New releases, free to download, follow the footsteps of the groundbreaking album released 12 years ago.
It’s been 12 years since Nine Inch Nails released Ghosts I–IV, a work that Reznor himself described as a "soundtrack for daydreams". Although coming from the same conceptual point, a large suite of instrumental experimentation, Ghost V – Together and Ghost VI – Locust are quite different from its predecessor.
After a series of disagreements with its former label and completing its contractual obligations in 2007, Trent Reznor was inclined to distribute Nine Inch Nails work independently. Reznor also stated that for some time he wanted to a record "with very little forethought"[1]. Ghosts I–IV become as a result of an experiment that had "The rules were as follows: 10 weeks, no clear agenda, no overthinking, everything driven by impulse. Whatever happens during that time gets released as ... something." [2].
The result was 110 minutes of widely diverse instrumentals, but cohesive as a group and released together. The songs had no names that could evoke a motif or a theme, just numbers, nothing to frame our mind while listening.
On the other hand, Ghosts V-VI are “two different records for two different mindsets” [3], each has its title (Together / Locust) and each has its tone. Each track has its title, giving a hint to our mind to what emotions the artists were trying to convey.
Locusts, with songs ranging from atonal jazz with dusky b-rated noir-movies trumpets (“Around Every Corner”) to nightmare soundtracks which vibrate with unconventional instruments (“When It Happens (Don’t Mind Me)”) to bleeps and twitch of industrial noises (“Another Crashed Car”), is the darkest of the two.
Together, on the other hand, seems more optimistic, there’s a gentle buzzing, humming, and drone sounds that mutates slowly, continuing to evolve in the background while some comforting piano melodies lead in the foreground.
With its new release, Nine Inch Nails continues to push the envelope both musically and commercially, proving that is a band that still has a lot to contribute to music evolution.
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