Hi everyone, Anthony Fantanoize here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new album from Nine Inch Noize, Nine Inch Noize, being this record and collaboration between Trent Reznor, the main brain, producer, multi-instrumentalist who is behind the legendary music project Nine Inch Nails, and of course also Atticus Ross, who joined in 2016 full-time.

The other half of Nine Inch Noize being Mr. Alexander Ridha, German electronic music producer who has been involved in a myriad of music projects over the years, but primarily Boys Noize, a veteran of note on the EDM scene whose catalog spans back to the 2000s.

Now, if you guys paid attention to all of the big Coachella performances that happened this year, you know that this album basically marks a live performance and collaboration that Boys Noize and Nine Inch Nails had live on stage, where the whole point of the crossover was to essentially do these different remixes and revisions of a variety of tracks from the Nine Inch Nails catalog.

Now, obviously a collaboration this deep, to this extent, between two projects that aren't necessarily seen as having a lot in common, despite in recent years there having been some soundtrack collaborations between Boys Noize and Nine Inch Nails. But still, going to this extent to do a whole performance, like a whole record of revisions of classic Nine Inch Nails songs, and more recent Nine Inch Nails songs too, it's pretty ambitious and is going to garner a lot of attention and discussion. The live performance itself, if you caught it, was very dark, very hellish, very loud, very aggressive. And the final decisions that were made in sculpting this project, in my opinion, are pretty interesting.

For one, even though there are some obvious and must-include classics in the tracklist here, such as "Closer," a majority of the tracks that were chosen for this set and for this project happen to be a little more recent. Like, we are not taking it back to the days of Pretty Hate Machine, on this one. A lot of songs, a lot of remixes, tend to center around Year Zero, obviously a pretty beloved record in the Nine Inch Nails fandom. Hesitation Marks tracks, too.

I feel like there are upsides and downsides to taking this approach, to choosing songs mostly from this era of the Nine Inch Nails catalog. The downside being that we're not dealing with quite as many widely known classics, the biggest hits, maybe going back to the earliest eras of Nine Inch Nails, and pulling those songs apart and working them all together from scratch could have been much more difficult, could have taken more time. Maybe the recording quality and the production techniques employed on records like Year Zero, given that they're a little bit more modern, maybe the stems are more readily available. Plus, given how punchy the production is on that record, maybe it sort of like naturally and better lends itself to some of the synth touches and production touches Boys Noize is naturally going to add to a remix.

In that sense, I think, creatively, this collaboration illustrates just how much common ground there is between the world of Boys Noize and, y'know, some of these more modern eras from the Nine Inch Nails catalog. I'll also add, maybe another upside to going this direction for me personally, is records like Hesitation Marks, for example, aren't necessarily my favorites in the Nine Inch Nails catalog, and some of those cuts I do feel like maybe could have used just a little bit more punch – and that's exactly what Boys Noize is going to bring to a remix.

I mean, I will say, I don't think that much sonically or groove-wise is added to "Copy of a," for example, but the version that we hear of "Came Back Haunted," I think, is much more explosive and much more exciting to listen to. We also close things out with a version of "As Alive As You Need Me to Be" from the Tron soundtrack, of course, which, I mean, is not a bad song, and I'm probably more likely to listen to that track in this context than I am within the context of that soundtrack.

And as acceptable and as agreeable as a lot of these remixes are, I still do feel like to some degree, like, not delivering more tracks, not going deeper into the Nine Inch Nails back catalog, I do feel like is a bit of a missed opportunity. Especially given how good this live version of "Heresy" came out. Which, again, how explosive and hard-hitting and exciting this version of the song sounds in this context, I feel like is maybe to be expected given just how much of a classic industrial rock vibe that original has.

Also in the first leg of this project, we hear more amped and over-the-top versions of "Vessel" as well as "She's Gone Away," which really set this performance off at a great pace. I will also add these remixes, these new versions, they're not really doing a whole lot with what Trent sort of laid down, structurally speaking. Boys Noize isn't really taking too many of these tracks off onto, you know, any sort of lengthy dance odysseys or builds or anything like that.

A lot of the alterations and changes are more to the core layers and instrumentation, and just packing these tracks with as many synth layers and touches of percussion, they have more of an electro feel. A super, super aggressive electro feel. "Me, I'm Not" also gets a more energetic revitalization on this record, too.

But then, following this, we also have the track "Closer," which in a lot of ways I feel like is just here merely because how are you gonna have a Nine Inch Nails set without "Closer" in it, especially in front of an audience as large as the Coachella audience? But this may actually be my least favorite remix on the entire record, mostly because the additions to it feel so skeletal and uneventful, making, I think, more of an attempt to try to maintain the original vibe of the song and keep intact a lot of the lyrics and sort of key touchstone musical moments that kind of make "Closer" what it is.

But, simultaneously, those eerie ringing tones and legendary trademark piano notes that end the track out get mostly, like, completely drowned out in the mix, which I think really kind of contributes to this just being ultimately a less interesting version. And maybe it's the difficulties of making this work as well as it possibly could that kind of kept Trent and Alexander from going further back.

The set ends off on a pretty strong note. Nothing too spaced out or subtle. No real lulls for me. It seemed like Trent and Alexander knew they only had a set amount of time and they wanted to come in and come out with something that was exciting. Something that was punchy, something that would be a visceral listen for the audience, and bring sort of that true Nine Inch Nails vibe and flavor, but somehow make it appeal to and make it make sense within the context of like a big festival stage that has like a modern EDM component to it. Which, again, maybe the best thing and kind of takeaway from this record is just how much DNA, musically speaking, Trent sort of like shares with that world, especially, you know, with music from the era that he was predominantly pulling from here.

But, yeah, with that being said, this was a pretty decent listen, even if it wasn't mind-blowing. And there were definitely some versions here that I feel like didn't even hold a candle to the original songs that they were pulling from. That also being said, I do feel like a lot of the appeal of this record kind of comes down to the original songwriting that Trent put into all of these songs to begin with. I mean, some of these tracks are so good, they're kind of hard to completely fuck up.

So with that, I'm pretty much feeling a strong 6 to a light 7 on this one. It's a pretty fun listen for sure.

Anthony Fantano. Trent Reznor. Boys Noize. Forever.