Nine Inch Nails - The Slip

And there I was thinking that Ghosts would be the only Nine Inch Nails record of 2008. How wrong am I? And how productive is Trent Reznor these days? Jeez. Anyways, Trent feels that he has hit a songwriting peak, aided by the addition of Robin Finck to their rehearsals of the touring they are about to do in the USA this summer. The result is The Slip - the 8th studio album by the industrial rockers and given out free by Reznor this morning, with artwork included. This was his way of saying thank you to the fans saying 'this one's on us.'

This is also definitely not the next part of Ghosts. What this ends up as is a much more direct album than Ghosts and Year Zero. 1,000,000 (the first proper track after the intro of 999,999) is a clear statement of intent - a song that rocks. Hard. The next song, Letting You, is even more brutal in its drumming and its clear at this point that Trent has found his bite again after the peaceful ambiance on Ghosts.

The two songs released for free by the band in the last couple of weeks follow. Discipline has now fully grown on me after my scathing review of it first time around and I now concur with the notion that this is a groovy song. Bass-driven, heavy, yet as danceable as The Hand That Feeds and Only, this could be a real highlight in the live sets. Echoplex is a pretty chilled out song in comparison but it has a really cool and sleek vibe to it. Heads Down is another typical NIN rocker with a bit of techno freestyling akin to The Great Destroyer from Year Zero added for good measure.

From here in on, the album very bluntly takes on a different tone. Lights In The Sky tries to be an intimate, raw, edgy piano ballad but it ends up being something that NIN have done before in the past a lot better. This leads into seven-minute instrumental Corona Radiata - the track most reminiscent of anything off Ghosts - which, whilst with its moments, is unspectacular. The Four Of Us Are Dying continues the ambient vibe but one with a more industrial sound and considerably louder. Demon Seed finishes off the album, but even that is instantly forgettable.

So, overall, this album definitely has its fair share of good tracks - something of a relief after the experimentations of their instrumental project. There are some stinkers towards the end that let down the album, but what people shouldn't forget is that Nine Inch Nails can still produce heavy, angry, noisy rock songs almost two decades after their debut record.

RATING - 7/10

You can download The Slip for free here.

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Odds & Ends for 2nd May 2008

Some observations from the week just gone:

White Williams is an artist who I was going to profile this week, but things got in the way and I've left it on the side for the time being. Probably not a wise move, since I've just learned that, as well as supporting Vampire Weekend in the UK very soon, he's going to support Nine Inch Nails this summer. What a gig for him eh? He joins Crystal Castles, Deerhunter, A Place To Bury Strangers and Does It Offend You, Yeah?

Things have been pretty quiet on the gig going front recently but in just under a couple of weeks time I will be celebrating my freedom from uni for the summer with a trip to the Hammersmith Apollo to see The Raconteurs. Fact fans may want to take note that I actually saw Brendan Benson play that venue before, supporting Beck in 2005, which feels like a decade ago. Expect a review of that gig in about a couple of weeks. The NME have hinted that the live shows still feel like a Jack White side project, so it'll be interesting to see if that is the case.

Music that I've been listening to:

• Dawn Landes - New York singer songwriter whose song Bodyguard was today's free mp3 on Spinner. There's some pretty darn good potential there, and I'll be looking into her in the near-future.
• Fifths Of Sevens - this was from Jackdaws Love, who describes it music pretty well, and it's quite a lovely piece of instrumental music. Again, I'll have to check out more of these guys.
• Wolf Parade - they have a new album out soon called Meet At Mount Zoomer and I've listened to a new song entitled Call It A Ritual (link via Stereogum). It's pretty damn good.

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Nine Inch Nails - Discipline

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails is encouraging all of us to take our shirts off and dance to his new free-for-download single, Discipline. Sadly, it just doesn't have the desired effect on me. The trouble is, despite the cool heavy-bass riff and twinkling piano sounds over a rave-like beat, it doesn't really go anywhere. It feels much like the long-lost cousin of With Teeth single Only, except just not as good. Worst of all, it feels like a remix of a song that should been so good. Totally directionless.

If this is a taster of potential new material, the signs aren't good.

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Music distribution methods: What works and what doesn't?

It is now just over six months since Radiohead threw a curveball at the industry fat cats and released In Rainbows through their own site for download, inviting the customer to value their purchase. Since then, releasing music hasn't been the same. Many bands have tried their take on distributing their own work.

So, what methods work and what don't? What is there to be learned from the last half-year?

RADIOHEAD

What: In Rainbows

The deal: You could purchase a digital copy the Oxford quintet's 7th album through their website. The consumer could also pick a price for their purchase of anything up to £100, so in theory, you could download it for nothing.

Also on offer was a 'discbox'. This contained the CD, a bonus CD of extra material, a vinyl copy of the main album, lyrics and exclusive artwork, all in one neatly packaged box.

Summary: This was the thing that kick-started the 'revolution', as the media likes to call it, and, whilst the idea was innovative and unique, it had people moaning about the inferior quality of the audio in comparison to other formats they could have released it in.

THE CHARLATANS

What: You Cross My Path

The deal: The Charlatans teamed up with XFM to give away their 10th studio album for free. No cost whatsoever. Simple as.

Summary: This, whilst a gesture of great kindness to the fan, is not something I would call a 'sustainable strategy'. This is something that to me only works for tracks and singles.
NINE INCH NAILS

What: Ghosts I-IV

The deal: Trent Reznor give customers no less than five purchase options for his new two-disc instrumental record. They were:

The first part of Ghosts for download at no cost.
All of Ghosts with artwork and all that jazz for $5.
The CD copy for $10.
A deluxe edition package, including multi-track DVD, Blu-Ray DVD and the CD copy for $75.
A limited edition set with all the above plus some autographed memorabilia for $300, which sold out instantly.

Summary: Trent Reznor is a smart man and knows that customers want choice. This method is one that is an all-around winner and is helped by the quality and presentation of Ghosts I-IV. Shame that the shipping costs are so damn expensive.

THE RACONTEURS

What: Consolers Of The Lonely

The deal: Perhaps the strategy closest to conventional release methods, the Detroit band chose to announce their new album worldwide a week later to avoid leaks. It was available in all formats.

Summary: It worked to an extent but, despite the grumblings of Mr Jack White, the record still leaked a hefty five days early. That and the worldwide release didn't work fully. A brave attempt but a failed attempt.

So, here are some quick-fire dos and don'ts.

DO release your album as soon as announced.
DON'T as Trent Reznor would say, "get caught with your pants down," and get a server that will crash on the first day due to demand.
DO value your music wisely.
DON'T add insane shipping costs.
DON'T allow gaps between announcement and release. These things do leak fast. Really fast.
DO give the customer choice.
DON'T exclude CDs and vinyls. People still dig those formats as much as mp3s.

Of course, this only applies to rock bands with money. New bands may wish to avoid this...

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Lollapalooza Collaborations?

Aside from the confirmation of the leaked line up for this year's Lollapalooza festival (full details can be found at the official website), but Perry Farrell, the main man behind the Chicago event, has also promised a brand new concept:

This year, we have an amazing concept going. For the first time ever, we’re going to be working with iTunes, and we’re going to be creating unique content, so we’re going to have collaborations — people collaborating on songs — and then put them on iTunes, and then they’ll perform them at Lollapalooza for a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he said. “These will be recorded in a studio, but of course because we can share files online, we don’t have to be in the same place at the same time — we have finishing studios all over the world for the artists to finish the piece off. We’ll start to talk with Radiohead about putting them with someone they’d like to collaborate with, tell them how it’s going to go down.

So, will Radiohead team up with Kanye West in perhaps one of the most unlikely collaborations ever concieved by the music gods? Even more intriguing, how cool would a Nine Inch Nails/Rage Against The Machine effort sound? Which artists on the bill would you like to see teaming up? Please feel free to comment with suggestions.

Odds & Ends for 6th April 2008

Lollapalooza looks like the best festival this year. It's a shame really that it is in Chicago. The line up, which is now heavily rumoured to consist of, as headliners, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against The Machine and Kanye West. No words can ever describe how amazing a quartet of headliners that is. The fact that Nine Inch Nails are now touring the USA and Canada later this summer pretty much confirms the rumour. The full line up gets announced tomorrow on the official site.

Kasabian's new album is 80% finished, according to Chris Edwards, the bassist in the band. If you have any sense of mathematics that leaves a further 20% left to finish. Apparently, Noel Gallagher is going to have the final say on whether it is finished or not. If I were in a band, Mr Gallagher would not be my first contact, but there you go.

Radiohead, having 'shook up' the music industry, are now taking on the social networks. Waste Central is the band's very own equivalent to MySpace, Facebook and the rest (but not Bebo, since that's pretty shit). Looks pretty nifty to be honest, if a little similar to MySpace design wise, and I'll be very intrigued to see what involvement the band will have with this.

I got my import copy of the Plastic Palace Alice album, The Great Depression, yesterday. A really fine debut album that shows the many talents that the band have. Stand out tracks are Empire Falls, The Girl Who Cried Wolf, Murakami, 1934 and Well. This band is definitely NOT an Arcade Fire tribute band.

Akon is going country. Please just go away you creepy, creepy man.

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Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts

It was always going to be interesting to see what Trent Reznor would do after he broke free from Interscope last year. His last album under Nine Inch Nails, Year Zero, was a departure to a more electronically textured sound and came third in my Albums of 2007 list. I still hold it in high regards as one of the best albums that Nine Inch Nails has released.

Which leads us to Ghosts. It' a 4-volume set (although Trent has promised that more might be coming soon) of ambient, instrumental music and the whole thing is just shy of two hours long. Instrumentals are not a new thing for Nine Inch Nails as there have been several of these on past albums like The Downward Spiral, The Fragile, and Year Zero, and all of those pieces fitted in well within the context of the respective albums.

It's a heavy listen. There are certain instrumentals on Ghosts that work really well and some that don't. You could say hit and miss. There also doesn't seem to be anything that connects them together as such. I was expecting it to be something coherent but instead it feels like a bunch of instrumentals. However, that said, the dynamics of the instrumentals are amazing. The softer, piano led ones are beautiful to listen to and the heavier, almost full-band like sound of the louder ones are fascinating to listen to.

So what is my overall impression? I think it's a brave thing to put out something like Ghosts. It is without doubt Trent's most demanding and challenging piece of work to date but, like Year Zero, the rewards are there to be reaped. However, for me anyway, I'm not sure whether I would feel like listening it as much as past albums. The ideas though are definitely there but, if anything, it works best as background music.

RATING - 6/10

DISCLAIMER: This is just a summary of my thoughts after the first listen. If it changes, I'll post up a second opinion in the future.

Nine Inch Nails

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Nine Inch Nails album released

Trent Reznor has released a double album under the Nine Inch Nails guise, entitled Ghosts. I'm sure you've heard a lot about it right now. If not, then this link should explain it perfectly.

It seems like he wants to learn from his experience with the Saul Williams download and add more options. This sounds like an album that would be awesome to keep on CD, so I'm glad it's being offered this time. A shame that to get the vinyl I have to also buy a Blu-Ray disc, which I don't need. Oh well.

A full review of Ghosts will be up soon when I get the chance to listen it (or should that be download it, haha). I do urge you to buy the download at least and not be cheap, because Trent Reznor deserves it.

Download Ghosts

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Albums of 2007

It seems fair that on the last day of 2007 that I share with you the ten albums that I enjoyed listening to this year in ascending order.

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

It was a difficult call but this, the second album by Montreal group the Arcade Fire, just edges it. Making an album better than their debut album, Funeral, is no mean feat when you consider how much of a great record it was. There's not even an ounce of filler or bad tracks on this album. It is THAT good.

Song of choice: No Cars Go

Radiohead - In Rainbows

I am a huge Radiohead fan and it was tough not to name it the album of the year. Apart from one dud track (House Of Cards) it is a fantastic album and their best since Kid A. Like Neon Bible it doesn't feel overlong and Thom Yorke has written some of his best lyrics for some time.

Song of choice: Videotape (my song of the year)

Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero

Trent Reznor's sixth studio album is one that is by far the most challenging Nine Inch Nails record. Some will say it is too long and some will say it doesn't match up to The Downward Spiral or The Fragile. Year Zero is just as good as both of those albums, largely because it's a very rewarding listen.

Song of choice: In This Twilight

And here are the best of the rest, continuing in ascending order:

Kings Of Leon - Because Of The Times

Song of choice: Knocked Up


Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position

Song of choice: The Magic Position


LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver

Song of choice: All My Friends


The White Stripes - Icky Thump

Song of choice: Conquest


Cold War Kids - Robbers & Cowards

Song of choice: We Used To Vacation


Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare

Song of choice: Brianstorm


Jamie T - Panic Prevention

Song of choice: Sheila

And that raps things up nicely. But what do you think? What albums should or shouldn't be on there? What songs sum up your year? Please feel free to comment and tell me.

Somewhat predictably, this is my last blog entry for 2007. Hopefully I will blog more next year. In the meantime, have a safe new year!

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NIN and Saul Williams 'do a Radiohead'

Yesterday churned out another relatively interesting development in this 'free music for all' period. Saul Williams, whose album was produced and mixed by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, is releasing a new album in a similar way to Radiohead.

Trent posted a message on Nine Inch Nail's official website yesterday explaining the details of the release. Like the release of 'In Rainbows' by Radiohead, fans can pre-order the album 'Niggy Tardust' for download on November 1st.

But where it differs to the way that Radiohead did business is in the pricing. There are two purchase options. If you choose to download it for free, you will get the album in a basic 192kbps mp3 format. However, if you choose to 'support the artist directly' by paying $5 (I think that is just over £2 in UK money), you have a choice to download it in 192kbps mp3 form, 320kbps mp3 form or a FLAC lossless audio.

It's a neat progression on what was already a good idea by Radiohead. As Trent said in his blog post, if you can't be arsed to read the link:

I feel we've improved upon their idea in a few profound ways that benefit you, the consumer. You obviously will be the judge of this in the end. One thing that IS very different in our situation is that Saul's not the household name (yet!) that Radiohead is, and that means we need your support on this more than ever. If you like what you hear, spread the word.

I am not totally unfamiliar with Saul Williams. The first I heard of him was when he released 'List Of Demands' as a single back in 2005. I do know that he and Trent have a very solid working partnership. Saul has supported Nine Inch Nails and even performed tracks with Trent's band whilst on tour with them. He also did backing vocals for 'Survivalism', which was the lead single of 'Year Zero'.

One thing that is for sure though is that this is yet another exciting evolution of this so-called 'new business model' - of which Alan McGee, one of the key figures in the Britpop era, is a very big supporter of. I can imagine these kind of things, along with The Verve's releasing of a demo track (which I reviewed yesterday) to constantly evolve as the weeks go by.

In short, it's quite an exciting time for the music industry - as corny as it sounds.

I found this article written a few weeks by a blogger called Maki. Even though her blog isn't music based (it is based on making money through online ventures), it a very comprehensive and detailed analysis of ways that bands are defying the major labels. Well worth a read if you have ten/fifteen minutes to spare, if you can ignore the Radiohead fangirl approach at the start!

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News In Brief: Broken Social Scene, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and more

A quick round up of things that I haven't yet wrote about this week...

Broken Social Scene are to release a book. It's going to detail their rise to indie fame and will feature contributions from Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Jason Collett and other band members. These kind of books tend to be very interesting reads, so watch out for it next year hopefully.

There was a nice article in the Independent yesterday about the new Radiohead album and the unique way it was being released. Well worth a read, and if you're a Radiohead newbie it has a nice brief history of the band.

Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor is to split up his current band of Aaron North, Jeordie White, Alessandro Cortini and Josh Freeze. He wants to look at new ways at performing his music live. A bit sad really, since Aaron North was hugely entertaining to watch and he captured the whole spirit of Nine Inch Nails live. Will be interesting to see what Trent does next though.

Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers is a first time father. Hopefully the young child, Everly B, distracts Kiedis so much that he doesn't have time to make another pointless double album.

Modest Mouse head off on a North American tour this Autumn. The dates are here.

The most pointless best of ever - The Libertines: Time For Heroes - gets released. The tracklisting is awful, people have most of the tracks already and it's just a greedy idea by the record company. Just don't buy it.

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