Album Review: Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts

Unfortunately, Nine Inch Nails is pigeon-holed by most as devil music for goth kids that spend way too much time sneaking cigarettes and hanging out at Hot Topic. While that may have been partially true 15 years ago, it’s not so much anymore. Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails frontman and main musical force in the pseudo one-man-band, is one of the greatest producers/musicans of modern music; seamlessly melding heavy industrial noise with super melodic pop sensibilities. I could write a whole series of books on Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, but I’ll spare everyone my fanboy-ism and focus on the work that he has put out.
 
Starting out as a synth-pop band with a melancholy twist, NIN has been through quite a few sonic changes. Reznor’s furthest adventure to the edge of mainstream music came in the form of the quadruple album aural minefield known as Ghosts I-IV. With the help of analog synth guru Alessandro Cortini, programming genius Atticus Ross and master producer/engineer Alan Moulder (a personal hero of mine), Trent Reznor compiled 36 “songs” that were written over an 8 week period. Guest musicians include progressive guitar weirdo Adrian Belew and Dresden Dolls drummer Brian Viglione.

 
The music itself is a melting pot of oriental percussion, abrasive synthesizers, treated pianos and squawking guitars. A schizophrenic album, Ghosts treks through moments of noisy distorted chaos and eerily minimalistic organic arrangements with a few stints of soft, resolving piano (one of Reznor’s sonic signatures). While this album has has been described as a collection of incomplete ideas rather than a complete record, I like to view it in a different light. I see these tracks as photos of the eight weeks of writing – the ideas were conceived and captured then put to bed. The group didn’t allow time to work on one track for 2 months till the song has lost all of it’s original meaning. It’s a raw look into the musician’s mind.

 

 

In addition to being a musical experiment into the avant-garde, Ghosts also served as a financial experiment for Reznor. Trent Reznor took a cue from Radiohead’s In Rainbows pay-what-you-want type of marketing and released Ghosts using his interpretation of that pricing idea. Basically, there were 4 options offered, ranging from a free 5-track sampler download to a full-on $300 deluxe boxset package with signed artwork prints and a lock of Trent Reznor’s hair. See this link for a break down of the packages that were offered.
 

Ghost I-IV is an interesting take on the idea of the modern record.
 
For all you nerds out there, here’s a look into NIN’s amazing interactive lighting rig:
 

 
Trust In The Hum!
Posted by Ben McGuinn, R&T’s resident recording engineer, on January 19th, 2011.

---