The mixes of "heresy" and "ruiner" are brand new, and by keyboadist Charlie Clouser. The "heresy" mix is good, with Trent's vocals sort of "chopped" and reversed into some weird Arabic mish-mash whilst preachers rant over the top. It's better than the version on Halo Nine anyway... Ruiner is not a bad mix either. What pisses me off more is that we get halo ten v2, which doesn't have "self destruction (part 2)," "hurt (quiet)," "eraser (polite)," "the beauty of being numb," or "erased, over, out" -- so now I've got to find the U.S. version as well. I've heard rumours of a vinyl version in the UK (unconfirmed by the local HMV shop). Whether this will be another "version" of halo ten I have yet to find out, if it exists at all.
pete 23 (csypgw@scs.leeds.ac.uk):
...Think NIN remix by numbers: quiet bit, loud bit, bit with Trent talking over 4/4 bass, loud bit....
There are two versions of the CD; the one I have, v2, doesn't have a second Richard James track ... choruses of "Trent is a bastard corp-rock whore" are to follow. Two versions of singles I can stomach, but two full-length releases? Burn him.
silver (cwlyma00@pop.uky.edu):
...In light of the fact that both UK and U.S. version have tracks that the other doesn't, guess it's time to hand over the wallet and get 'em both. (*sigh*) A marketing ploy, 'sall it is. Unfortunately for a lot of us NINnies, it works. Make 'em buy both, double the money....
cj black (cjb6@cornell.edu):
I was just comparing the back covers of the UK and U.S. versions and noticed that where the U.S. version has the Nothing insignia, the UK version just has a black bar, almost like the Nothing logo is covered up. This seem weird to anyone else?
ian abbott (iabbott@ruiner.demon.co.uk):
Interesting addition to the Nothing logo saga on halo ten v2...
(i) Original copies released on May 29th in the UK had Nothing logo on them.
(ii) Re-released copies had a black bar on artwork where logo had been (I covered this in a previous post).
The plot thickens....
Today I went shopping to discover that there is yet another sleeve modification. All the copies of FDtS I saw today had neither the Nothing logo or the black "censorship" bar. Just the granite backing where the logo had been. The TVT and Island logos remain. It looks like the "censorship" bar was a temporary measure until the sleeve modifications were complete.
Have Nothing disowned the CD in England? Any ideas?
silver (cwlyma00@pop.uky.edu):
Why would they bother to blank out the Nothing logo on the package when the logo remains on the CD itself?
cj black (cjb6@cornell.edu):
That's what I was wondering. Was this part of the deal concerning the controversial sample on the CD? And if it is, then how does this solve anything? The Nothing logo is still on the actual CD anyway. Maybe this was a large-scale printing error? That's the only logical possibility I can think of.
steven luscher (luscher@hookup.net):
"Ruiner" and "heresy" on halo ten v2: I have to say that these remixes are some of the best I've ever heard. They're much the same in style but different in context. Fast, hard remixes with plenty of digital effects like reversing of vocals (I have yet to put it in my computer and reverse it to see what it sounds like!). Absolutely love them....
your friend kabir (kabir@mail1.sas.upenn.edu):
What? "Eraser (polite)" didn't make it onto v2? Too bad. Can you say, IT WAS FILLER!?!? I think that track is there to take up room.
mr. orange (pberry@ecst.csuchico.edu):
No way. "(Polite)" is so rad! It was almost a pop song! I almost got the feeling that it was a happy song. It's my fave track on the U.S. disc right now. Seriously.
fear under massive attack (fuma@io.com):
The import has four tracks that are not on the domestic. Being that one of the tracks is "self destruction, part 3," I felt I would miss out on something, so I ended up buying both for $23. I must say it was worth it, because the extra tracks are well deserving.
Now I just wanna know if this is a gimmick. And if it is, is Trent aware? This sucks...again I'm being raped by The Record Company. KILL ME! ERASE ME!
stephanie nahas (nahas@acy.digex.net):
...For all you us people who haven't heard the cuts that are unique to the UK release, I recommend getting this disc, because those other mixes are tasty. Bleeding expensive, though. $16.99 is WAY too much, but I just had to....
There's a live "hurt" track; not sure where the performance was. Sounds quite emotional, but it's a slightly different flavor of emotion than is on either the U.S. disc or TDS.
"Self destruction, part three" is a lot closer to the original MSD than "part two" or "final." Pretty interesting. I'd love to hear the other two Thirlwell mixes that didn't make it to either disc.
When I saw that there were two mixes by Charlie Clouser ("heresy" and "ruiner"), I was anxious to hear them, because I know next to nothing about this guy, and I'm curious about him and his talents and tastes. Well, Charlie, I still don't know who the hell you are, but you did a couple of slam-bang remixes here! (Is that Seal in the "ruiner" mix?)
Both have a new and interesting feel to them. They're also both a bit dancey, but they're not at all cheesy. They retain quite an edge. Very full and textured. Very red. Well, "heresy" is more orange.
"Ruiner" does one of those neat little whole-step modulations, launching up there for the first pre-chorus section. but then it doesn't do that again. Wonder why. Well, it makes the first time all the more special, I spoze.
I like the vocal treatments too, in both. Chopped up and backwards in spots, nice processing. And as someone has mentioned before, you can hear quite clearly the lines that were distorted to incomprehensible ends in the original "ruiner." Now you can understand them without referring to the booklet. Also, the harmony lines are given some extra prominence. It's neat to have it all there, deconstructed, to see how the original sound was so subtly hewn from several different vocal takes.
But I have one question: Since when is flanging and chorusing on vocal tracks so damn popular?
It's all over the place on many different remixes on these discs. Yes, it's cool, but is this a trend? An inside joke? I demand an explanation.
tripp cox (halo69@mindspring.com):
I bought FDtS, as did so many of you, for about $5. Then I get home and find out about v2. I cringed as I shelled out $14 for a duplicate CD with three different tracks on it, but after I got home I was pleasantly surprised.
I think it was a nasty trick of someone to release v1 at all. V2 is obviously the better compilation. They could have easily released all the tracks on one CD, but we know how Trent (or some other entity) loves to screw around with marketing semantics.
mistress lily (landerso@acslab.acs.unt.edu):
Y'know, I keep hearing this, but I just don't see it. Yeah, it's nice to have "hurt (live)," the "ruiner" remix is amazing -- but as a whole, I think v2 is far inferior in the mix. The songs don't flow nearly as nicely into one another as the do on v1. "Hurt (quiet)" fades nicely into "at the heart of it all" -- but on v2, they almost go into TDS, and then WHAM! cut abruptly into "heart"....
I've noticed that if I program the same songs in the same order on v1 or v2, on v1 they go far more smoothly into one another, even if they're out of order. Whereas in v2, they cut in in weird places.
glitch 15:23 (pluto@comp-unltd.com):
My problem with the whole deal is that I love the Clouser mixes, but I agree that v2 doesn't mix as well. I tend to listen to entire albums, because I view them as a work of art as a whole. One song is just a part of the picture the artist is painting. That probably explains why I don't use "shuffle" on my CD player, and it drives me nuts when my friends do. (I acctually took TDS out of my friend's CD player -- because he only does "shuffle," and I can't stand not hearing the whole thing.)
This attitude explains why I think Natural Born Killers is my favorite soundtrack, too. It's not a collection of random songs, but a work of art of itself, an aural collage if you will. And why, although the songs on it aren't as good as on some other albums, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is my favorite Beatles album. And TDS, and the reason I like the way U2 is going....
alan reiter:
Quick question: Where is that "Do you believe in miracles?" sample that I keep hearing about?
sean hammons (sean_h@efn.org):
It's in "heresy (version)." About halfway through.
doug keller (dougk@digibd.com):
I'm asking this because I want to make sure it isn't my particular disk at fault. Has anyone else noticed what sounds like a tape dropout or glitch of some kind about 3:53 into "heresy (version)" on the UK FDtS? Sounds unintentional to me. And if so, it's rather out of character in this particular track, being quite a "clean" mix and all....
michael israeli (izzy@netaxs.com):
Yup...I hear it too. That is odd this was overlooked. Not that is an incredibly big deal, but I like to think that all the NIN CDs are glitch-free.
sean hammons (sean_h@efn.org):
I like the "miracles" part, though. Charlie Clouser is awesome.
bev (edlf@netaxs.com):
...Is it Trent that says "not really"?...
And Charlie Clouser IS awesome! I can't stop listening to "ruiner (version)"...so cool where Trent sings "didn't you... oh!" and hearing those two verses sung at a slower speed. And those (backwards?) chopped-up vocals that reminded me of one of my favorite parts of fixed....
Both new CDs are just too good...in reference to a post I read earlier that complained Trent was ripping us off by putting different stuff on the U.S. and UK releases, I gotta say I'm glad he did and didn't mind having to get both. Fifteen new Trent remixes are better than 11 any day!
michael roston (ending@ripco.com):
If Trent keeps to his word and actually includes the band on the next album, giving them some creative control, I for one sincerely am looking forward to it. If it is all him again, I worry.
screamnslv (screamnslv@aol.com):
I just have to make the point perfectly clear that I really think that Charlie Clouser did a wonderful job on the remixes for "heresy" and "ruiner." His "heresy," in my opinion, is WAY better then the one on Halo 9. As for "ruiner," I never really liked that song until Charlie remixed it....
I just have to wonder why Trent didn't put Charlie's mixes on the domestic....
I would like to hear more from Charlie. He is very good. (Has anyone else noticed that he uses the SSSSSSLLLLLLLLOOOOOOWWWWWWing down of Trent's voice à la "erased, over, out" in "heresy"? It is a bit faster then "erase me," but he says "god is dead" about twice as slowly as normal.)
darren prior (darrenp@hpwin052.uksr.hp.com):
I`ve been sampling/reversing/transposing the start of "heresy (version)," trying to work out what's been done to it. It sounded like each word had been split in two and reversed on opposite tracks... This is pretty hard to explain.
If the first half of the word is reversed on the left channel, it is the right way round on the right channel, and the second half of the word is the right way round on the left channel, but reversed on the right channel.
Anybody else got any ideas on this one? And how come we only get one Aphex Twin track on the UK FDtS?