Chapter Two: Nine Inch Nails Remixed
By Brett Beach
March 17, 2011
Cut and pasted though it may be, it has a vitality and rush that carries it from one end of the running time to the other. The sequencing of the last four tracks alone exemplifies this. “Where is Everybody?” (remixed by Danny Lohner and Telefon Tel Aviv) is conventional by NIN standards but in replacing the mid-tempo beat of the album original with a more propulsive kick, jamming the verses closer together, and shaving about three-fourths of the time off the bridge, it becomes a song reborn. And at the 3:18 mark, a delicious microsecond pause before the song explodes into its closing minutes. This is one of my favorite remixes of any song.
“Metal” is a double-sided tribute to Gary Numan via two tracks from his landmark 1980 album The Pleasure Principle: the first half is a faithful rendition of the title song, the second half is an instrumental interpolation of the close-out melody from “M.E.”, now best known as the tune sampled by Basement Jaxx for “Where’s Your Head At.” Taking what would have been a three-minute tune and turning it into the longest track on Things Falling Apart is another example of certain failure somehow redeemed. The cross pollination of songs feels natural and the slower tempo segues well into “10 Miles High”, a B-side designed to feel submerged and murky but cluster bomb with force at unexpected moments.
The closing take on “Starfuckers, Inc.” by Charlie Clouser redeems the song primarily by stripping away everything but the title (but so distorted that it might actually escape without notice on the public airwaves) and a single two-line couplet snuck in during the closing moments. The opening two and half minute drums and bass buildup is so throbbing and unrelenting I used to blast this while snarled in rush-hour traffic with the windows closed just to observe the entire being of the car shaking. The final abrupt “breakdown” and end to the album is simply the sonic icing on the whole unruly cake.
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Tracks under discussion: Gunshots by Computer, My Violent Heart, Me I’m Not.
As much as I admire Year Zero for its concept and love it for its music and the way NIN seems to throw open the doors to a larger universe lyrically, therein lies the problem for the remixes to compete. More traditional in its structure (nearly all 16 songs from Year Zero get a pass through, in roughly their original order) and in its use of big name artists involved with the remixings (members of New Order, Interpol, The Faint, Ladytron, even The Kronos Quartet all get in on the action), it winds up merely solid instead of truly impressive. Spoken word “slam” artist Saul Williams (who toured with NIN around this time) kicks off the proceedings in pile driver mode with a brief radicalized take on Year Zero’s opener “Hyperpower!” Pirate Robot Midget cuts the running time of “My Violent Heart” nearly in half but maintains the revolutionary push and lock step beat of the original. The album’s centerpiece — at a truly epic 14 minutes, it takes up one-fifth of the album and is the longest cut on any NIN-affiliated project that I am aware of — is a mostly instrumental, largely overhauled, sparsely arranged re-envisioning of “Me, I’m Not” by Olof Dreijer that strongly evokes the post-apocalyptic jitteriness of its Year Zero counterpart, but simply over wears its welcome by half. This is one instance where I was sorely disappointed that the lyrics were lost in the new imagining of the song.
And as I wrap up typing in the wee hours of the morning, from one father to another, I am left wondering if Trent Reznor plays the Rockabye Baby Lullaby Renditions of Nine Inch Nails for his child. Or if he simply sidles the both of them up to a piano and simply makes it up as he goes along.
Next time: An independent film that defines the 1990s (in my eyes) received the oddest of sequels nearly 10 years later. I give that Chapter Two a second glance and see if I can find a way inside this time.
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