NIN - Ghosts
It’s a difficult one to think of an appropriate title fore really. There are so many interesting facets to Trent Reznor’s (aka Nine Inch Nails) latest album that it’s difficult to know what to focus on first. Ghosts is Trent’s first album (apart from his involvement in the excellent Niggy Tardust album of course) since his split from the major labels. The split, and recent aforementioned success I guess, has empowered him to create a unique album under some interesting circumstances.
“This music arrived unexpectedly as the result of an experiment. The rules were as follows: 10 weeks, no clear agenda, no overthinking, everything driven by impulse. Whatever happens during that time gets released as… something. The team: Atticus Ross, Alan Moulder and myself with some help from Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew and Brian Viglione. Rob Sheridan collaborated with Artist in Residence (A+R) to create the accompanying visual and physical aesthetic. We began improvising and let the music decide the direction. Eyes were closed, hands played instruments and it began. Within a matter of days it became clear we were on to something, and a lot of material began appearing. What we thought could be a five song EP became much more. I invited some friends over to join in and we all enjoyed the process of collaborating on this. The end result is a wildly varied body of music that we’re able to present to the world in ways the confines of a major record label would never have allowed - from a 100% DRM-free, high-quality download, to the most luxurious physical package we’ve ever created.”
Not only that…the tunes are being released in a number of formats including a free sampler (nine of the 36 tracks), a full $5 download and a $10 double CD as well as a couple of luxurious editions for a lot more money. And another thing…and perhaps the most important of al is that this album has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license with a promise of “an exciting partnership and experience regarding this release will be announced soon”.
And how does it all sound? Well I’ve had the free tracks and listened to them a couple of times and I really like it. It’s all pretty ambient (with a couple of exceptions) but still very “Trent”. Now do I just pay the $5 for the tunes or do I still need the full title on a couple of CDs? Maybe this really is the end of that shiny medium for me… [via]