Nine Inch Nails
The Slip
The Null Corporation
By Jose Fritz
The fundamental assertion of numerology is that the universe as a whole is an orderly system; that all things can be measured and represented by numerical values. Entropy is a real force, but even that process can be measured, indexed, tabulated, quantified and predicted. For a numerologist the number 27 presents a problem, as it is the first number that cannot be represented by a letter of the alphabet.
Welcome to Halo 27. Last year I reviewed Halo 24 also known as Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D, the remix LP for Year Zero. I made a prediction at that time so true that I am now a confirmed seer:
“His intention is to go independent. In the future he will self-release records in the forms, formats and time frames that he chooses. He has become a person for whom destiny is self-determined.”
Sure I dressed it up in some bullshit about numerology but if I wasn’t taunting and mocking my readers I wouldn’t live up to my pseudonym. True to my prediction. Trent went on to release Ghosts I-IV on his own in three formats: pre-ordered CDs, a $300 super duper mega-hot deluxe LP box set and a simple five dollar download. In the first week he made 1.6 million dollars. Let’s say that again and imagine him lying on the plush carpet of a hotel room surrounded by liquor bottles, blow and groupies smearing crumpled bills all over his leather-clad body —ONE POINT SIX MILLION DOLLARS!
Not only was I right, but more importantly Trent was right. The internet is not the enemy of the music industry. Doug Morris is completely wrong and he can stick his goddamned Shmoo-metaphor right up his chunky white ass. Saul Williams, Radiohead, and Offspring have all attempted e-distribution in the last year, to varying degrees of success.
If anything, The Slip is far better than Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D and Ghosts I-IV. It expands upon the Bauhaus and The The influences that started to rise up on The Fragile. Ghosts had this disposable feeling, like he was working out the last ideas from an old set of samples and soundscapes. The Slip feels like an extension of Year Zero with its punk rock immediacy and dance beats. There are these flickers of recognition: Sisters of Mercy, XTC, all this old dance-influenced 80s music. But those are just glimmers. It’s just Trent still growing, changing probably feeling a little less restrained.
It’s really kind of amazing how he’s crafted a career shaping industrial music, a genre born of discordant noise, into hit singles. His longevity as an artist in that genre is incomparable. His contemporaries have all but vanished. Bands like Thrill Kill Kult, Die Warzu, KMFDM, Ministry, and Sister Machine Gun all faded back into the cut out bin.
Nine Inch Nails succeeded because the record was good and because he had the right relationship with his fan base. Then as if to prove my point, he’s released The Slip as a free download out of sheer gratitude. And why not, if he wasn’t one before, he just became a millionaire.
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