track 1. piggy (nothing can stop me now) remixed by rick rubin.
IT SUCKS. In my humble opinion, that is. Rubin missed the mark with the slow/fast juxtaposition.
track 2. the art of self destruction (part 1) recreated by nin
Good remix. minimalist...and I like the focus on the "control" part of MSD.
track 3. self destruction part 2 remixed by jg thirlwell
Wow. Is it any wonder why I think he's the best in this field? Stripped down, unlayered, unfiltered "self destruct"...heavy on the chorus guitar section...prominent vocals. This is what the song probably should have been in the first place.
track 4. the downward spiral (the bottom) coil with danny hyde
This is the emotion of TDS. Trent assaulted us sonically to convey it. The fellas in Coil with Danny Hyde managed to add a beat, lighten the mix, and still hit that nerve.
track 5 hurt remixed by trent
What? This is the "radio edit" I have on the promo halo 10. How is this a remix?
track 6. eraser (denial: realization) coil with danny hyde
I always thought the drive in this song was the guitar...relentless. The new beat is a welcome addition as well. Second fave so far.
track 7 at the heart of it all. created by aphex twin
I'm guessing this, if really analyzed, will have NIN sample elements in it somewhere. Who cares? Great groove...dark, somber...I like it.
track 8. eraser (polite) coil with danny hyde
Uhhh...at first I didn't get it. But then a pattern started to show. Coil remixes always go to the core or heart of a song...this is that core.
track 9. self destruction (final) thirlwell
Fuck yeah! Wow, Thirlwell is good. Stripped down to its essence, this song comes in quiet, smacks ya around...pulls a "pinion" on ya, degenerates into a synth mess, and then punches yer collective balls off again, all with a funk beat that would make George Clinton proud. Number-one mix on this disc.
track 10. the beauty of being numb (section a recreated by nin, section b by aphex twin)
An "eraser" deviation. Raw, emotional...good shit.
track 11. erased, over, out. coil with danny hyde
So damn emotional...the plea to "erase me" over and over. Hits a nerve. Very sparse, but it's all it needs to be.
nancy paulikas (nancyp@netcom.com):
I'm still absorbing FDTS...but let me say this about this...
at the heart of it all -- created by aphex twin
wow.
shit.
fuck.
oh man.
oh man.
oh man.
Forget you ever heard the term "industrial." Forget anything you might have associated with the term before. This track screams industrial, as Webster's defines it. Cold, dark, lifeless factory, stripped of humanity. Gears turning, pistons pumping, assembly line moving notch by notch, as the machinery punches out endless copies of the same thing over and over and over....
And at the same time, this song takes my heart and my stomach and ties them into tight little knots of anguish. Hide the razor blades. I'm going to turn out the lights, curl up in the corner, and whimper for a while.
man.
oh man.
kevin redderick (kevinr@enet.net):
I just got through the whole thing. It rules. Track 6 ["eraser (denial, realization)"] is the best song on it.
daanon decock (jade@primenet.com):
Kevin came into my store and let me listen to half of it. It does kick ass. I almost beat him up and took it from him, but he was with his mother.
sean hammons (sean_h@efn.org):
piggy (nothing can stop me now) 4:03
Really weird...there's a pig groaning or something with the beat. And there's really loud/distorted guitar when he's saying "nothing can stop me now" over and over. This is probably my fave on the album.
art of self destruction part one 5:41
Really slow and quiet...going "I control you" over and over.... If I remember correctly, there are no other lyrics. Weird synth stuff.
self destruction, part two 5:38
Starts quiet, gets a lot louder when he's saying the chorus ("I take you where you wanna go," etc.). Includes all the original lyrics (unlike part 1). It gets cool when it goes quiet too, and it has a cool beat. Now you can hear him say "I am an exit," so that clears THAT up....
downward spiral (the bottom) 7:29
STRANGE. Guitar starts right away. Has the same lyrics from TDS, but it goes between Trent's normal voice and distorted-as-hell voice. Then it does this REALLY funky scream that they seriously fudged around with. Then it gets quiet and has just weird music and some other random lyrics from the song along the way.
hurt (quiet) 5:08
Imagine "hurt" without the 20-second silent intro and two-minute silent end. Well, now you have "hurt (quiet)." Actually, it IS slightly different. Trent's voice is louder. His voice is on BOTH channels instead of just the right one. And I think they re-recorded the guitar; it sounds a little different. "Hurt (live)" would be better.
eraser (denial, realization) 6:34
Just fast-pitched guitar and drums. No resemblance to the original, except it has the weird sucking noise and Trent screaming "kill me!" at the end. Best "eraser" on the album.
at the heart of it all 7:14
Nice song. No lyrics, but cool beat and sound effects. Very "industrial." If you have heard "a violet fluid" from the "march of the pigs" single, this kinda has the same beat, but different bass and other things.
eraser (polite) 1:15
This track is funny. It's a "happy" version! It has weird piano-like bass, then Trent says the lyrics from the normal "eraser" faster and in a different order.
self destruction final 9:52
Long-ass song. Has a VERY annoying intro. (Well, not "intro" actually, but a few minutes into it, it's just really loud noise that hurts your ears.) Has original lyrics, but the chorus is repeated more.
the beauty of being numb 5:07
Slowly fades in from nothing. It's the end of "mr. self destruct" from TDS. Then it's just piano and some weird noise and bass. Not very NIN-like, but still nice. Ends with the sucking sound from "eraser" and leads into the next track.
erased, over, out 5:58
Starts with the sucking sound, but then gets to be kinda shitty, like the last track on fixed is. It's REALLY cool, though! If you fast-forward it ... Trent's shouting "ERASE ME!" over and over. Very cool idea.
...It has some really interesting stuff. However, I think they should have done a little more with it. The "mr. self destruct" remixes are cool, I think. So is "piggy," and "downward spiral," and the "erasers" (except "polite" -- that is the worst track on the whole thing).
The "hurt" remix I see no point in, however. I think they re-recorded it, and that's it.... Wow, I think halo 11 should be just this song 1,238,909,181,234,123 times.... :) "At the heart of it all" and "the beauty of being numb" -- I'm not sure if they're supposed to be remixes of something with the lyrics excluded, or what...but they're cool.
Anyway, this album is ... probably my favorite single from NIN. Well, now that I think about it, it IS my fave single. To sum it up, this CD rules. Get it. Now. Or die. Or something.
kathleen tibbetts (ktibbett@mail.smu.edu):
I had my first listen last night and wrote these admittedly scattershot and not-all-that-comprehensive notes today. So now I air my observations to the waiting world, like that means something....
All three MSD remixes were tremendous, although the Bowie samples were a little distracting and, I thought, unnecessary. (It's my HO. Sue me.) Chalk up one (part one) for the home team -- the (apparently officially now) five-man band that is nine inch nails. And another two for Jim Thirlwell, while you're at it. What a man. What an example. What a mixmaster.
"TDS (the bottom)." Brrrrr. Scary the way the Coil guys and Danny Hyde remixed the spoken-word part at the beginning, with the stereo channels alternating line by line between normal Trent-murmur and fearsomely electronically-processed demon voice. It got even creepier after the big transition (the scream), with "a lifetime of fucking things up..." looped again and again and again in the near distance, sounding almost like a prayer at first but becoming ever more mocking and accusatory. Does Purgatory have a soundtrack? It does now.
You've probably already read that "hurt (quiet)" sounds very much like the promo or album version. You have to listen closely, preferably through headphones, to hear the "remix" part. It's a...cleaner sound -- I don't think that's the word I'm looking for, but it's the only one that comes to mind. The guitar and Trent's voice have nearer, clearer sound presences and sound very isolated, almost suspended in nothingness.
I've already assented with others on "eraser (polite)." The resemblance to a medieval madrigal or round was startling.
"the beauty of being numb" was intriguing -- and unlike "down in it," this one seems plainly allegorical to a drug experience. Part A (NIN) is the neurodamaged and angstful "pre-hit" part, while part B (Aphex Twin) is the chilled and artificially mellow "post-hit" section. There's a recurring sound that's remarkably like a pig snorting (cocaine?) and what may be a persistent telephone that sounds as if it's ringing underwater, or just outside the boundaries of giving a damn about who or what it might be.
This track has the longest and most chilling loop-out I've ever heard. The sucking sound from the intro to "eraser" comes in at about 3:15 and gets progressively closer and more desperate-sounding through the remaining two minutes of the track before those bee noises intensify into a demented autistic hum in "erased, over, out." Pretty sneaky the way this monster rolls up behind you. (Coil and Hyde strike again.) The long, slow shriek of "erase me," the voice begging for death. Jesus Christ. This really IS rock bottom. And it is a long, long way down. Was the juxtaposition of these tracks intended as an object lesson? Maybe that's reading too much into it, but who knows.
I think my favorite track is "at the heart of it all" (Aphex Twin). Harsh, grinding, mournful, and symphonic all at once. Does that chronic high-pitched grating whine sound like a bone saw to anyone but me? Whatever it is, it's actively painful, to the point where even the brief suggestions of it later in the track were enough to induce flinching. I think this is what Lester Bangs meant when he talked about "the livid twitching of one tortured nerve." It could reduce you to that, as well. Torturous is right. But in a good way. A harsh-but-needed-reminder-of-the-raw-humanity- at-the-core (at the heart of it all?) way. The humanity at the heart of TR's music, on one level. Your own humanity, on another.
The only track I really didn't care for was "piggy (nothing can stop me now)." Of course, the thing I liked most about the original was its open-mic-night-at-a-seedy-rum-lounge quality, and that was destroyed in this version. I think Was (Not Was) could do a very interesting remix of this song. No shit. They're great with rhythm and with getting that tawdry '40s-film-noir sound. They might even add a sax line! Now that would be cool.
mr. tr808 (mcdeath@gladstone.uoregon.edu):
...Went to Record Garden last night. The instant I walk in, the salesperson -- without missing a beat -- just points to the new-releases wall and tells me, "It's up there, for only $6"...at which point I make the fastest 15-yard dash ever done inside a record store, along with an enthusiastic scream. (The last time I screamed in a record store over a new release was back on November 19, 1983, when Duran Duran's Seven and the Ragged Tiger came out.) It is so incredible -- especially the Coil remixes. It'll be worse once the whole thing grows on me...the Aphex Twin reconstruction is very interesting and mesmerising.
As for the Rick Rubin remix, I sorta expected Run-DMC/Beastie Boys-type beats, but I was fortunately wrong...very exquisite.
raeven (raeven@ix.netcom.com):
The ornate baroque theater is filled to capacity with lords and ladies from all across the countryside. They await the performance with hushed and expectant voices, for this show has been sold out all across Europe for months.
Finally, the red velvet curtain rises.
The stage settings are elaborate and reflect the height of French Rococo theatre. Everything is marble and gold. Long tapestries are hung along the backdrop. Ornate silver candelabras hang from above. The flickering candlelight casts long shadows both on the faces of the audience and upon the enormous portraits of the noblewomen and noblemen of the House of Reznor that decorate the theatre.
The few members of the orchestra sit stage left, silent and watchful. Their clothing consists of black crushed velvet jackets, black pants, and white full-ruffled shirts. Their heads all bear high and elaborate white powder wigs.
The audience hushes quickly as a lone figure steps onstage. Moving without a sound he steps to center stage, turns, and faces the audience.
He is dressed entirely in crushed black velvet. He bears no bruises whatsoever as a result of his having slammed two French costumers to the ground when they tried to make him wear a wig.
The conductor (who looks just like Chris Vrenna would if he were wearing a powdered wig and clothes of rococo style) gives the orchestra its cue.
The music beings. Single notes, forlorn and yearning, echo through the theatre.
On center stage the figure all in black lowers his eyes, crosses his arms, and as if to himself, in a half whisper, begins to sing...
...need you... dream you... find you... taste you... fuck you...use you... scar you... break you...
Solitary notes follow. As they resonate into the chamber, the members of the audience rise. On some unspoken cue and as if in a trance they pair off and begin to slowly waltz in the aisles of the theater.
...need you... dream you... find you... taste you... fuck you...use you... scar you... break you...
The music dissolves into silence, the scene dissolves into darkness...
But the images remain:
Of a haunting Waltz of the Fuckheads...
Of a tribute to the musical sublime.
(This is what I see, anyway.)
dave dalle (ar335@freenet.carleton.ca):
I haven't really bothered with rec.music.industrial for a while, and it figures that it's NIN that gives me reason to. Anyway, I don't know where this came from -- a new NIN album, well actually remixes, for a third of the price of a new CD. And it's actually quite good -- possibly better than TDS, and over an hour long. Wow, I'm impressed. Trent's, like, a god! (That IS sarcasm.)
vestal (vestal@computek.net):
Anybody notice that "eraser (polite)" sounds a lot like a medieval ballad?
Except for the hurt "remix," FDtS is pretty cool.
stephanie nahas (nahas@acy.digex.net):
Yes. That's what I like about it. I can understand why some people hate it, though. "No fuckin' drums, man! What a wussy song!" To you I say, expand your horizons. That was an extremely unique take on that song, and a pretty daring move on the creators' part in doing so. Medieval music kicked into the 20th century. Nice electronic twist to the flute, and decent counterpoint. Bravo.
Come ON, people! Okay, I can understand your dismay in getting a remix that isn't a far cry from the original, but don't you think "hurt" carries a new flavor of intensity and presence? It seems quite striking and powerful to me. That may be because I'm so used to hearing it in one context, and hearing it in another accentuates emotion, but I do believe that this mix has great merits of its own.
Definitely one of the more artistic NIN releases to date. Kudos, gentlemen. Far more than "pretty cool."
matt jones (mdj@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu):
Exactly what track from TDS was remixed to make "at the heart of it all"?
carmen rocco (sandman@ganet.net):
Just the fact that you even had to ask which track this was originally from goes to show that R D James knows the PROPER way to remix a song. Slice it, dice it, and juice it until you don't know what the hell it is.
cathrine ann friedmann (harmony@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu):
...[Are] the Aphex Twins remixes ... just guest appearances? They don't seem to have any NIN foundation in them.
matt (el_matt@ix.netcom.com):
In "at the heart of it all," I think I hear "reptile," and in "the beauty of being numb" I think I hear "a warm place"....
jason allan (muzicman@solar.sky.net):
Did anyone notice that as the "and i control you" whispers progress on FDtS they get really funny? It's like Trent was screwing around and kept them on. They get higher pitched and whiny, and there's even one that sounds like a really funny opera singer. It was like he was doing these cartoony voices and just left them there....
stephanie nahas (nahas@acy.digex.net):
You can hear it in the original version, too. Also, some of Trent's harmony lines are a real interesting listen. You have to press your ear hard to hear them in the originals, but in remixes, they're sometimes brought out, like in "heresy" and "ruiner" (from halos nine and ten). I was so pleased to hear those "he's a collector" lines in a form closer to how they were originally recorded. Without the massive distortion, you can hear that Trent's actually singing them (occasionally with only implied pitch, but it's there). Yeah, keep giving me those flatted sevenths and major thirds!
nathan trussell (trussell@rocket.cc.umr.edu):
If you fast forward track 11 on FDtS you can here "erase me" over and over. Has anyone else noticed this?
matt podolsky (podolsky@gabor.berkeley.edu):
Yes. And have people noticed you can do this over the first 1+minute of track 6 to get a single similar "e-r-a-s-e m-e" (but only just one)?
I also thinks that part of the beat in the middle of that track sounds just like the one in U2's "Zoo Station."
greg fuller (ch_ind05@oswego.oswego.edu):
Just checked that one out. Pretty cool. You can also make out some words on tracks 5 and 3 with a speed search in reverse. I can't figure out what it says, but it does sound like he's saying something.
gianthead (gianthead@aol.com):
...The first part of "the beauty of being numb" is just one of the self-destruct remixes backwards. There are no added lyrics, subliminal messages, etc. I played it backwards on my 4-track recorder.
logre2'3 (ogre@netaxs.com):
The lyrics are backwards, the music isn't. (I did the same on my four-track.)
melissa boysen (boysen@ux5.cso.uiuc.edu):
...Do "tds (the bottom)" and "the beauty of being numb" remind anyone of the style of Art of Noise's material from the '80s? When I first heard those two particular tracks, that's what I instantly thought of....
nancy paulikas (nancyp@netcom.com):
For your own safety, I recommend against listening to FDtS while driving. It's almost done me in twice now.
The day I got FDtS, as soon as I got in my car in the Tower parking lot, I opened it up and popped it in, and started driving home from Hollywood. I was on the freeway when "at the heart of it all" started. I got so caught up in it, I almost plowed right into someone.
Then yesterday, I was playing it on the way to work (at about 4:45 am, when I'm not too awake anyway). Somewhere in the middle of self destruction, part two, I pulled up to an intersection with a green light...and stopped. It took about 30 seconds before I realized what I had done, as another car was coming roaring up behind me.
From now on, I'm only going to listen in the safety of my own home!
...well, and in my office, which I'm doing right now....
maha mouaket (mmouaket@lynx.dac.neu.edu):
I just thought I would stick my head out from underneath the rock and tell you folks that I found a picture of a pig in the sleeve of FDtS. When you open the sleeve, look on the left page. In white (or light grey), there is an upside-down piggy. My friend thought it was a poodle, but what the hell would she know -- it's a pig.
adam christian schwenk (aschwenk@flute.aix.calpoly.edu):
Okay, I know I'm probably gonna get flamed for this -- but when I buy a nine inch nails album, I'm looking for NIN music, NOT Aphex Twin. Yes, I do like remixes -- but I'm not interested in someone else's music on a NIN album, even if they used, like, two beats from the original song. That, to me, is ridiculous.
stephanie nahas (nahas@acy.digex.net):
...I think it's wonderful, though, and very innovative and adventurous. Who says there have to be limits on artistic expression? Or in the creation of a CD, for that matter? The disc contains not only reinterpretations of the music, but also reactions. The Aphex Twin cuts are like a musical answer to the musical question the preceding music posed. He listened to the music, he absorbed it, became one with it, reached inside himself, and pulled this out. And NIN has presented it for all of us to witness. That, to me, is progress.
But anyway, just a word on that thar "piggy" remix. Ever since I first heard it, I thought it was disconcerting. Ack, the vocal and the music just don't match! Yes, it's a neat idea to totally change the feel -- and the chord progression, even -- and I find it interesting to listen to for that reason, but it just doesn't sit completely well with me. I'll try to find the courage to seek the nature of my uneasiness with it.
But I'm a big fan of the remix concept. More more more!
Sometimes I like the remix better than the song, as I'm sure many do. For example, the "gave up" remix is stiff competition for the original, and what Charlie Clouser has done with "ruiner" and "heresy" is phenomenal. Also, there's the little things, like how the beginning and end of "closer to god" tickle my ears just so.
jason allan (muzicman@solar.sky.net):
A funny story: I was listening to Piggy today, and at the very beginning there is this quick little strum of two chords. Now, I know it's Dave Navarro playing the song, but these two chords at the start sound a lot like a snippet from "Lightning Crashes" by Live. I'm sure it's just Dave, but that little piece keeps reminding me of the Live song every time I start up the disk....
beast of eden (boe666@u.washington.edu):
I picked this up a couple of days ago and I'm quite pleased with it. The highest points for me are the Aphex Twin piece "at the heart of it all" (title taken from an early Coil piece) -- which is more an original AFX piece than a remix of any particular NIN song -- and the Coil mix "erased, over, out," a particularly scary sounding reconstruction of "Eraser" fucked with in the way only Coil can. Also great is "eraser (polite)", where Coil reconstruct said piece as an English ballad. They do the same thing here that they did at the very end of "closer (precursor)" -- that is, play off the counterpoint between Trent's teen-angsty lyrics and "pleasant" music. I'm quite pleased with the rest of the Coil and AFX mixes as well.
Jim Thirlwell's mixes were a bit of a disappointment; they have their moments, but they don't live up to the work he did on fixed. The NIN mixes didn't do much for me, either (and that's not just a knee-jerk response -- some of the downward spiral was quite nice and the NIN remix on fixed, "screaming slave," was excellent, so it's not like I think Reznor is incapable of doing good work). The absolute low point of the CD is "hurt (quiet)," which really should have been quieted completely and left off of the CD. This shows Trent at his worst descent into whiny self-parody; skip this one.
Overall, the high points of this CD far outweigh the low points. And it's cheap; I've paid more for less.
legion (cerebral@dsmnet.com):
Am I the only one who hears a big similarity between the Beastie Boys' "Eggman" and "piggy (nothing can stop me now)"? Is this a Rick Rubin thing? Or is there a deeper meaning?...
mistress lily (landerso@acs.unt.edu):
I still think it sounds like Trent's sitting in his rocking chair on the porch while he sings...
"Hey pig (creeeak creeaak)
yeah you (creeeak creaaaak)"
paul (777@meme.demon.co.uk):
On a tangent...isn't Pop Will Eat Itself's Two Fingers, My Friends more satisfactory than FDtS? Twice as many top quality remixes from some of the same people (well, Foetus) makes Trent's offering, though excellent, pale slightly in comparison.
al crawford (awrc@access.digex.net):
Straight to the point -- further down the spiral is to the downward spiral what fixed was to broken. It's a remix album, taking material from TDS, putting it through a mincer, and spitting it out again.
The degree of remixing employed here spans a wide range, from minor frills to all-out reconstructions. In fact, in the case of the Aphex Twin "remixes," the tracks included are not so much remixes as variations on a textural theme by Reznor, constructed from sampled material.
The remixers involved on this one are NIN themselves (2.5 remixes), the Aphex Twin (1.5), Rick Rubin (1), J.G. "Foetus" Thirlwell (2) and Coil (4). The most minimally remixed material comes courtesy of Reznor and Co., in the form of a crunching, distorted "mr. self destruct" and a stripped-down, almost "unplugged" "hurt". They also contribute a wall-of-noise intro to Richard James's "the beauty of being numb" creation.
Jim Thirlwell adds a percussion edge and an ill camel to "mr. self destruct" to not inconsiderable effect, later giving the same track a second, not too different, slant. The Foetus remixes are, to be honest, rather dull compared with what he's done in the past. They certainly have their moments though, such as the grinding to a halt of the second remix, and both have a nice solid heft to their sound.
I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised by Rick Rubin's reworking of "piggy," with its odd squeal'n'moan percussion in the verse and high BPM boost to the chorus. Not exactly radical surgery, I'll admit, but highly effective nonetheless.
Radical surgery would, however, be an ideal description of the Coil remixes. "The downward spiral (the bottom)" strips the song down to its underwear, adds a truckload of atmospheric electronics, then explodes via a heavily treated scream into a subtle combination of synth melody and burbling rhythm under which Reznor mutters unintelligibly. The other three Coil remixes are all of "eraser", although they vary enormously. The first, "denial, realization" is noisy and chaotic, eventually leading into an enjoyable guitar/percussion drone creation. "Polite" is very short indeed, with Reznor's "[verb] you" variations over a pastoral synth line. The final Coil reworking, "erased, over, out," is an atonal noisescape of electronic drones and processed Reznor vocals (not a scream as it sounds, but heavily stretched vox -- play it fast to hear).
The first Aphex Twin track, "at the heart of it all," is a clunking, pounding industrial instrumental underpinned by a deeply majestic synth-orchestral melody. The other, "the beauty of being numb," is a two-part affair. The first noisy sequence sees NIN remixing Aphex Twin's Reznor-inspired piece, while the second is decidedly odd, with a subdued, laid-back melody gently drifting along over industrial clanks and burbles. Nice stuff, but it does seem jarringly out of place.
Overall, a good disc. These who dwell on Reznor's angstful lyrics or the aggressive guitar-industrial sound may well be disappointed, but this disc takes my own personal favourite feature of TDS (the sonic textures) and lets a bunch of talented people loose to have fun with it. The results are never short of interesting.
Erland Rating: +3
maura daffern (3mcd3@qlink.queensu.ca):
...I really hate that noise in the "self destruct" remixes that floats from one speaker/earphone to the other...the one that sounds sorta like an Indian/Arabic flute. I'm sure you know what I mean. It is sooo annoying.
...I like TDS (the bottom), although the scream in the middle of it freaked me out to no end when I first heard it. I like the undistorted vocals in that song. They are so different than those on the album, and Trent's voice sounds so small and alone and unprotected and vulnerable...it sounds so much more personal like that, the voice without the distortion to hide behind.
..."at the heart of it all" really does sound like the Art of Noise to me....
I still hate the "piggy" remix.
elana zivinsky (armand@netcom.com):
Halo 10: Damn. I love this shit. "Piggy" is an industrial-dance wet dream. The fucked-upedness of the whole damned song keeps my feet moving. Especially that cheap, cheezy, Madonna-lite beat.
"At the heart of it all": Do not listen to this at night. Under no circumstances. Especially if there's a weapon in the vicinity. It makes me want to kill.
All the Coil stuff: These guys are gods.
fractal sex (fractalsex@expressways.com):
I have to admit, I was all hyped for FDtS, but once I got the album I was less impressed than I could have been. Let me say that fixed holds a lot more merit than FDtS -- reason being that Trent had a lot more to do with the mixing of those tracks, and hell, he could fully cooperate with himself if he wanted to change his vocals style or samples. I found that I enjoyed Trent's mixes over those of the other bands. Granted, I like Coil, Foetus, Die Warzau and others -- but when it comes to his own music, Trent knows what he's doing and how to go about doing it.
david parmenter (daveparm@world.std.com):
Seems kinda weird how I can't hear any of those guitars in the original MSD. It seems possible that at the very end of the original, when there is just a bunch of stuff mixed together, all of those guitar tracks could be playing simultaneously. But other than that, there really, or so I think, aren't any connections. Maybe just the peaks of the music were retained after fucking with the guitars so much. Adrian Belew did this stuff, right?
todd van duren (tvd@vnet.ibm.com):
My guess, without any supporting evidence, is that all those lovely guitar parts are outtakes from the sessions Belew did with NIN. Too bad more of those licks didn't show up prominently on TDS.
drifter (wehr@cc.suu.edu):
I bought the U.S. release of FDtS, and I'm curious if anyone else was as disappointed with it as I was. Just for the record, I've been a devout NIN fan for years and years, I've heard everything Trent's done under the name nine inch nails, and never have I been so utterly disappointed as I was with FDtS.
For one, it seems to me like Trent is getting lazy. Of course, he's known for employing other talents for his remixes, but on this album it seemed he had very little to do with ANYTHING! And could someone please tell me why there is an Aphex Twin song that has nothing to do with nine inch nails on the CD? All of the songs seemed to be too recursive and lacked the melodic sounds that have made NIN so good in the past. Bottom line is, I've given this CD a fair shot and it turns out that I'm completely embarrassed to play it around anyone else.
the mobius (themobius@aol.com):
I would have agreed with you at first when I bought it, but now that I have listened to it closely, I have found a lot more depth and intricacy in it.... Also, "at the heart of it all" was made with Reznor's samples. (I think it fits damn well.)