A few random ramblings…

It’s pretty much on record how big a fan I am of Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails.

So, this album sneaking up on me, flying in under the radar until the day of it’s release when no fewer than a dozen people emailed me to tell me about it… I figured I must be slipping.

Then again, this is the first album he’s released DIRECTLY to the public.

So… what’s it like? Has he delivered? And are we looking at the first salvo in the artists war to take back their creative freedom from a selfish industry that has more or less reamed them to within a shade of nothingness?

Now, before I start exhorting the virtues of Trent and his one-man-crusade against the greedy corporate whores that run the music industry, I need to say that even amongst people who don’t like his music, most regard him as a consummate musician of incredible vision and skill.

His name attached to a project… whether it’s a film score, movie soundtrack, producing an album or just making a guest appearance… usually means additional attention to that project, which more often than not turns into sales dollars. There’s no shame in that. It’s kinda like having Stan Lee co-write a comic with you… might be that nobody knows who you are, but because Stan The Man is putting his name to it, it will catch peoples attention.

It’s also no secret that Trent Reznor has had a difficult life when it comes to record labels and creative freedom. Nine Inch Nails had barely begun, having only just released Pretty Hate Machine, when TVT Records, his label at the time, began interfering with the music he was creating. Pretty Hate Machine is a solid debut, and songs like Head Like a Hole and Something I Can Never Have have most definitely stood the test of time.

It’s also disturbing when you consider that, in comparison and contrast to Broken, the follow up EP that Trent recorded in secret, TVT executives tried to get him to make something more commercially acceptable.

Little wonder that Broken came out as, in the words of Trent, “an ultra-fast chunk of death.”

The video that was created to accompany the music also shows the disturbing depths of his anger at the time.

The one good thing that came out of all this was the formation of his own label, Nothing Records. Sadly, it’s demise would be primarily due to mismanagement on the part of his manager, leaving most of his back catalogue and his contract to eventually wind up with Universal.

Who promptly wallet-raped his fans by charging well over full price for his albums simply because they knew the fans would buy it anyway. A reduction in price wouldn’t change the sales figures, likewise a price increase.

And all this led to Trent going absolutely nuts at them during a couple of Australian tours, culminating in his telling the audience at one Sydney show to go out and steal his music and spread it around… saying “One way or another these motherf**kers will get it through their heads that they’re ripping people off and that’s not right.”

Trent had one more album on his Universal contract at that stage, and delivered in the form of Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D… a collection of remixes of 2007’s Year Zero, including one by a fan from his remix site remix.nin.com. It was also offered in multiple formats, one including a data DVD that had the multitrack audio files needed to produce your own remix. This was born out of earlier experiments with providing fans the tracks from his previous album, With Teeth, to remix at their pleasure. Fixed and Further Down the Spiral had also set a remix album precedent.

In an age where the likes of Prince are suing everyone, including eBay, to try and take back his art, Trent is handing it out for others to play with and laughing all the way to the bank.

Because, with Universal now minus one of their lucrative acts, Trent is now free to make the music he wants without corporate entanglements, and deliver it directly to the fans, adding value all the way.

And this he has done… in spades… with Ghosts I-IV, a collection of instrumental tracks available as a free download (for Ghosts I, the first 9 tracks), a $5 download (the full 36 track album with a 40 page PDF), a $10 double-cd digipack, a $75 Deluxe-Edition cloth covered multi-disc pack including a data DVD of the multitrack audio and a well presented booklet of all the artwork specially commissioned for this album.

Oh, and for the true fan, there is something the rest of us will only ever hope to own, since they have all sold out…

That’s the final element: the $300 Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition Package, complete with 4 180gram vinyl LP’s, 2xCD’s, 1xDVD and 1xBluRay in HiDef audio with artwork slideshow, as well as all the artwork in frame-able cell format, on top of the book in the $75 pack.

Oh… and this $300 pack is limited to just 2500 units… all of which, as I mentioned, have been sold.

That means, in just a few short days, $750,000 has gone directly to Trent for his music.

Assuming a worst case scenario of about a 50% margin, this still represents $375,000… not including all the other formats the album is available in. Very lucrative considering that a recording artist nowadays more often go into debt than make money on an album.

And so that you’re not waiting for the music to arrive after spending your hard earned money, a one time download link is provided to download in the digital format of your choice for your immediate listening pleasure.

For an established artist, with the talent and equipment to do it themselves, this is looking VERY appealing… and major record labels should feel VERY nervous, if they’re not already.

So… what’s the music like? Succinctly… quintessential NiN.

If in listening to earlier records, like the watershed The Downward Spiral and it’s younger sibling The Fragile, you found yourself enjoying the instrumentals… then you are going to LOVE this album. All 36 tracks are titled in order by number, followed by the album name, and the volume the track belongs to.

So far my favourite has to be 24 Ghosts III, for no other reason than I can imagine this eventually getting lyrics and becoming something more. As it stands now, it’s very accessible and leaves you wanting more at the end… like any good song should.

The album as a whole is something you can put on whilst kicking back at home or work and not have it intrude on the day… or you can choose to listen to it and find yourself just immersing into a rich sonic landscape. Trent is a master when it comes to attention to detail, and this album is no exception.

The only downside I can see is that for an album that took 10 weeks to record, some of the tracks have an unfinished feeling for me… some petering out in programmed drum beats, fading into silence or the subsequent track. In some ways, the appealing tracks that turn out too short feel like demos… high quality demos, but something just begging to have lyrics over them.

But, at the end of the day, this is an album that he’s wanted to make for some time, and as a true fan, admittedly one unable to afford the $300 when the window of opportunity presented itself, I’m glad to shell out some cash for this one…

…even though Trent himself has tossed this up on The Pirate Bay’s website as a torrent for download.

So, has he delivered? Hell YES! In a way that even the cheapest of fans has a taste of what’s there, but in a way that also provides that value to the most devoted fans.

After all… this is how it should be. Artists creating their art and rewarding those dedicated to it… and the fans rewarding the artist in kind.