Nine Inch Nails
The Perfect Drug EP
(Nothing)
I'll admit that I've been a big Nine Inch Nails fan for quite some time now. I didn't really get hooked on them until I heard Broken, but after that, I've gotten everything they've released. Since The Downward Spiral came out back in early 1994, though, it seems like Trent Reznor has taken a bit of a hiatus. Sure, he released Further Down The Spiral, but that was mainly a bunch of remixes by other people of his work. He also put together another soundtrack for the David Lynch film Lost Highway, writing two new short pieces, as well as the single that is the focus of this review. While the single was pretty good by itself, the remix EP is even better. As he did on Further Down The Spiral (with Coil, Aphex Twin, and Foetus), Reznor has again gotten the big names to remix his work and like the latter disc it ends up turning out better than the original work (IMHO).
Not only does this single give you a lot of music for the money, but the tracks are almost unrecognizable as the same song. Meat Beat Manifesto turns it into a stuttering Drum and Bass mess, while Plug (aka Luke Vibert aka Wagon Christ) cranks up the song several levels into what is probably the best remix on the disc. The song is actually a bit harder than most of the work that Vibert has done under his several monikers, but it's excellent to hear. Probably the coolest mix of the title track is done by Spacetime Continuum, who strips out the vocals of the track and instead turns it into a fairly ambient piece that is completely unrecognizable next to the original. The one remix that I was kind of let down by was that of the Orb. While I'm a big fan of their work (and the remixes that they've done for others), their rendition of the track simply doesn't seem very indicitive of their work.
All in all, it's a cool disc, and is hopefully the direction that Reznor is going to take with his new disc (whenever he feels like getting around to releasing it). At one point I actually heard that he invited Vibert to come into the studio and work with him on the album, but who knows what will come of that. It might surprise some NIN fans, but I think that's what the point of it is.
Rating: 7.5
