EP Review

Nine Inch Nails - 'Not The Actual Events'

Playing the part of Santa this year has been a certain Mr Michael Trent Reznor, announcing a new EP called 'Not The Actual Events' a week before Christmas, to be be released on December 23rd, just in time for us all to digest while wrapping up those New Rock boots and black eyeliner presents.

The EP actually came out a day earlier on the 22nd of December, and it's got as much Christmas spirit as an empty bottle of Buckfast and a bottle of pills.

NIN seem to have been treating us to unexpected gifts for ever now, ever since the split with Interscope in 2007, the band have released plenty of independent music, with lots of it available for free, and it's this approach again which Reznor has taken with the bands second EP.

Combining five tracks over 21 minutes, this EP touches on almost every aspect of what makes NIN great, while never quite hitting the heights which we come to expect from the band. But still, a free five track EP as an early Christmas present from the grandmasters of industrial is certainly nothing to be sniffed at.

The EP starts off with 'Branches/Bones', a short track less than two minutes longs which starts off with a simple drum beat and bass guitar riff, before massively overdriven guitars kick in playing the bass riff and layered vocals add more intensity to the riff. The whole thing is repeated before we move straight into 'Dear World'. This combines an electronic start sounding almost like the Chemical Brothers with lots of whispering vocals. As the track goes on, this sounds more and more like it could have been on 'The Fragile'. Utilising syncopated high hats on the drums throughout to counter the on beat electronics, and creates a real sense of ambivalence about the nature of the song. Is this electronic? Is this industrial? Does it matter? A signature NIN song.

'She's gone away' is a real terror of a song, channeling nasty Orwellian dystopian feelings with a pile of introspective and paranoid ramblings, with more layered vocals over a slow droning riff, this is six minutes of looking over your shoulder and feeling uncomfortable.

The pace is picked right up for the next song, a Pitchshifter style riff to start off 'The Idea of You' is mixed with a use of clean sounding keys which is again leaning towards sounding a little like The Fragile. There are more electronics in the breakdown middle eight of the song, yet again layered vocals in the mix, building up to a messy noisy clash of sounds almost collapsing all over the floor, before being held together by that Pitchshifter sounding riff again and ending suddenly. Throwing us into the final song on the EP, 'Burning Bright (Field of Fire)' is about as bright as your average industrial rock club, darkness is flowing right thought the middle of this song, bringing the feelings of reading '1984' alive in your ears, the clattering collapse of society is always on the surface of this song, combining moments of sheer futility and Jesu style soundscapes, this makes you hope for a full album of Trent Reznor produced hellish daunting music like this. It might not be popular, but it would be damn interesting.

And then the whole thing ends, a mix of electronics, overdriven guitars and hell, a really interesting EP, which creates more questions than answers, and makes you wonder what next for this proudly independent artist.

7/10

KC

Top Tracks - 'The Idea of You', 'Dear World'