Customer Reviews

Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D / [CD/DVD Combo]

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Slightly half a year after the release of "Year Zero," (2007) Trent Reznor has released an album of remixes for that album, Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D (Year Zero Remixed, 2007).

Sometimes remix albums can truly suck, but both "Further Down the Spiral" (1995) and "Things Falling Apart" (2000) were good, (especially the former) so one should expect something of quality for a "Year Zero" remix album. But even though I expected Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D to be good, I was surprised by how good I found it.

Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D is a little different from past NIN remix albums in that several other artists were brought in to remix individual songs. Each artist, such as Ladytron, the Faint, Saul Williams, Stephen Morris & Gillian Gilbert etc, put their own unique spin on the songs, so each track sounds pretty unique from the one that preceded it, yet everything works and it makes for a very interesting listen. The result is a remix album that sounds like a bunch of artists screwed around with "Year Zero," warped it, and then put it back together. Because several different artists stylized each song uniquely, Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D is always taking twists and turns, and one never knows where one will wind up. And while some remix songs are rather tedious, every track on Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D is thoroughly engrossing, and I say that as someone who generally doesn't like remixes.

If you own "Year Zero" and like it, Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D is highly recommended as a companion piece. But even if you don't own that album, fans of dance/electronica remixes will get something out of Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D, as these tracks all sound great. Although one can appreciate this CD more fully if one is familiar with "Year Zero."

I've only listened to it once(got it just a few hours ago), but when I did, it was via an iPod & professional studio headphones (not ear buds) thus allowing me the ability to focus completely on it, even though I was commuting to work on a city bus, lol.

Leading up to this release I listened to my entire NIN library a couple of times (includes nearly every Halo 'cept for certain spendy singles) and I must say that year after year Trent continues to push himself creatively and artistically forward project after project to find new, yet familiar soundscapes to sonically paint on and in. Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D is a different approach to his now usual routine that follows every major studio release he does; the remix album. It's not jaw-droppingly different, but still sounds unique, and I found that to be exciting and inspiring.

His collaboration with Saul Williams on this (and producing Saul's stunning new album "Niggy Tardust") is breathtaking as is breaking out of his normal creative cocoon and jamming with so many different bands and composers then weaving their approaches of these cuts into his own, hitting "puree" in the mixing booth and coming up with something unusual and cool on every track.

This is not meant to be played softly in the background at your next social function (and if you didn't care for "With Teeth" or "Year Zero", stay FAR away from these modern NIN waters, you won't like them/it either).

Instead, for maximum results, I recommend how I enjoyed it so much on my first pass - with a good set of real ear googles, a healthy volume, minimal distractions and the desire to hear Trent surprise all of us once again by being unpredictable and in my opinion, brilliant.

I have been a fan of Nine Inch Nails since the beginning. I own every single Halo and I never really got very excited about the remixed albums. I would buy them of course, to keep up with the collection of releases, but I would catch myself thinking, "its good, but its a remix album." So, when this came out it was no surprise to me that I wasn't jumping for joy. Then, I listened to it. This is, in my opinion, the best NIN remix album since Fixed. I never thought I would catch myself saying this, but there are some remixed tracks on this that I like better than the original. I know, crazy. Just give a whirl it is well worth it. Oh, and you are a fan of the "industrial dance" scene, there are a few tracks on that will blow your mind. Highly, highly, highly recommended.

One last thing, the "make your own mix" thing is totally cool. How often do you see an artist present their material in that way and allow the fan to make their own art from it and then get to share it?? HUGE F-ING PROPS to Trent Reznor!!

There are 2 huge values to this product:

1) As far as remixes go (and there are plenty of free user-made remixes of this album out there which aren't bad) I typically find remixes to feel like an afterthought and not as good as the originals. But this collection of updated versions are as good as the originals, and I've listened to them all at least 20 times so far. At least.

2) If you make music you'll love the fact that there's a second disc with all of the songs from the original album split out by high-quality source tracks and usable in Garageband, Ableton Live, etc. No one else has done this and it's pretty admirable -- one more example of Trent Reznor treating his fans with respect and providing them with what they really want.

Thanks Trent!

I picked up "Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D" today and had to listen to the whole thing twice in a row. Trent picked out some phenomenal remixes to throw on here. Saul Williams is a brilliant artist, and as such, his two remixes are standouts...but every track on here is good for its own reasons. NIN fans will all have at least one or two tracks on here they like. Personally, i think they are all stellar! The ONLY thing keeping me from giving this package five stars is the fact that all three of my computers freeze up when i try to put the DVD-ROM in them. All are running WAY above what is needed according to the spces on the READ-ME file. Anytime I try to migrate the files from the disc to a harddrive, the computer just freezes up until i eject the disc. Anyone else having this trouble? I'm curious if i just have a faulty DVD-ROM, or if it's a common problem from a certain pressing-batch.

I must say that I was a bit weary about another NIN remix album. I had bought a few in the past- and although Everyday is Exactly the Same was ok, it wasn't great. I was expecting just a few reworked tracks when I first heard about the release, but to my surprise, almost every song has been re envisioned. I have enjoyed each of them, and the track that sealed the deal for me was The Kronos Quartet's Another Version of the Truth- one of the more beautiful songs from Year Zero- here given even more power. This is definitely worth a listen if you enjoyed Year Zero.
The second disc is the deal breaker. This is why it gets 5 stars from me. I am stunned. Every track, and each layer of each track, have been put into several formats so that aspiring artists can tinker with the tracks themselves. This is by far the most amazing part of this 2 disc package. I believe this has to be a first- the master tapes released to the fans... amazing. I won't be bored for quite some time!
Thanks Trent for this amazing follow up to a great album.
Also, check out Saul Williams new album- The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust, at his website. You can pay 5 bucks, or download for free. It is a great album and Trent wrote music on a lot of the tracks, and produced the album as well. Support Saul!

Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D is without a doubt the fullest effort for any NIN remix LP/EP. Almost every song from the original 'Year Zero' is presented on the album (and presented only once.) One glaring negative, however, is that YZ already sounds like its been chopped, mixed, and laid out to dry already. Remixing an album that already feels remixed is something many of the artists on this LP try to overcome; some of them succeed, while others succumb to pure mediocrity.

- "Gunshots by Computer" (Saul Williams) - HYPERPOWER! with rap lyrics. Not something stunning, but something not seen before on a NIN release
- "The Great Destroyer" (Modwheelmood) - Interesting mix of acoustic strings and technology. A must-listen!
- "My Violent Heart" (Pirate Robot Midget) - Fun little dance mix, though discardable after a few listens.
- "The Beginning of the End" (Ladytron J-Type Overdrive Mix) - Horrible take on one of the most hard-rocking songs found on YZ.
- "Survivalism_Tardusted" (Saul Williams) Nice, polished mix with bass levels to die for.
- "Capital G" (Phones 666RPM Mix) - Rave mediocrity.
- "Vessel" (Bill Laswell) - Sounds like the original and totally average.
- "The Warning" - (Stefan Goodchild) - Wonderful drumming with hardly any of the guitars that carried the original. Likely the freshest track from this album.
- "Meet Your Master" - (The Faint) - Same as the 'Vessel' remix. Average at best.
- "God Given" (Stephen Morris/Gillian Gilbert) - Another average take.
- "Me, I'm Not" (Olof Dreijer) - On par with some of the worst NIN remixes in the bands history. 14 minutes of droll nothingness.
- "Another Version of the Truth" (Kronos Quartet & Enrique Gonzalez Müller) - Cool string section that could have easily been an outtake from 'The Fragile' sessions.
- "In This Twilight" (Fennesz ) - Too much distortion put into a slow-paced song. The concept could have worked with a different method, but it fails here.
- "Zero-Sum" (Stephen Morris/Gillian Gilbert) - Fun background beat, but nothing strikingly different from the original.

The album is worth getting for both the NIN faithful and casual listeners, but free open-source remixes circulating around are just as fun to listen to.

I don't usually listen to remixes. But I think Year Zero is the best NIN album to date, so I took a chance on Year Zero Remixed. Unlike NIN's other remix albums, where Trent Reznor mostly did his own remixing, the arrangements here are all by other artists (though some of them are closely associated with NIN, like Saul Williams or Alessandro Cortini's Modwheelmood). The results are about as good as you could hope for -- pretty uneven, but with a few startlingly good parts.

The biggest show-stopper is Ladytron's version of "The Beginning Of The End." They take what was already Reznor's most danceable song since "Closer," and make it even more danceable. But the remix is just as gloriously doom-laden as the original, with even deeper bass, on echoing keyboards rather than guitar. Additional keyboards in the second half add a lot of ominous atmosphere. The guitar solo in the original is worked into the end of the remix, and serves as a good crescendo. It's the rare case of an alternate version that is significantly different from the original, but is every bit as good. It's also a lot better than most of Ladytron's own work.

Another attraction is Saul Williams' revision of "Survivalism." The original version was aggressive, but I always found it kind of plodding. It just didn't have the same energetic kick as, say, "The Beginning Of The End," and it didn't have anything original in the way of beats and riffs, either. The remix is completely different. The aggression is gone, replaced by trippy ambience and slower, more subtle beats. Most of the noise, including Reznor's snarling vocal, is now submerged in the murk. In the end, part of the chorus is repeated in a floating, disembodied falsetto. I really think that this version fits the paranoid, unsettling imagery of the song's video and the Year Zero concept better than the original.

These two tracks also sound great back-to-back, although they are different in style. Interestingly, the best remixes on the album tend to be the ones that take a certain element that was suggested by the original, and then take that element as far as possible. For instance, Modwheelmood's version of "The Great Destroyer" omits the drum freak-out, and leaves only Reznor's calm chanting, set to acoustic strumming in the verses, distorted and made to sound distant in the chorus. I like the original more, but the slow burn of the remix is also enjoyable.

On the other hand, Olof Dreijer's take on "Me, I'm Not" is awful. The original was a spooky trip-hop soundscape, full of looming menace. You'd figure that would be ideal territory for The Knife, but Dreijer turns in what basically amounts to "Silent Shout," minus about 95% of the synths, i.e. a house beat and some incidental noises, which go on without end. It is very boring.

Some tracks aren't remarkable one way or the other. Bill Laswell's remix of "Vessel" is pretty much the same as the original, with minor variations in the beginning and middle. The Faint clearly have no idea what to do with "Meet Your Master," so they glitch up the vocals and try to make the beat more danceable, in the process losing the dynamics of the original, while gaining nothing. The remix of "My Violent Heart" is notable for being authored by a "regular" NIN fan, but unfortunately nothing else about it is interesting -- he just takes the original song and makes the rhythm track a lot louder and more dissonant, again losing the dramatism of the original while making it much less listenable.

And sometimes, radically changing the originals just doesn't work very well. The Epworth Phones remix of "Capital G" turns the song into a flamboyant house anthem, wrapping altered samples of the screeching guitars around the dance beat. But it also has the flavour of a "typical remix" in the way it pointlessly repeats, cuts up, and alters the original vocals, which were key to the impact of the song. All told, I prefer the original, with the less conventional time signature and the vocals intact. And without the incredible, constantly mutating bass line from the original album, Stefan Goodchild's "The Warning" is not very interesting.

The last three remixes follow the same order as on the original album. Kronos Quartet contribute a straightforward reading of "Another Version Of The Truth" on classical violin, which is just as moody as the original and somewhat reminiscent of Godspeed You Black Emperor in their better moments. Christian Fennesz strips the overbearing percussion out of "In This Twilight," and with the increased emphasis on the words and vocals, it becomes clear that the song is very well-written, and probably Reznor's best ballad (better than "Hurt" -- yes, I said it!). Finally, New Order do something similar to "Zero Sum," cleaning up the hissing percussion and replacing most of it with a dark techno pulse, which accents the rueful tone of the vocals quite well. (They do the same thing for "God Given" as well, and it works there too, although that song is more obviously suited to such a treatment.)

Overall, the whole thing is worth a listen. A lot of it serves as a reminder of how strong the original songs are. The best couple of tracks, particularly "The Beginning Of The End," are good enough to take on the originals. It's fun to imagine that some of these modifications might cause Reznor himself to change his approach in the future.

This is in no way better than the original, but I would not want to sell it short either because every one of these songs is trying to make a point and I do not intend to be arrogant enough to ignore that.

That having been said, some of these artists it really helps to be familiar with, such as Saul Williams and "The Knife," because I feel that the other reviewers who expressed strong distaste were most likely reacting to either one of those two or else "The Faint" who also turn in a very stylized rendition consistent with their context. Aside from that, the rest of the disc consists of versions that are very clear in their context and generally even fairly easy to imagine Reznor doing himself, to some degree.

Besides, if you hate it then that's the point, because he gives you the whole album on the DVD that you can plug into Garage Band (or other programs) and remix however you please. There is hardly room for complaint, unless you are the kind of person who has no use for this kind of thing...in that case steal the MP3s from somewhere online (obviously!).

It helps if you adopt a "just-for-fun" attitude before you set up expectations. People expect too much from Reznor...let grandpa take a nap already!

I would say that overall this cd is good. The first six songs aren't what I'd consider quality (except for 2). It isn't till you get to 7 and beyond that the cd catches its pace and really becomes a great addition the NIN cd collection that I'm sure you've started already like so many of us have. The first song annoys me that it is even on this at all. It isn't Trent so why is it considered NIN? Shouldn't this be on Saul's cd or something? He didn't even really cover it he mostly just sampled it right? Anyhow, so I thought about giving this a 4 star rating based on the music, the only thing that made me give the 5th star was the companion cd that lets you remix on your own. Granted, you can get this stuff online but any artist giving their listeners the tools to create their own remixes is worth the 5th star.

I'll note that 7 till the end makes this cd worth buying. (9 happens to be my favorite with a close second being the string quartet remix of "Another Version of the Truth")