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Nine Inch Nails - Y34R Z3R0 R3M1X3D


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Mister Reznor seems to get from extreme to another. He releases one album for five years or three in one year. Theoretically, there’s nothing to complain about - store is no sore, but what about the quality of those releases? When an album appeared once for five year, nobody never said anything bad. "The Downward Spiral", "The Fragile" – those are undoubted masterpieces. It started to be worse after the release of "With Teeth" and "Year Zero" continued this trend. This album could be really enjoyable – if you forget that it’s a Nine Inch Nails record. Record of the band, which previously released "The Downward Spiral" and "The Fragile". And even "With Teeth". Now we get a collection of reinterpretations of the tracks from "Year Zero". It seemed that it’s a wonderful stuff to remix – fans, after getting multitracks from their maestro, have created really interesting reinterpretations of those songs. What went wrong with "Year Zero Remixed", pardon - "Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D" then? Maybe the remix potential is not everything – there’s also a question of who makes this remix.. Let’s see it track by track.

1. "Gunshots By Computer"
Yo, yo! I’m Saul Williams, your T-Rezz’s nigga. I’m fuckin’ busy at the moment with my own stuff, so forgive me I won’t present here anything brand new. I’ll only rap to the "Hyperpower!" tune. Check it out!
And this is how it sounds like – original "Hyperpower!", somewhat muted, so mister Williams can rap to it. And it’s very irritating..

2. "The Great Destroyer (Modwheelmood)"
This remix was done by NIN’s current keyboardist, Alessandro Cortini. And it’s definitely the best remix on this album, because it’s a real remix – a reinterpretation of the original song. The whole thing was changed into acoustic ballad with nice atmospherics and completely forgets about the IDM part. Well done.

3. "My Violent Heart (Pirate Robot Midget)"
This remix was selected from fan works. I have no idea why, because fans made tons of better stuff and this is really shite. The original structure was kept, only the beat was changed into more aggressive, noisy and – once again – tiring.

4. "The Beginning Of The End (Ladytron)"
Ladytron, an important part of the electroclash movement. The structure was once again kept with squeaky keyboards and female voices added in the background. In the end we can hear - so popular recently - quote from the ending part of "Closer". Compared to other remixes here it’s not so bad, but in overall it could be more sophisticated..

5. "Survivalism (Saul Williams)"
We could hear this before on the "Survivalism" single. Why it was copied on another halo, while there’s a lot of more interesting fan remixes of this track? This one lacks of guitars, but has swinging beats and claps instead. Nothing worth listening.

6. "Capital G (Epworth Phones)"
Another copy – this time from the winyl single "Capital G" (I can understand it in this situation – vinyls are quite unpopular this days and), but the remix is a real crap and could have been omitted. Only the vocals remained from the original – the rest was changed into quasidancable techno with REALLY tiring beats. We get the most interesting part after five minutes – when the melody appears – but what was the purpose to make it seven minutes long then, instead of making it this way from the beginning?

7. "Vessel (Bill Laswell)"
Actually, Bill Laswell is the winner here – he made one of the better remixes on this album. His version of "Vessel" sounds nearly unchanged compared to the original. He moved a few samples and didn’t completely broke the track. He also didn’t have any ideas how to create a different version – but that’s another question..

8. "The Warning (Stefan Goodchild feat. Doudou N'Diaye Rose)"
A simple gitar track was changed into something more sophisticated and intriguing. More electronic, complicated rhythm and those keyboards in the background.. There’s something missing here, but in overall it’s not bad.

9. "Meet Your Master (The Faint)"
Speeded up, shredded, made more dancable with crappy beats – in a few words: one of "Year Zero’s" greatest highlights was turned into complete rubbish.

10. "God Given (Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert)"
This remix is even more humdrum than the original. The whole version is based on a bass beat, sometimes enriched with samples from the original. The ending part is the best – maybe because it’s the least changed part..

11. "Me, I'm Not (Olof Dreijer)"
And now this is really ridiculous. Remix which has completely nothing to do with the original. Remix with almost nothing going on – some finger snapping and whispers, mixed with electronic howling. Maybe the idea could be turned into something better, but not in case when we talk about remix, that lasts for 14 minutes! It’s really hard to believe, that this whole album wasn’t released only to piss off.

12. "Another Version of the Truth (Kronos Quartet)"
There were hopes for this track – it was done by the string quartet responsible for the famous main theme from "Requiem For A Dream". It reminds a bit "The Frail" from "Things Falling Apart", but in overall it’s unfortunately a lot worse. The strings are boring until the end of the second minute, when we can feel like being in Opera. But is this really a good place for Nine Inch Nails music?

13. "In This Twilight (Fennesz)"
A little bit humdrum, but quite enjoyable reinterpretation from apocalyptic ballad to electropop. It’s not to be a patch on the original, but compared to the rest of YZR it’s really good.

14. "Zero Sum (Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert)"
Actually, I could copy here what I wrote above – apocalyptic gospel was changed into something more like Massive Attack with an electropop tune in the chorus. It’s not so touching like the original, but presents a new interesting interpretation. And leaves a good impression on the end – which unfortunately doesn’t change the impression after the whole album..

Sometime ago I was invited to DJ on my friend’s party. One of his guest – claiming to be a specialist in this matter – tried to give me some "advice": "dude, just play it out loud and it won’t matter what would you play – it should be only loud and people will dance, no matter what they hear". And all this "Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D" is for this kind of people – it can be seen already by it’s title. Buy it, play it LOUD on some party or in your car and dance. Don’t even think about what’s between the beats somewhere. It’s a great pity that this is the current attitude of a band, which proved in the past how brilliant a remix art can be and that remixes can exist as completely separate – and still great – songs (I mean "Further Down the Spiral" now). But the times are different now, mister Reznor has changed.. We don’t get new brilliant studio albums, so it’s no surprise that the remixes are not good either. Does it mean I should start looking for a new favorite band? 


Tracklista:
01. Gunshots By Computer ( Saul Williams )
02. The Great Destroyer ( Modwheelmood )
03. My Violent Heart ( Pirate Robot Midget )
04. The Beginning Of The End ( Ladytron )
05. Survivalism ( Saul Williams Tardusted Mix )
06. Capital G ( Epworth Phones 666 Revolutions )
07. Vessel ( Bill Laswell ) Mix 1A
08. The Warning ( Real World...)
09. Meet Your Master ( The Faint )
10. God Given ( Stephen Morris )
11. Me, I'm Not ( The Knife )
12. Another Version Of The Truth ( Kronos )
13. In This Twilight ( Fennesz )
14. Zero-Sum ( Stephen Morris )
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Translator: alucard
Add date: 2009-05-04 / Music reviews


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