The Slip – Nine Inch Nails

Here’s a surprise for everyone, some actual content.

I’m nearing the end of my first full length listen through of this, so it’s probably too early to make any kind of definitive end statement on this, but I’m enjoying it a lot. And it’s free, so you should listen to it. Because free stuff always represents good value for money.

And what the hell…at least I’m not moping (well…I am…but I’m trying to ignore it).

First up. Where can you get it.

Here.

Well done.

Anyhow.

Basically, what we’ve got here is a solid and occasionally deep album. The person (now lost in the midst of the past…I was surfing while moping…I wasn’t paying attention, sorry) who first pointed it out to me (somewhere on the internet) said it was the most coherent work since Downward Spiral. I think it definitely shares something with that. Which is basically my way of saying that this is nowhere near The Fragile…but it’s still good.

A noise-scape intro leads into a sequence of punchy industrial pneumatics. All bounce, all strut. Lyrics a tad trite, but the delivery of them is spot on. Trent’s still got that great lust to his voice. Really magnetically honest. I like that throat.

The intro to 1,000,000 sounds like so many other songs that it’s almost unbelievable. Really, I can’t even count half of them…but it’s familiar. (The drum beat is Lump by Presidents of the USA, can’t remember the rest without trawling my mp3 collection…possibly some Beck). Anyway, it’s a solid tune. The beat is good, and the guitar work has that depth, and it eventually starts sounding like it might actually be a Nine Inch Nails song just after you’ve started enjoying it honestly.

Perhaps I read to much into these things.

If anything, the issue is that the first three proper tracks aren’t distinct enough. Different modulations of similar drum beats (the beats are different, the production is identical). Similar structure, different tempos.

It’s a good song, but that doesn’t mean we need to hear it thrice.

Even if you sneak a little bit of that NIN reverb piano.

Actually, maybe it is good enough to hear thrice. I’m still enjoying it, after all.

Now, Echoplex gets going and I feel like I’m in unfamiliar territory. This is really me. The drumbeat is so electro pisstake that I’m in love. The guitar comes in all sexy, and so does Trent. Stripped down. The lushness is gone. Limited development. That piano again (just hinted at in the background). It’s almost like a he’s taking a little poke at New Order to see what happens. But it’s definitely Reznor.

I’m trying to move onto the next track, but I can’t stop this one yet. Troublesome. Must be good.

It’s the jaunt. It’s got a vaguely Countrified jaunt. It’s exciting. Simple and exciting. It’s not moving, like some of the best stuff in the back catalogue (the fragile again). But it’s fun. It’s good, it’s fresh.

Head down for some more swagger. Sounds like the others again. With a good stolen drum beat (the one Dizzee Rascal nicked for that song I always get stuck in my head…y’know…that one)broken up with a big descending bass synth, low enough to be barely there but also right in your gut. Punchy vocal. Solid. This one could grow on me quite easily.

The we get the sad piano/vocal track. Which sounds great and atmospheric until he makes one of the most boringly predictable chord sequences ever underneath it and I almost start giggling. You gotta work harder than that in a world that’s already had Hurt by you and, more excitingly, Videotape by Radiohead.

The chorus gets a bit better for a while when it adds an awkward little minor disonnant, but then goes back to that major predictable.

I need to brush up on my music theory before I can accurately be this mean, but I’m lazy, and I’m also right…deep down, I know I’m right.

Thankfully he does the right thing and rides out of it into something that I’m really interested.

Loud, slow, noises. Corona Radiata. Pretentious title should give it away really, but it’s damn fine. Reallllllly slow low build up. Starts pounding at your speakers with this thick rich tone. But only after a coupla minutes. It’s a good ‘un.

Four minutes in and you get a simple, crushing, panning rhythm. Then the thick richness comes back in. This time with more layers, more things wrapping around each other. A sense of drama is appropriately instilled.

Good. Long. Interesting. Unusual. Most of you’ll hate it. Maybe.

The four of us are dying. Good name for a track. And it carries on the vibe with what is effectively a bass led minimal techno number. But the bass is guitar and the beat is distorted enough and the melody (guitar again) is engaging. The production here is spot on. Very, very fragile. Good. Really good. Especially straight after that last one has set the scene. Not a lot I can say.

It slams right into the next one. Which is punchy, offbeat, fast and even has some cheeky little background vocals going ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’.

In other words, I like it.

And the whole thing ends rather abruptly.

Anyway, it’s good. It’s not crazy good, but it’s very tight. It lacks depth at times, but where it’s got it, it’s got it. Fans won’t be disappointed, and newbies might just be quite intrigued by the variety of tones here. He’s still got a masterful sense of the rhythm required to excite a listener. He knows how to use guitars very well to make both crunching noises and melodies, and when he can be bothered, he builds a very good structure. He’s also perhaps the kind of musical vocabulary that makes it hard not to sound self parodying sometimes. He’s clearly trying to draw in quite a few different beats and ideas, but in trying to make it sound like NIN, ends up making some of it too samey.

On the other hand. It’s all really quite good.

I’d say, next time, he needs to get out of his comfort zone more. But I’m not sure quite where that would take him.

Anyway, as always, I’ve gotta go now, I’ve been rambling too long.

Lots of love.