Its indisputable that Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor is one of the most talented and dynamic recording artists of the past 20+ years. His mastery of composition and instrumentation lead industrial music into the mainstream by putting a recognizable face on the genre and the pop song writer in him made it accessible because of his use of standard song structuring and focus on vocals and meaningful (albeit sometimes disturbing) lyrics. As he has grown as a writer and composer, he has been called on to contribute to, compile, produce and eventually compose entire soundtracks for major films, including Natural Born Killers and the award winning score for The Social Network. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is probably the only time I have ever watched a film where the score stood out so intensely as its own solid body of work, yet complimenting, not overpowering the visual content of the film.
This dear listener is what brings us here today. I have for you an offering of some of my favorite instrumental tunes by Trent and hopefully this will introduce you to some of his work you may have missed as they were not regular NIN releases. While it definitely has Reznor’ s fingerprints all over it, the compositions are vastly different from the standard “Head Like A Hole” stuff you may be used to.
Slow, metered and methodical, this is a great playlist for a rainy, lonely Sunday. Put on some headphones, let go and allow yourself to fall down into it… hope you enjoy.
(left click to play in a new window, right click to save as)
Love, ThinkingWeasel.