Nine Inch Noize : "s/t"

 

Nine Inch Noize is a collaborative album between producer Alex Ridha, aka Boys Noize, and Nine Inch Nails, which is now basically just Reznor and Atticus Ross.  If you are looking for big arena-rock riffs, that is not happening, as the songs reimagined here are strictly electronic. That's not to say the synths don't have heft, and Reznor's voice roots it in the sound you expect from him. The track listing replicates their Coachella set list. 

 Mariqueen Maandig, who sings for How to Destroy Angels, also lends her voice to this project, which is first heard on "She's Gone Away". The shake the booty of "Heresy" from "the Downward Spiral". This makes it have more in common with the songs from "Pretty Hate Machine", an album they leave untouched here. It would be kind of redundant, so that is understandable. They also rework."Parasite" by How to Destroy Angels, not a cover since Maandig is involved in this project. It gets a hyper-synth wave injection, giving it more amped up drive.

"Copy of a " from "Hesitation Marks' is a dance remix that works well for what it is. This also proves the point that a good song is going to be a good song no matter what context it is presented in. "Me, I'm Not" starts off with what you think is a live recording, but it's not, though the live sounds crop up throughout the album; it's about as live as the fourth side of "Kiss Alive 2." The pumping beats continue to flow through "Me I'm Not". They continue to lean heavily on "Year Zero", which works for me as I thought it was an underrated album, and the dystopian themes are more timely. 

The only actual live track might be "Closer." It deviates less from the original than most of the songs here. The only major change is less crunch when they dig into the chorus. In fact, it feels like guitars have been intentionally removed from this album. I had to give a second listen to this version of "The Warning " to connect with me. I think I prefer the original. The only real cover here is their take on Soft Cell's "Memorabilia." This was originally a B-side to the "Closer" single. It was not the best song to begin with, but what they do works well enough here. 

"Came Back Haunted" has more grit to the bass line in this version. It drones more on the verses as the sonic throbbing pulses. Here is a song that was born for this kind of treatment. This is actually the first time I have given the song "Alive as You Need Me to Be" a solid listen, as I pretty much disregarded the Tron Ares Soundtrack. Here, it has more of a live sound until the vocals come in. It's a pretty solid song. The fact that they did not re-work a Boys Noize song tells me everything I need to know, and I'm guessing he was just twiddling knods alongside everyone else, as they are only credited with production and mixing. But as a remix album, this works. I will give it a 9.5  

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