of what Trent had created. The original output of material was over 4 hours long, according to that article.
I'm still trying to understand The Fragile. It's so full of layers and reused loops, it's truly a Russian novel of music.
I don't know if Deviations 1 is helping, but it's a good listen. Especially if you find Trent's lyrics problematic.
posted by hippybear at 8:15 AM on August 26, 2017
I'm still trying to understand The Fragile. It's so full of layers and reused loops, it's truly a Russian novel of music.
I don't know if Deviations 1 is helping, but it's a good listen. Especially if you find Trent's lyrics problematic.
posted by hippybear at 8:15 AM on August 26, 2017
You may be confused about the True Hierarchy of companion animals, but you have excellent taste in music.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:19 AM on August 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:19 AM on August 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
I would love to know how this record sounds to somebody who has never heard the original release of NIN's The Fragile.
Because I have listened to original release so much when I was younger, that now I cannot stop myself from hearing Trent's voice in my head on the instrumental tracks.
posted by bigendian at 8:39 AM on August 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
Because I have listened to original release so much when I was younger, that now I cannot stop myself from hearing Trent's voice in my head on the instrumental tracks.
posted by bigendian at 8:39 AM on August 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
The singing-along karaoke style... it is strong with this release.
posted by hippybear at 8:46 AM on August 26, 2017
posted by hippybear at 8:46 AM on August 26, 2017
@bigendian Gimme a couple hours and I'll get back to you
posted by meemzi at 8:51 AM on August 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by meemzi at 8:51 AM on August 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
So, NIN played a smallish venue in Bakersfield, to warm up before their new tour, about a month ago. I heard from those who know, that high end bands often do this, they come up from LA to Bakersfield, to polish up the act before the first tour date. They play this small venue, half sold, to make sure the road show is ready to go.
posted by Oyéah at 9:38 AM on August 26, 2017
posted by Oyéah at 9:38 AM on August 26, 2017
Yeah, they still have one EP to release during the next 6-8 months that will continue their EP releases and then they will have a full album and launch a full tour.
Seeing NIN on tour is amazing, always. I recommend it to anyone and everyone. They play with technology in a way that you can't predict.
I look forward to seeing them in 2018-19.
posted by hippybear at 9:42 AM on August 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
Seeing NIN on tour is amazing, always. I recommend it to anyone and everyone. They play with technology in a way that you can't predict.
I look forward to seeing them in 2018-19.
posted by hippybear at 9:42 AM on August 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
I read an article recently that I can't find the right google keywords to refind written by someone brought in from outside to help create The Fragile out of what Trent had created. The original output of material was over 4 hours long, according to that article.
Bob Ezrin was the guy and there's some commentary from him here: http://loudwire.com/nine-inch-nails-the-fragile-album-anniversary/
posted by anazgnos at 11:15 AM on August 26, 2017
Bob Ezrin was the guy and there's some commentary from him here: http://loudwire.com/nine-inch-nails-the-fragile-album-anniversary/
posted by anazgnos at 11:15 AM on August 26, 2017
Thanks for this! I love The Fragile, I listened to it waaaaaaay too much....
posted by biscotti at 11:51 AM on August 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by biscotti at 11:51 AM on August 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
The Fragile and Year Zero seem to get the least love of NIN's albums
Year zero is one of my favourites!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 12:12 PM on August 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
Year zero is one of my favourites!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 12:12 PM on August 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
I have a hard time separating Year Zero from the ARG that accompanied its release.
That's not a criticism. That ARG deeply affected my life.
posted by hippybear at 2:14 PM on August 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
That's not a criticism. That ARG deeply affected my life.
posted by hippybear at 2:14 PM on August 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
"least love"?? i don't know...but to me The Fragile is their masterpiece.
so thanks for this I look forward to diving in!
posted by supermedusa at 3:26 PM on August 26, 2017
so thanks for this I look forward to diving in!
posted by supermedusa at 3:26 PM on August 26, 2017
I find several of the 90s musical acts I was drawn to was by the album that alienated first round fans.
Pearl Jam - Vitolgy
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
Sheryl Crow - The Globe Sessions
posted by hippybear at 3:44 PM on August 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
Pearl Jam - Vitolgy
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
Sheryl Crow - The Globe Sessions
posted by hippybear at 3:44 PM on August 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
I definitely bit off more than I can chew.
I've listened to some NIN, but not The Fragile. (At least I think - there's certainly a chance I've heard some of the songs before.) I like what I've heard of NIN but haven't really explored so I can't pass any "name 5 of their albums" tests. Of course, now I'm going to listen to The Fragile a ton. There's a lot to hear so I didn't listen in depth.
-----
I tried writing down my thoughts when a section particularly interested me. For example, "1:17:00 - Put this minute all over my body."
I quickly ran into two problems:
1. All of my notes were essentially the same: "This is sexy." "Mmmmm, yeah. That's the good stuff."
2. I am a terrible music critic. I liked the entire thing and I couldn't tell you in any detail why. It's just damn good.
I'm excited to listen to the original because I know it'll also be damn good and also because of this: "I cannot stop myself from hearing Trent's voice in my head on the instrumental tracks." This is obviously not my experience. I can't hear any lyrics in my head. The music is complex enough that it doesn't feel lacking without.
posted by meemzi at 4:10 PM on August 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
I've listened to some NIN, but not The Fragile. (At least I think - there's certainly a chance I've heard some of the songs before.) I like what I've heard of NIN but haven't really explored so I can't pass any "name 5 of their albums" tests. Of course, now I'm going to listen to The Fragile a ton. There's a lot to hear so I didn't listen in depth.
-----
I tried writing down my thoughts when a section particularly interested me. For example, "1:17:00 - Put this minute all over my body."
I quickly ran into two problems:
1. All of my notes were essentially the same: "This is sexy." "Mmmmm, yeah. That's the good stuff."
2. I am a terrible music critic. I liked the entire thing and I couldn't tell you in any detail why. It's just damn good.
I'm excited to listen to the original because I know it'll also be damn good and also because of this: "I cannot stop myself from hearing Trent's voice in my head on the instrumental tracks." This is obviously not my experience. I can't hear any lyrics in my head. The music is complex enough that it doesn't feel lacking without.
posted by meemzi at 4:10 PM on August 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
The music is complex enough that it doesn't feel lacking without.
Ok cool, that's what I was curious about.
2. I am a terrible music critic.
Not necessarily true, "This is sexy." "Mmmmm, yeah. That's the good stuff." made me laugh out loud and few "real" critics manage (or even try) to do that!
Thanks for your effort and time! :)
posted by bigendian at 4:42 PM on August 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
Ok cool, that's what I was curious about.
2. I am a terrible music critic.
Not necessarily true, "This is sexy." "Mmmmm, yeah. That's the good stuff." made me laugh out loud and few "real" critics manage (or even try) to do that!
Thanks for your effort and time! :)
posted by bigendian at 4:42 PM on August 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
Ghosts I-IV makes great coding background music. Excited about more instrumental NIN. At some point, Trent Reznor's voice just started sounding like a whiny teenager to me, and it's been hard to enjoy his lyrical stuff as much ever since.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 5:35 PM on August 26, 2017
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 5:35 PM on August 26, 2017
The Fragile completely changed me as a music fan. It was the first NIN release I ever purchased, and I listened to it obsessively. It had the effect of making me completely dislike everything else I was listening to at the time (Korn, Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, etc. - cut me some slack, I was in middle school). It led me to discover the rest of Trent's catalog, which further led me to find Bowie, Prince, Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, Joy Division, Soft Cell, My Bloody Valentine, etc., and that became the foundation of almost everything I listen to to this day. I love this album as much as I can possibly love an album, and I owe it (and Trent) for a lot of enjoyment over the years since its release.
As details about Deviations 1 came out, I was mildly disappointed. I was hoping (perhaps naively) for more unreleased songs, and perhaps some that had vocal tracks. Maybe they exist, and we'll get them some day. After all of the urban legends about how much leftover material there was from the sessions, perhaps my expectations were skewed.
That said, after listening to it (after not listening to The Fragile proper in quite a while), I'm really glad we have it. The new instrumentals are strong ("White Mask" is my favorite of them), and I love the alternate versions. The atmosphere of "10 Miles High" in any version (including the beefier demo included here) will never fail to get my heart racing. Even the songs that just have the vocals removed from their previously-released counterparts sound different just by (as noted above) the virtue of being able to hear all of the dense layers of sound with more clarity. I can definitely appreciate it for what it is: A different set of contexts for one of my favorite albums of all time.
posted by kryptondog at 7:51 PM on August 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
As details about Deviations 1 came out, I was mildly disappointed. I was hoping (perhaps naively) for more unreleased songs, and perhaps some that had vocal tracks. Maybe they exist, and we'll get them some day. After all of the urban legends about how much leftover material there was from the sessions, perhaps my expectations were skewed.
That said, after listening to it (after not listening to The Fragile proper in quite a while), I'm really glad we have it. The new instrumentals are strong ("White Mask" is my favorite of them), and I love the alternate versions. The atmosphere of "10 Miles High" in any version (including the beefier demo included here) will never fail to get my heart racing. Even the songs that just have the vocals removed from their previously-released counterparts sound different just by (as noted above) the virtue of being able to hear all of the dense layers of sound with more clarity. I can definitely appreciate it for what it is: A different set of contexts for one of my favorite albums of all time.
posted by kryptondog at 7:51 PM on August 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
The Fragile and Year Zero seem to get the least love of NIN's albums,
Aaand those are my two favs.
Honestly, NIN calms my soul. I remember the bar we were in the night of the election played a NIN song, and it was the only moment of the night I was able to breathe and stop freaking out.
posted by greermahoney at 10:55 PM on August 26, 2017
Aaand those are my two favs.
Honestly, NIN calms my soul. I remember the bar we were in the night of the election played a NIN song, and it was the only moment of the night I was able to breathe and stop freaking out.
posted by greermahoney at 10:55 PM on August 26, 2017
I would love to know how this record sounds to somebody who has never heard the original release of NIN's The Fragile.
I'll report back!
posted by rhizome at 11:18 PM on August 26, 2017
I'll report back!
posted by rhizome at 11:18 PM on August 26, 2017
It had the effect of making me completely dislike everything else I was listening to at the time
holy shit I had the same experience but with pretty hate machine (what I am old) everything from before that just suddenly seemed so ... toothless. I think there is a revelation when one finds the tone of music that speaks to your self. it's when I discovered that amazing angry music made me feel happy.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 2:15 AM on August 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
holy shit I had the same experience but with pretty hate machine (what I am old) everything from before that just suddenly seemed so ... toothless. I think there is a revelation when one finds the tone of music that speaks to your self. it's when I discovered that amazing angry music made me feel happy.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 2:15 AM on August 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
I'm fascinated by how there are people who are going to listen to Deviations 1 without having heard The Fragile. That's an amazing thought experiment that I can't participate in because I got The Fragile within a week of its release and it's been burned into my brain since then.
My entry into NIN was actually The Perfect Drug from The Lost Highway soundtrack (a soundtrack album which Trent produced and it's one hell of an album jeebusfukinchrist). That song and its accompanying video totally grabbed me and led me to look backward into the NIN canon and then when The Fragile came out I was 100% in on whatever Trent had to offer me.
So The Fragile was the first NIN album that I actually bought, and it's a mammoth project, actually so big that it's difficult to process. But fuckshitdamn if it isn't worth the work to dig deeply into. That's a rare thing, really.
Trent's been interesting since then. The tour for The Fragile was astonishing, although when I saw it I was high on LSD and I had to later watch the DVD to see what had actually happened as part of the concert. He took a giant long break and then With Teeth, which was 1) brilliant and 2) more confessional than anything he'd done before. He'd been to rehab and he was writing about his addiction and recovery, along with some political commentary.
And then came Year Zero, with its accompanying ARG and then THAT tour which was beyond what I'd ever experienced at a concert before and I wasn't even high this time.
And then Trent got divorced. From his label.
And I spent some kind of ridiculous money on one of the high end releases of Ghosts I-IV, which I regard as a really interesting meditation on the NIN concept. I listen to it regularly. Each of the sides has its own character that evolves in different ways. And there are two extra tracks that were included only in the stem releases of the album that Trent supplied for fan remixing.
Next came the Saul Williams album The Inevitable Rise And Liberation Of Niggy Tardust, which was basically a NIN album with a different lead vocalist. Brilliant and challenging.
And then The Slip, which felt like Trent was saying farewell to music but was also the first NIN album to be recorded by a band in a studio rather than layering tracks. The following tour was utterly mind-blowing, and included a mini-set in the middle that was live performances from the Ghosts project and involved instruments not typically seen at a rock show.
And then after a long break (during which Trent was doing a lot of other things), Hesitation Marks. Trent is still dealing with his recovery process. And that tour, OMG. The way Trent and NIN push what is able to happen in a life performance is beyond imagining.
And now we're into this current EP cycle building toward an LP release.
I really hope he tours once this LP is released, because every single NIN tour I've seen has changed the way I experience a concert. I think what I love about Trent is that he is first and foremost a music fan and he knows what he wants to experience from a fan perspective and so when he's delivering his art to his fans, he's coming at it from that perspective. He never fails to thrill and overwhelm and utterly deliver something that music fans salivate for.
Okay, I'm done. I salute all of you who have never heard NIN and who listen to Deviations 1. I hope you find it thrilling. It's a great listen.
posted by hippybear at 6:21 AM on August 27, 2017 [6 favorites]
My entry into NIN was actually The Perfect Drug from The Lost Highway soundtrack (a soundtrack album which Trent produced and it's one hell of an album jeebusfukinchrist). That song and its accompanying video totally grabbed me and led me to look backward into the NIN canon and then when The Fragile came out I was 100% in on whatever Trent had to offer me.
So The Fragile was the first NIN album that I actually bought, and it's a mammoth project, actually so big that it's difficult to process. But fuckshitdamn if it isn't worth the work to dig deeply into. That's a rare thing, really.
Trent's been interesting since then. The tour for The Fragile was astonishing, although when I saw it I was high on LSD and I had to later watch the DVD to see what had actually happened as part of the concert. He took a giant long break and then With Teeth, which was 1) brilliant and 2) more confessional than anything he'd done before. He'd been to rehab and he was writing about his addiction and recovery, along with some political commentary.
And then came Year Zero, with its accompanying ARG and then THAT tour which was beyond what I'd ever experienced at a concert before and I wasn't even high this time.
And then Trent got divorced. From his label.
And I spent some kind of ridiculous money on one of the high end releases of Ghosts I-IV, which I regard as a really interesting meditation on the NIN concept. I listen to it regularly. Each of the sides has its own character that evolves in different ways. And there are two extra tracks that were included only in the stem releases of the album that Trent supplied for fan remixing.
Next came the Saul Williams album The Inevitable Rise And Liberation Of Niggy Tardust, which was basically a NIN album with a different lead vocalist. Brilliant and challenging.
And then The Slip, which felt like Trent was saying farewell to music but was also the first NIN album to be recorded by a band in a studio rather than layering tracks. The following tour was utterly mind-blowing, and included a mini-set in the middle that was live performances from the Ghosts project and involved instruments not typically seen at a rock show.
And then after a long break (during which Trent was doing a lot of other things), Hesitation Marks. Trent is still dealing with his recovery process. And that tour, OMG. The way Trent and NIN push what is able to happen in a life performance is beyond imagining.
And now we're into this current EP cycle building toward an LP release.
I really hope he tours once this LP is released, because every single NIN tour I've seen has changed the way I experience a concert. I think what I love about Trent is that he is first and foremost a music fan and he knows what he wants to experience from a fan perspective and so when he's delivering his art to his fans, he's coming at it from that perspective. He never fails to thrill and overwhelm and utterly deliver something that music fans salivate for.
Okay, I'm done. I salute all of you who have never heard NIN and who listen to Deviations 1. I hope you find it thrilling. It's a great listen.
posted by hippybear at 6:21 AM on August 27, 2017 [6 favorites]
NIN was warming up for the FYF festival, that is what they were doing in Bakersfield. Just so I know.
posted by Oyéah at 10:34 AM on August 27, 2017
posted by Oyéah at 10:34 AM on August 27, 2017
it's when I discovered that amazing angry music made me feel happy.
I'm doing a lengthy re listen to the NIN catalog and um... yes?
How can this be? I'm a hippie who listens to Indigo Girls and Polyphonic Spree? but NIN make me feel... good?
posted by hippybear at 12:12 PM on August 27, 2017
I'm doing a lengthy re listen to the NIN catalog and um... yes?
How can this be? I'm a hippie who listens to Indigo Girls and Polyphonic Spree? but NIN make me feel... good?
posted by hippybear at 12:12 PM on August 27, 2017
The Fragile and Year Zero seem to get the least love of NIN's albums
Year zero is one of my favourites!
The Fragile is by far my favorite, but Year Zero basically made me lose all interest in NIN. :shrug:
I'd look for Deviations but it seems to be vinyl-only? Bleh.
posted by Foosnark at 12:39 PM on August 27, 2017
Year zero is one of my favourites!
The Fragile is by far my favorite, but Year Zero basically made me lose all interest in NIN. :shrug:
I'd look for Deviations but it seems to be vinyl-only? Bleh.
posted by Foosnark at 12:39 PM on August 27, 2017
It's also on YouTube, and you get a digital download if you buy the vinyl.
But yeah, Trent has been going hard on the vinyl lately. I appreciate it. I even finally bought a turntable (to be here later this week) so I can listen to shit I've bought.
posted by hippybear at 12:46 PM on August 27, 2017
But yeah, Trent has been going hard on the vinyl lately. I appreciate it. I even finally bought a turntable (to be here later this week) so I can listen to shit I've bought.
posted by hippybear at 12:46 PM on August 27, 2017
And the main link of the post is now broken.
Bummer.
posted by hippybear at 10:27 PM on August 29, 2017
Bummer.
posted by hippybear at 10:27 PM on August 29, 2017
Youtube search for the album titlle shows another upload, but not a single track version.
posted by Edible Energy at 1:18 PM on September 7, 2017
posted by Edible Energy at 1:18 PM on September 7, 2017
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Deviations is a radical example that however Trent and his team were somehow able to cram 10 pounds of music into a 5 pound bag, there were a lot of tones and bits of the arrangement that ended up on the cutting room floor.
posted by tclark at 8:07 AM on August 26, 2017 [2 favorites]