Nine Inch Nails

Trent Reznor's notoriously thorny relationship with his record label (and its adherence to copyright law) killed the original idea behind Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D (or, for non-l33t speakers, Year Zero Remixed), which was to have a website where fans could create and post their own remixes of Reznor's work. Instead, we'll have to settle for the 14 tracks approved for this album release, which comprises work from a wide selection of heavy-hitters in the electronica world.

Year Zero was already a departure from NIN's earlier work, one that took Reznor's predilection for concept albums to a new level. Though the album contains thematic and lyrical throwbacks to the band's earlier work (especially Pretty Hate Machine and the Downward Spiral), songs are rife with Orwellian paranoia and supposedly written from multiple personas.

On Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D, some of the tracks undergo stunningly successful transformations: "Survivalism," a raucous piece of hardcore noise with latent pop hooks in its original form, gets a major tempo treatment by Saul Williams, who maintains the fuzzed-out noise of the original but throws in a trippy house beat reminiscent of Massive Attack. Similarly, Ladytron's rendition of "The Beginning of the End" showcases the quartet's signature cold electro-pop beats and pulsating synth arpeggios, complete with a throwback sample from "Closer." But the best remix is The Faint's version of "Meet Your Master," a scratchy, plodding anthem interspersed with grinding guitar bridges. The Omaha five-piece convert the song into a glitchy upbeat electro track, destined for indie clubs and bedroom dance parties.

Less impressive are the tracks that fail to add creative drive to the original songs, such as Bill Laswell's reworked "Vessel," which undergoes his trademark industrial trance treatment (e.g. sparse, stripped-down beats and dystopian ambient noise), but fails to add any compelling nuance to the original. The Kronos Quartet's "Another Version of the Truth," meanwhile, is woozy and disjointed, coming across as a confused rehearsal jam session rather than a cohesive reinterpretation of Reznor's work. Despite these few missteps, Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D succeeds as a remix album, allowing each remix artist to imprint the original songs with their own creative direction.

—Connie Hwong
11.27.07

Much happened on the pop scene between April of 2007 and the close of the year. First, Radiohead released their 2007 album, In Rainbows, in virtual form over the Internet, where fans could choose to pay what they wanted for it without digital rights management -- even if the download was free. Saul Williams, in partnership with Trent Reznor as his producer, then released The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust, which went one step further. While Radiohead's album would inevitably be released in CD form (they neglected to tell anyone this), Williams' recording sold either for free or for five dollars (with full cover artwork scans included in the deal so you could burn your own -- the difference was in the bit-rate quantity), and no CD was forthcoming. Reznor has left his label, and it appears that this remix project is the final offering -- or is it?

Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D (Year Zero Remixed) contains two discs. The first is a rather eclectic, unpredictable collection of Year Zero's tunes in remix form by some rather curious candidates, which in and of itself makes for compelling listening. It starts ordinarily enough with Williams kicking off a brief, ranting, drum-heavy "Gunshots by Computer" ("Hyperpower!"), with him rapping over the top with the Rez guitar and bass throb just barely underneath. His take on "Survivalism" is even better -- a completely stretched-out violent and barely walled-in monolith of noise accompanied by skittering, clashing rhythms playing counterpoint to one another. Williams is perhaps the only expected choice here. Ladytron's remix of "The Beginning of the End" is an entirely different animal. Never have paranoia, death, destruction, and calamity sounded more attractive. They do a seductive, Kraftwerk-cum-D.A.F. reading of the tune with those sexy backing vocals behind Rez's harsh truth from the margins. This track sounds like it could be the soundtrack to one of Richard K. Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs cyberthrillers, particularly -Woken Furies. Pop meets cyber meets industrial meets space -- Solaris meets Blade Runner with Krautronica floating in from the ether. Modwheelmood's mix of "The Great Destroyer" needs to be heard to be believed. It's almost a complete rewrite -- but it works. Nuff said.

There are two remixes here by New Order's Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert, of "God Given" and "Zero Sum," respectively. The trademark NO programming sound is pumped throughout the mix, pulling the more extraneous fragmentary elements in the originals and wrapping them into something warmer, bass heavy and hypnotic with repetitive programming loops, an escalation of the vocals in the mix, and a subservience of everything to rhythm -- even on the funereal atmospheric slowness of "Zero Sum," which of course transforms itself into a cut-time pulseadelic dancefloor workout with atmospheric bubbling underneath the rhythm tracks to add density and stretch the notion of time to the breaking point. But if you thank that is a weird choice, stranger still is the Kronos Quartet with Enrique Gonzalez Müller's reworking of "Another Version of the Truth." With strings playing along with the rhythm track, dissonantly attacking the body of the tune with the guitars padded underneath them, this is one of the most corrosive and compelling intros of the year, but it gives way to a beautifully elegiac interlude with clever understated atmospherics hanging about the edges of the tune's frame. (And please don't go thinking this is The String Quartet Tribute to Nine Inch Nails; for one thing, these folks can PLAY.) The stink of obviousness is plain in Bill Laswell's utterly unimaginative and completely lazy take on "Vessel." It could have been phoned in from any of his countless projects that all sound the same with the exception of the original vocal. It's too bad, too, since it is one of the best cuts on the original set. Fennesz, Olof Dreijer, Paul Epworth, and Stefan Goodchild with Doudou N'Daiye Rose all turn in fine tracks using sky-is-the-limit approaches. The enormous drums on "The Warning" (Goodchild and Rose) are just stunning.

In addition to the remix disc, Reznor has included a DVD with all the tools necessary for doing your own remixes of virtually every cut on Year Zero. Programs for use with both the Mac and PC are available, such as Ableton (a demo version) and Garageband for the Mac as well as generic 16-bit, 44K files for audio editing. Instructions are included, as well as a website invitation to upload creations and interact with others who've done the same. The bottom line is that Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D -- even without the DVD or original Year Zero recording, works on its own as a stand-alone listening experience. There is much to enjoy here, and although it doesn't have the hard, kick-in-the-guts, breathless feel of the original album, it is nonetheless compelling in this new context as well. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide