nine inch nails - year zero

i don't know why people would expect him to make the same music at age 40 that he did at age 20; the production values are better than they've ever been, and he can still write extremely good music, even if it's not precisely the same sort of music. it isn't like he began making muzak or something ... most of YZ isn't especially radio-friendly.

but whatever, music taste etc

  playbynumbers said:

the production values are better than they've ever been,

i have to highly disagree with this, i have yet to hear a record of his where the production values topped Spiral. If you mean pristine polished eqed professionally and technically mixed well than you might be right, but i am referring to the unique and aesthetic production of the TDS that i have yet to hear on any of his new records.

I like the startling dynamic differences in TDS. Super broken distorted industrygothsynthnoize to practically no noise at all.

  Ghostbusters III said:

  playbynumbers said:

the production values are better than they've ever been,

 

i have to highly disagree with this, i have yet to hear a record of his where the production values topped Spiral. If you mean pristine polished eqed professionally and technically mixed well than you might be right, but i am referring to the unique and aesthetic production of the TDS that i have yet to hear on any of his new records.

right, i meant more the professional/technical side of it, everything sounds perfect; i'd say that TDS is probably better in the sense you're talking about.

i still love TDS, but there are just too many weak tracks, imo

That's just crazy to me. I don't think there's a single weak track on TDS. This is probably all just context though, how old are you? TDS came out when I was 14 I beleive, perfect time/place.

yeah that's my theory with TDS, everyone who loves it now was an angsty 14-year-old who had their life changed by 'Hurt', or whatever

i didn't really get into nin until the fragile ('la mer,' in particular, made me want to hear more)

i was just commenting on this last night on another forum

sure, the production is spiffy and the guy can write a catchy hook whether he likes it or not

but he's also a total gearwhore, which scores points with a lot of people on watmms

BUT even more importantly there are a lot of people on here who were of a certain age when TDS (or in my case broken) came out, and that music was somewhat responsible for setting a lot of people on a general sort of path in musical taste maybe. or even introducing them to dick d jams in some cases i guess.

i guess what i'm saying is that i have an affection for trent and give his music more time than i would if i came from buttfuck, ohio cos i sorta grew up with him. nin are a total guilty pleasure for me haha..

You got it all wrong.... we were angsty 14 year olds who loved screaming "God is dead, but no one cares".

Everyone secretly liked Hurt, in their closets, and skipped it in the car to get back to the first 4.

Really though, PHM, Broken, Fixed, TDS, as well as "Burn" off of the NBK soundtrack were just off the hook when I was a kid. I think I'm gonna put on TDS to see how it holds up. I will report back.

I have never really liked Hurt. I still don't. And I barely listened to TDS when it first came out. I had the album, but that was just because it had closer on it.

The Downward Spiral + At the Heart of it All + Trent name dropping Aphex Twin was what made me aware of the Twin's existence. Nothing Records made me aware of Autechre (and also Squarepusher? I think...), so yeah, I owe a lot of where my musical path has lead to Trent Reznor. TDS was also the album that got me interested in production. Basically Trent Reznor was The Man in 1994. I also loved The Fragile to death right off the bat, never understood all the Fragile hatin'. Witha Teetha was a big blow to the Reznor holiness for me. Year Zero I really liked, but I think his music has been partially tainted for me. I think if WT never happened I would have loved YZ in the same way I did TF and TDS. It's just different now! He'll just never be back on that pedestal I used to put him on. Like NIN used to be my favorite artist without any doubt for years, but now there are a few dozen I'm into more. For the record there isn't anyone I can comfortably say is my "favorite artist" anymore. I like too much music for too many different reasons. Most of the good stuff can't be justifiably compared with the rest of the good stuff.

trent reznor got me into plug, meat beat manifesto, coil, pigface, aphex twin and pwei

thank you trent reznor, id be nothing without you

oh don't get me wrong, i give trent complete credit for introducing electronic music to america (probably 90% of the americans on wattem first heard aphex/ae/whoever through some sort of nin remix or via nothing records, etc)

(well, or indirectly through the exposure that trent's US distribution gave to british electronic music generally)

I wouldn't credit Trent with bringing electronic music to america at all.....

And I won't listen to anything after TDS.

  ten fingers ten toes said:

I wouldn't credit Trent with bringing electronic music to america at all.....

 

And I won't listen to anything after TDS.

he didnt bring it to america, but he did expose a lot of people to Aphex twin and i think he was responsible for giving Coil a large american audience

Yah that's true, I'm just saying people are making it out like there was no electronic music in America until Trent Jesus ReznorChrist bestowed the huddled masses with his electronic music knowledge.

  ten fingers ten toes said:

Yah that's true, I'm just saying people are making it out like there was no electronic music in America until Trent Jesus ReznorChrist bestowed the huddled masses with his electronic music knowledge.

yes the whole Electronica craze MTV and other large radio stations pushed was probably the biggest american exposure into the british cutting edge electronic scene.

  Ghostbusters III said:

  ten fingers ten toes said:

Yah that's true, I'm just saying people are making it out like there was no electronic music in America until Trent Jesus ReznorChrist bestowed the huddled masses with his electronic music knowledge.

 

yes the whole Electronica craze MTV and other large radio stations pushed was probably the biggest american exposure into the british cutting edge electronic scene.

Nod, the Girlboy Song video played on MTV latenight quite a bit

i think mtv pushing the fatboy slim/chem bros/prodigy thing as the new 'electronica' 'trend' can be separated from the warp artists' popularity via nothing records ... but you have a point

  playbynumbers said:

i think mtv pushing the fatboy slim/chem bros/prodigy thing as the new 'electronica' 'trend' can be separated from the warp artists' popularity via nothing records ... but you have a point

the warp artist popularity on nothing records came a while afterwards, although Trent did name drop Aphex Twin in one of his interviews previous to Further down the spiral. and my first exposure to an actual Aphex twin song was on further down the spiral

I think my first was Girl/Boy on MTV's Amp, and the first CD I heard was oddly, the Ventolin remixes which a friend bought because the cover looked cool.

i'm a nin immigrant mahself. my two favorite musicians, peter christopherson (of coil) and rdj were via mr. reznor.

I had abandoned NIN before I got into Aphex Twin. After really getting into electronic music, I rediscovered NIN and realized he was better than I thought. (but still laughable a lot of the time and therefore a guilty pleasure of musicking)