Trent Reznor is just one musical away from becoming an EGOT, but I imagine he'll be happy with what he has, like the prominence his two Coachella concerts got. In a way, those two shows represent recognition he's been chasing all his life, an achievement that Nine Inch Nails and producer Boys Noize celebrate with the EDM album Nine Inch Noize.
Basically, industrial was dance music, at least the pounding, synth-filled kind of Skinny Puppy, Nitzer Ebb, Ministry and Front 242, the kind that Reznor adored in the '80s. Not only that, at the time he wanted Nine Inch Nails' songs to be played in clubs so much so that he launched the group's first songs on 12″s full of remixes made with pulsating synths and double bass drums, in the hope of filling the smoky dance floors of Midwestern goth nights. In the end he found his dimension in a live band and in alternative rock, and now Nine Inch Nails' collaboration with the German-Iraqi EDM producer Boys Noize represents a sort of closing of the circle.
For years Reznor has remixed some songs and given others to dance greats to undergo cosmetic surgery. Fennesz, James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem), Aphex Twin, JG Thirlwell, Coil, Faint, Deadmau5 and members of New Order provided their outside-the-box interpretations of Nine Inch Nails' music. But there's something special in the chemistry that Reznor and Atticus Ross have found in recent years with Boys Noize, aka Alex Ridha, a brilliance that elevates the songs they put their hands together in a new way.
Ridha is 43 years old, he grew up in the right era to appreciate both NIN and 90s rave culture. His ability to mix house, acid house and hip hop made the 2007 debut Oi Oi Oi an underground EDM hit, followed by Power of 2009 and Out of the Black of 2012. He has become an in-demand remixer and collaborator, working with Skrillex (in the duo Dog Blood), Lady Gaga (co-author of Rain on Me), the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and others. In 2024, Reznor and Ross asked him to remix the soundtrack of Challengerswhich he did without even seeing the film. The result, Challengers (Mixed)led to a collaboration with Nine Inch Nails on the soundtrack of Tron: Ares and to an opening slot in the Peel It Back Tour. In the middle of NIN's set, they would place synthesizers on the stage in a U shape and invite Ridha to join them for what became Nine Inch Noize, live remixes and improvisations on songs like Closer, Sin And Only.
The collaboration worked so well that the trio recorded the album Nine Inch Noize “a little bit everywhere”, as Reznor wrote when announcing the project. «Some parts are live, others in the studio, hotels, airplanes, etc.». The appeal, he explained, was in creating “pure electronics.” There are no live drums, no abrasive guitar riffs. Making the music human are the voices of Reznor and his How to Destroy Angels partner (and wife) Mariqueen Maandig. And then the group remixes NIN in such a way as to make the music particularly alive.
The album contains revisited versions of Nine Inch Nails songs, but unlike the catalog reinterpretations released in recent years by other artists such as U2 and Sting, these are not obvious songs, except perhaps Closer. Instead, there are tracks that could benefit from explosive electronic beats and the TB-303's “squelch”. Who would have thought that Heresyfrom The Downward Spiralwith its Nietzschean refrain “God is dead”, could it sound so good in an acid house key?
The tracklist reflects both the setlist and the atmosphere of the set at Coachella. There's even one Intro with applause and shouts from the audience. The songs are mostly taken from Nine Inch Nails' middle period (three from Year Zero from 2007, a couple from Hesitation Marks from 2013, one from How to Destroy Angels' 2010 EP of the same name). They are still NIN songs and therefore the lyrics revolve around Reznor's recurring themes: desire, surrender, control. “I let you put it in my mouth”, reads the first verse of Vessel. The key words are “let you”: Reznor is in control and knows what he is doing.
The synthesizer riff of Vessel it is more robust than the version contained in Year Zero and the piece ends with a beat that recalls both Schoolly D and Pretty Hate Machine. Another song from the same album, Me, I'm Nothas a heavier riff than the original, recalls Oh yeah by Yello (but without the kitsch) and has a more essential chorus that leaves room for an acid house solo. Without the guitar, in The Warning bass and pulsations are enhanced. She's Gone Away is reduced to about half the original length, saving the soul of the piece in a strangely more human and more effective version of the original. The vocal harmony also warms up the chorus, which is notable for a purely electronic arrangement, especially as it builds to a sharp synth breakdown. Parasites by the Angels has both an electronic cowbell and a recalling riff Knight Riderin addition to the classic final rave alarm. Of the two songs of Hesitation Marks, Came Back Haunted differs more from the original than Copy of a thanks to the deep house outro, though maybe Copy of a she was already ready for the clubs.
Some songs are surprisingly different. From Closer the animalistic funk is accentuated with a syncopated rhythm and new vocal samples such as the high-pitched “no” that comes in the distance after Reznor sings “You can have my isolation”. The last verse, previously a little hidden (“I drink the honey inside your hive / You are the reason I stay alive”), is now in the foreground, as are new house speakers. And the cover of Memorabilia by Soft Cell, once on the single of Closerhas a great house beat at the end. The way Reznor whispers the vocals and adds his “I have been inside you” line might make Marc Almond seem like a softie (which is notable, since Almond sang a song called Sex Dwarf).
In closing, As Alive as You Need Me to Be perfectly sums up the nature of Nine Inch Noize, as NIN and Boys Noize produced it together for Tron: Aresbut it is not the peak of the project perhaps because it is predictable. The only thing that could have improved the album further would have been the more radical decision to transform some of Nine Inch Nails' more rock songs as Wish, Last or We're in This Together into techno bombs. Knowing Reznor's obsession with experimentation, evident in many remixes, demos and alternative versions he has released over the years, they probably tried without managing to make them truly danceable.
Even just from the choreography of the golems that moved around Reznor, Maandig, Ross and Ridha at Coachella you can understand the level of attention to detail of Nine Inch Nails. This “one hundred measures, one cut” philosophy is evident even when listening Nine Inch Noizedespite the four having given themselves the freedom to give new life to the songs. The album is the culmination of Reznor's lifelong ambition, one of many obsessions he pursued over nearly four decades. “I have finally found my place in everything,” he sings in Vessel“I have finally found my home”. He really seems to believe it, at least until he decides to chase another dream.
From Rolling Stone US.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
