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I miss Nine Inch Nails. I know they haven’t gone anywhere; they’ve toured pretty consistently in recent years and Trent Reznor has been churning out film soundtracks at an (appropriately, given his origins) industrial pace. But 13 years on from their last “full” album – i.e. one that’s not made up of ambient soundscapes or stapled-together EPs – it’s hard not to yearn for another monument to pour and obsess over a la Pretty Hate Machine, Downward Spiral or With Teeth. Hell, I’ll take The Slip at this point.
But have you ever wondered what Trent Reznor would be like with a couple of glowsticks and a string vest? That’s effectively the question Nine Inch Noize answers. A collaboration with recent tour-mate Boys Noize, the collection of remixed songs has been released to commemorate the team-up live shows at this year’s Coachella and sees the German-Iraqi DJ add Clubland-like elements to Reznor’s world of weird.
Boys Noize offers some brilliant reinterpretations of classic NIN cuts. Heresy becomes a cross between Purple Rain-era Prince and Godflesh, buzzing electronica accentuating the song’s already-killer hook. Memorabilia is cut with what sounds suspiciously like Smack My Bitch Up to give it a rave energy, while the thrumming bass of She’s Gone Away adds a primal, rhythmic drive.
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Nine Inch Noize is spacious and clean in ways older NIN tracks often aren’t, stripping away some of the grime and nihilism to hone in on the lustiest elements of their music. Closer was already responsible for more awkward, sweaty misplaced skin-on-skin contact than a ride on the Tube at rush hour in July. But with the sonic grime stripped off, it’s a lot harder to say, ‘No, this isn’t a fuck anthem’ with a straight face.
NIN have always possessed a singular talent for audio/visual combinations and the footage from Coachella confirms the notion that this is a full sensory experience. If you’ve not seen footage from that first performance, do it now. Watch Closer. Watch Heresy. Watch your mind pop like an oversized zit seeing one of the best live bands to do it at the apex of their artistry.
After that, having just one element feels like we’re dealing with an incomplete puzzle. Whether we ever get the full, cinematic scope of what Reznor and Noize have created (beyond YouTube footage) remains to be seen. But as it is, it’s a satisfying thimble of water in the desert that is waiting for a new Nine Inch Nails album.
Nine Inch Noize is out now via The Null Corporation/Interscope. The collab returns to Coachella on April 18.
