Impressions, compressions, and fragmentary observations on musicians and music. Flavor text and random recs.

NINE IN NAILS

Fracture and dissonance arranged with the precision of a Swiss watch. A Jackson Pollock-esque sculptor of sound (yes, Pollock was a painter … just go with it), feedback and white noise becoming instruments, mirroring and mimicking percussion. A constant refinement and distillation of personal emotional turmoil, a black churning chaos, spewing forth in staticky industrial thrash (Pretty Hate Machine) and into new frontiers of sonic destruction (The Downward Spiral). “Head Like a Hole” is a primal scream, a fist of pure aggression. “Closer” is sordid, transgressive, making music dangerous again. A diary entry from a rapacious Id trapped in a hell of its own creation. “Perfect Drug” a beautiful absinthe-green flight into full-blown decadence. Trained as a classical pianist, Reznor NIN repertoire includes the four volume Ghosts series, instrumentals steeped in darkness and beauty.