Is it an EP? Is it an LP? It certainly is NIN (with saxophone)
June 24, 2018 1:27 PM Subscribe
BAD WITCH has been released. 30 minutes of NIN being NIN where they are now. Trent talks about the album and other things. Worth a read and a listen.
Toot toot!
/menacing industrial beat, synthesizer squiggle
posted by Artw at 2:19 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
/menacing industrial beat, synthesizer squiggle
posted by Artw at 2:19 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Also a track where he attempts, like, melodic singing of a kind I've not heard from him before?
posted by Artw at 2:22 PM on June 24, 2018
posted by Artw at 2:22 PM on June 24, 2018
In a recent interview it became clear that Trent, who I like but who is kind of going through a bit of an uncool daddish phase, is only really aware of Taylor Swift as "what the kids are into these days". We should, like, band together and make him a care package with some Beyonce and some Janae Monae or whatever.
posted by Artw at 2:30 PM on June 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Artw at 2:30 PM on June 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
Trent Reznor says David Bowie helped him see ‘the light at the end of the tunnel’
That 1995 Davide Bowie/Nine Inch Nails concert is incredible.
posted by Artw at 2:37 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
That 1995 Davide Bowie/Nine Inch Nails concert is incredible.
posted by Artw at 2:37 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Maybe tell him about the Alabama Shakes and other new bands!
posted by thelonius at 2:51 PM on June 24, 2018
posted by thelonius at 2:51 PM on June 24, 2018
From art's link:
Reznor has also given his verdict on Kanye West’s ‘Ye’ album. “The guy’s lost his fucking mind: that’s the thinkpiece,” he said. “His record sucked and that’s it.”
Haven't heard the new stuff from NIN yet but I still love Trent, man.
posted by nevercalm at 3:05 PM on June 24, 2018 [10 favorites]
Reznor has also given his verdict on Kanye West’s ‘Ye’ album. “The guy’s lost his fucking mind: that’s the thinkpiece,” he said. “His record sucked and that’s it.”
Haven't heard the new stuff from NIN yet but I still love Trent, man.
posted by nevercalm at 3:05 PM on June 24, 2018 [10 favorites]
I was telling someone yesterday that the sax made me feel like I was listening to the soundtrack of an angrier, darker version of SimCity 2000.
posted by mittens at 5:11 PM on June 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by mittens at 5:11 PM on June 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
I was thinking track 3 could be part of some cybernoir CD-ROM game with VR sequences done in KPT Bryce.
But in a good way.
(Brian Eno’s head probably appears as a floating hologram at some point)
posted by Artw at 5:18 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
But in a good way.
(Brian Eno’s head probably appears as a floating hologram at some point)
posted by Artw at 5:18 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Goodness this is just delightful. Also I've apparently missed two EPs and two actual albums over the last few years. Some of this is...really damn good...
posted by hototogisu at 7:06 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by hototogisu at 7:06 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Now playing Hesitation Marks. I love that Trent discovered The Knife. Thanks hippybear!
posted by hototogisu at 7:23 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by hototogisu at 7:23 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Opener is a ball-tearer. Classic NIN.
posted by turbid dahlia at 8:23 PM on June 24, 2018
posted by turbid dahlia at 8:23 PM on June 24, 2018
Maybe I'm only speaking for myself, but one of the odd little contradictions of being an industrial fan is that appreciation of dirty, scruffy, nasty sounding stuff alongside much more heavily produced sounding music with the same aesthetics. The first song sounds like badly-recorded old-NIN, the second has something about it I like on first listen, the third starts making Faust-y Krautrock noises and I'm like "Er, what? Whoah!". Already know God Break Down The Door so I'm going to go early and say this is a decent album/EP (Bad Witch is about 1m17s longer than Reign In Blood and if that's NOT AN ALBUM we can all go home and stare at the walls and wait till we die because fuck everything).
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 9:31 PM on June 25, 2018
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 9:31 PM on June 25, 2018
Out of the three planned EPs, it is indeed the longest, with Not The Actual Events running 22 minutes, ADD VIOLENCE running 28 minutes and BAD WITCH running 31 minutes. They do all fit together onto a CD. They are perhaps interestingly connected in ways that will take more listens than I've given to the entire group yet.
Tonight I'm listening to this most recent offering again after a few days off.
Shit Mirror feels like it's directly referencing material from The Fragile
Ahead Of Ourselves, sonically and structure-wise, feels very Year Zero to me. Thematically it's maybe a commentary about how we're on the way toward Year Zero and how he was talking too early about the possibilities of bad political choices a decade ago.
Is Play The Goddamned Part perhaps a direct sequel to the closing devolution of THE BACKGROUND WORLD from ADD VIOLENCE? I should really listen to them next to each other.
What I will say is that about 1/3 of the way in it starts to sound like a Carla Bley piece to me, and that remains until the end.
And then feeds of course directly into God Break Down The Door. Which is basically Trent taking Bowie's Blackstar idea and then pulling it toward NIN. This is not a slam or a criticism. I see it as pure tribute and should be welcomed. They worked together and influenced each other a lot.
I'm Not From This World may be one of the most interesting tracks on this NIN album but it feels the most like Reznor & Ross pulling their soundtrack work through into their NIN incarnation. There's a plot going on here, not one that I can articulate right now but maybe after another 35 stoned listens... But this is sort of maybe an ambient masterpiece? not in the Music For Airports version of ambient, but more in the "creating an atmosphere" meaning of ambient. Atmosphere is certainly being created. And evolved. And built. And released. And stuff. And things.
[Ed. note: I'll go out on a limb and say that if you're wondering where NIN is going to go in the future, it's going to be in this direction. Probably with more vocals, but with this kind of structural intensity. I've found they always have THAT ONE TRACK which then ends up feeling like it came from The Next Album. I think this one is it.]
So, finally, Over And Out. Sonically, we're in Hesitation Marks territory. With very specific keyboard quotes that will be recognizable to those familiar with that album. It's possible this baseline is from somewhere else, too? It feels like it is, but I haven't done the research. And then it goes sort of Bowie, suddenly.
"This is happening over and over again"
Given the harrowing events depicted by Hesitation Marks and the last three releases, almost certainly imagined but definitely lived enough to have been artistically realized... happening over and over again?
Also this was written as a bit of a live-blog after reading an interview with Trent that I can't find at the moment which talked about him writing music that reflected on what he's written before, consciously, for the first time on this EP. So that's why I did this. If I find the link I'll post it.
posted by hippybear at 10:01 PM on June 26, 2018 [2 favorites]
Tonight I'm listening to this most recent offering again after a few days off.
Shit Mirror feels like it's directly referencing material from The Fragile
Ahead Of Ourselves, sonically and structure-wise, feels very Year Zero to me. Thematically it's maybe a commentary about how we're on the way toward Year Zero and how he was talking too early about the possibilities of bad political choices a decade ago.
Is Play The Goddamned Part perhaps a direct sequel to the closing devolution of THE BACKGROUND WORLD from ADD VIOLENCE? I should really listen to them next to each other.
What I will say is that about 1/3 of the way in it starts to sound like a Carla Bley piece to me, and that remains until the end.
And then feeds of course directly into God Break Down The Door. Which is basically Trent taking Bowie's Blackstar idea and then pulling it toward NIN. This is not a slam or a criticism. I see it as pure tribute and should be welcomed. They worked together and influenced each other a lot.
I'm Not From This World may be one of the most interesting tracks on this NIN album but it feels the most like Reznor & Ross pulling their soundtrack work through into their NIN incarnation. There's a plot going on here, not one that I can articulate right now but maybe after another 35 stoned listens... But this is sort of maybe an ambient masterpiece? not in the Music For Airports version of ambient, but more in the "creating an atmosphere" meaning of ambient. Atmosphere is certainly being created. And evolved. And built. And released. And stuff. And things.
[Ed. note: I'll go out on a limb and say that if you're wondering where NIN is going to go in the future, it's going to be in this direction. Probably with more vocals, but with this kind of structural intensity. I've found they always have THAT ONE TRACK which then ends up feeling like it came from The Next Album. I think this one is it.]
So, finally, Over And Out. Sonically, we're in Hesitation Marks territory. With very specific keyboard quotes that will be recognizable to those familiar with that album. It's possible this baseline is from somewhere else, too? It feels like it is, but I haven't done the research. And then it goes sort of Bowie, suddenly.
"This is happening over and over again"
Given the harrowing events depicted by Hesitation Marks and the last three releases, almost certainly imagined but definitely lived enough to have been artistically realized... happening over and over again?
Also this was written as a bit of a live-blog after reading an interview with Trent that I can't find at the moment which talked about him writing music that reflected on what he's written before, consciously, for the first time on this EP. So that's why I did this. If I find the link I'll post it.
posted by hippybear at 10:01 PM on June 26, 2018 [2 favorites]
Also, I'm always feeling, Blue, I wasn't disparaging the length of the release being what made it an album or an EP. It's that the band's plan was to do 3 EPs and then release an album, and then suddenly the 3rd EP became an LP and seems to be the band's Album Offering. I love it, I'm still trying to work through it in a lot of ways, which is what I want from a NIN release. There are many short albums out there that are entire works of art, and this is a newer member of that family.
posted by hippybear at 10:03 PM on June 26, 2018
posted by hippybear at 10:03 PM on June 26, 2018
Trent Reznor on the new Nine Inch Nails album, sobriety, and the perils of technology - Entertainment Weekly interview
posted by hippybear at 8:56 PM on June 28, 2018
posted by hippybear at 8:56 PM on June 28, 2018
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