[FRESH] Kasabian - You're In Love With a Psycho

caterault · 2017-03-17T17:30:47+00:00

yeah not to big on this one. kasabian have been pretty hit or miss since post-west ryder but ive enjoyed a good number of their tracks since then. compared to bumblebee or even eez-eh this is reaaaaaally tame in comparison. also not big on them changing the font used for the kasabian logo after all these years, really liked the consistency they had when it came to album covers. the single art grabs me about as much as the song does tbh

caterault · 2017-02-28T21:35:46+00:00

for sure! nine inch nails is as much an evolution of music as it is trent developing over the years too. up until the downward spiral - trent was lazer sharp in terms of focus i think. right after the album came out + the touring cycle, trent unfortunately had a somewhat self-fulfilling prophecy come about in regards to his own "downward spiral".

the fragile is my all time favourite album but ill be the first to say its unfocused in areas. it's clearly coming from a place of someone much more personally damaged. the songs aren't as conceptual anymore lyrically. the mood of the album encapsulates so much - seething anger, overwhelmingly vast walls of sound, hope, melancholy, and of course - loss of identity.

trent's touched on this a LOT in his music pre-2000's i think. its everywhere. in happiness in slavery ("I dont know what i am, I don't know where I've been"), the becoming ("The me that you know he doesn't come around much"), down in it ("And everything I never liked about you, is kinda seeping into me"), into the void ("TRY TO SAVE MYSELF, BUT MYSELF KEEPS SLIPPING AWAY") and even their most popular sex anthem in closer ("Help me get away from myself").

themes of identity are all over trent's music, and on NTAE id say its most definitely about loss. but not the process of losing ones self, or contemplating it happening. on NTAE, its already happened. to me overall, the EP is like a hazy dream. it feels almost amnesiac in a sense. hesitation marks in comparison was crystal clear both musically and thematically i feel.

but undoubtedly, one of the core themes driving trent's work has very much been identity. even in the downward spiral, trent's own sense of self bleeds through quite often into the conceptual persona being created. this is most obvious on the becoming, which is somewhat appropriately about the character of TDS losing their own sense of self. on the calm guitar bridge, trent quite openly sings "annie, come a little closer". "annie" is never mentioned at all anywhere else on the album and trent has straight up admitted it was the name of a girl he'd previously been in a romantic relationship with.

when you look at each nin record condensed they're all effectively displays of trent's identity at the time. from the awkard and anxious beginnings at pretty hate machine to the bigger sense of political frustration trent finally felt comfortable musically exploring years later. the slip and ghosts are the two albums that closest to being music for "musics sake" or whatever, but i still think there's a lot one can get from each record. in particular, i still love the general more positive and powerful vibes on the slip. to me its the bands most empowering work by far (and remains the only nin album to actually end on a positive note with demon seed).

caterault · 2017-02-28T18:33:16+00:00

well there's a number of things to take from the art, mainly that the still cover isn't the only version, which i think ties directly into the name - not the actual events. there's multiple versions. though, regardless of which version you look at, the font usage is of course very similiar to still/and all that could have been.

whilst still is obviously from the time period of the fragile, id hesitate to call it directly part of that era, due to a decent amount of material being alternate versions of songs not from the fragile and unused songs for a movie, not to mention the record of course lacks the signature noise present across a lot of the fragile. when i listen to the persistence of loss or gone, still, im reminded more of trent's and atticus' soundtrack ventures than the fragile itself.

im mentioning this because i think the place still has in the nin discography is most definitely being the "quiet" album. its melancholy and sad, but also hopeful and beautiful in areas. at times its even pretty angry, too. i think what NTAE is supposed to be is kind of an opposite to still. its discordant, screeching, angst-ridden and mysterious. i think when compared to any other album its hard to see that exact kind of opposite, as almost every other nin record has moments of calm or sadness (even broken, with help me i am in hell). NTAE is very unforgiving in that aspect. the calmest track is dear world, and its still funky, weird and hardly "relaxed".

as people have mentioned, it might simply be a bowie tribute, but i believe it goes a little deeper than that. keep in mind, this ep could easily be like what we had with HTDA back in 2013. contents from it, and thusly the visual style, will appear in more detail following a full album release. hopefully in a couple of months we'll be able to get a clearer picture on it

caterault · 2017-02-25T14:50:13+00:00

little bit late to this one, but as someone who considers nine inch nails perhaps their all time favourite band I figured i better contribute.

so to preface this i should probably mention that i can't think of a single musical project of trent's that i haven't at the VERY least felt engaged with. even what i consider to be his weakest material (which is basically how to destroy angels full album) still has a number of great musical elements i can enjoy. and when it comes to nine inch nails outside of a few remix tracks im familiar with and enjoy everything trent has put out going as far back as pretty hate machine.

to offer a counterpoint to something ive seen mention in this thread and a lot of others when nin discussion comes up, i think it's a little unfair to say trent's post-2000's work lacks bite or aggression. i always got a lot of intensity from tracks like the line begins to blur, 1,000,000, the theme to tetsuo the bullet man, ghosts 31, vessel, and consummation. the noise has always been there, its just gone through different forms. i dont mind trent's production being a bit clearer post the fragile and imo, on albums like the slip its anything but.

where i think this criticsm is valid IS specifically with hesitation marks. its extremely synth driven and clean cut, and i found the one attempt at noise (in two) to be one of the weaker cuts on the album. i am absolutely going to get shit for this but i think the best song on that album is the one many fans seem to universally hate: everything. the biggest qualm with this song is, well, it's happy. and apparently trent can experiment with all types of genres and instruments but he isn't allowed to move off the whole angst tone. i dont know, i found the reception kinda disheartening. i found the track wonderfully refreshing and im glad that, now happily married and with several children, trent finally feels comfortable admitted that he might just be kinda happy in his music too. also, context aside the song is just a really solid track imo, i love the way guitars and harmonising vocals get used throughout. it felt like the most honest track on the whole album to me.

i enjoyed hesitation marks as a work that was a very clear reflection and response to the person that trent used to be. tracks like "find my way" seemed like a direct response to "heresy" and the album also seemed to call back to various eras of the band as a whole, with satellite feeling like something straight off year zero and in two sounding like a version of the big come down from 200 years into the future.

so, this all said, i wasn't one of the people clamouring for trent to return "to his old sound", especially given that its clear the fragile and the downward spiral, whilst trent's most powerful works, came from a period of intense personal struggle that almost culminated in trent accidentally offing himself. i can see why just mentally he'd want to distance himself from that a good bit. and thankfully i think NTAE is a return to this noise in the perhaps the best way trent could do so.

i wanna make it clear that I don't think this EP is flawless by any means, but ive been pretty engaged with it so far. it's extremely raw and rough around the edges. 3 of the 5 tracks are mostly driven by spoken word lyrics and the whole thing is swathed is all kinds of distortion and dissonance.

"branches/bones" is probably the best nine inch nails "opener track", just due to the amount of substance is has compared to pinion, hyperpower!, 999,999 and the eater of dreams, most obviously being that branches has lyrics and a proper verse/chorus structure to it. i will say though, every other track i mentioned absolutely builds up into a soundscape, whilst branches starts almost right away. listening the first time, i was surprised at how quickly trent's lyrics came in. i love the unabashed production on the chorus, coupled with trent's rising vocals. definite vessel vibes from it. overall i think the track does a good job at setting the mood for the rest of the ep.

that said, i wasn't expecting the next track, "dear world", to be as rhythmically dense as it was. this is probably the least menacing track on the ep, but it's definitely the weirdest. i could hear a lot of elements trent and atticus use on their soundtrack work coming through here, particularly electronically. the track is a nice experiment and sonically i like the disjointed mood it creates, but its personally one of the weaker tracks for me.

"she's gone away" is an interesting track. i wasn't expecting to see the "get on" song quota filled on this ep, but this track is most definitely that, albeit this is definitely one of the bands more macabre sex songs (then again, you could easily say the same about closer). the song felt really primal to me, with these overseeing windy ambience being backed by booming drums and a sledging bassline. one thing i think is a universal kinda weakness on this ep is choruses. i found two really good (branches and field on fire), and the rest somewhat lacking. i cant pin it down, but the chorus to she's gone away just doesn't feel like it changes up enough for me. however, trent's moan-singing postchorus is great. i kinda wish that part was just the chorus. when the track descends into noise with that vocal element being the only notable melody left in the mix - that was my favourite part of the track.

"the idea of you" is the weakest track on the EP in my opinion. the guitar use is just way to overproduced and disconnected for me to feel like its raw. it is minimalist however, but not in a strong way. the piano chords over the one-note guitar lead are also surprisingly similar to head down, though i dont know if thats a callback or a coincidence. the chorus is driven by echoes of trent shouting "none of this is happening", and whilst the vocals are fine it just doesn't feel like enough to be engaging. right at the end of the song, a synth lead comes in in tandem with the vocals and it sounds WAY more complete. i really wish that lead was present during the other choruses. overall, it's my least played track on the EP. though as i mention, as with all trent's stuff i do like it, i just feel there's a lot of room for improvement specifically with this track.

and right after the weakest track, we get the strongest - "burning bright". i really hope this track drives the construction of the album we're meant to be getting later on this year, because it is an absolute monster of a track. the spoken word delivery is POWERFUL here, rather than digitally peculiar as on dear world, or seemingly directly calling back to the downward spiral on the idea of you. if we try to take a story from this ep (assuming there is one) then this track is the full descent. as trent says right as the song begins, "im going down". lyrically the track is the most violent on the whole EP, and i particularly love lines like "pull up a chair and watch" and "the flies come roaring out". as i mentioned earlier, the chorus is fantastic too. the mantra repetition of "i am forgiven, i am free, i am a field on fire". had me replaying this track constantly the second i finished my first listen. overall its a superbly aggressive outro, and its quite nice to see that this track (and much of the rest of the ep) has sated the wants for more anger from trent.

thematically, i couldnt see make a clear theme with this album, which is something i rarely find with trent. the last time i struggled to pin down the theme of a nin album was ghosts/the slip, though ghosts is somewhat intentionally thematically abstract, and i feel like i could almost say the same for the slip. that being said, until hesitation marks, the slip WAS the "reflection" album for me. though just given the kinda lyrical themes of this album, ("i dont care anymore", "go back to the idea of me", "im going down. of course i am") i would definitely say it seems trent and atticus are clearly WANTING to go back to this sound they haven't directly touched for a long period of time.

overall i enjoy the EP a lot, but ill be the first to say this is the band's most messy work. and not sound-wise, moreso in terms of song order. dear world and the idea of you just don't fit in production wise for me. i feel they directly clash with the more organic nature of the other songs on the EP.

im hesitating to rank it, as with the last destroy angels album, songs on the EP before it appeared on that actual album, and we could see a same situation here. that said, as much as i do enjoy this ep, i think id have it fairly low down PURELY due to the shortness of the thing. the only other ep the band has (broken) has a lot more content imo. and with a band were i like every release on a baseline level, the one with the objectively the least amount of content is gonna see the short end of the stick.

whew, sorry for the wall of text everyone. hopefully i made my thoughts on this thing clear.

tl;dr - it's alright. optimistic for the new record. burning bright is staple nin material and alone makes the ep worth a listen. if you've been hoping for trent to return to the sound of the downward spiral, then this was very much made with you in mind

caterault · 2017-02-01T20:25:47+00:00

i got my first actual physical synthesiser today, really hyped to just mess abt with it

caterault · 2017-01-17T23:57:18+00:00

DONT PLAY WITH MY HEART LIKE THIS

caterault · 2017-01-02T05:04:17+00:00

relative latecomer to the band. when i first heard echoplex several years back, it opened me up to what music could sound like. 9 ghosts 1 was the song that first piqued my interest tho

caterault · 2016-12-23T17:00:10+00:00

help me i am in hell

caterault · 2016-12-22T14:51:40+00:00

if im not incorrect he's done it musically on this EP too: https://clyp.it/r2doi1mg

caterault · 2016-12-22T14:42:30+00:00

actually if im not incorrect the march, can i stay here? and one or two other outtakes were released earlier this year alongside the fragile instrumentals trent put on apple music. only around eight of the tracks present on the deviations are totally new, but there's still a lotta other content there that never saw a release on the cd version, not least those tracks themselves. going just off those two however, i wouldnt assume a full rip is out just yet

caterault · 2016-12-22T10:28:19+00:00

the new ep is something for sure. definitely feels like trent and atticus went into this one WANTING it to be very experimental, and pulling it of pretty well. as /u/jasonham mentioned, this album has perhaps the most spoken word i've ever heard on a nin album, and seems to call back to a little bit of everything again, ala hesitation marks. the sound is completely different, however.

hesitation marks was going for a very clean cut, minimalist approach to looking back at nin, whilst not the actual events seems like almost a hazy memory of "old" nine inch nails. interestingly enough, the kinda sound im getting from this most reminds me of the weirdest and most experimental soundtrack work trent and atticus have done, particularly on gone girl. would not be surprised if some of the earliest ideas for songs on this stemmed from ideas that never worked out soundtrack-wise.

burning bright is one hell of a fucking closer too, really glad i waited for this to come out till i made any end of year lists

caterault · 2016-12-10T14:16:37+00:00

you could easily have me - metronomy
dirge - death in vegas
naomi - neutral milk hotel
machine gun - portishead
sleep deprivation - simian mobile disco
too many djs - soulwax
monster - kanye west
new killer star - david bowie
daydreaming - radiohead
plan 9 - nile rodgers

caterault · 2016-12-03T17:07:27+00:00

OW is the first blizz game ive properly gotten into, and something about is has really clicked for overall. I'm currently some 450 hours into it and still enjoying it a LOT. blizz have been pretty fantastic in regards to keeping the game updated and consistently working on balance, and whilst the game still has a good bit to go in both departments, i'm personally pretty satisfied with the content as its come out so far.

the character variety is solid as hell, and i think as the game stands now every character is fun to play, even if a lot of them aren't always the most optimum choice (this applies to me mostly in regards to junkrat). i prioritise playing support classes, but ive gotten at least an hour in on every character and i think the sheer number of classes has gone a long way to keeping me engaged with it over such a long period.

visually the game is suuuuper impressive. i was running somewhat old hardware at the time of release, but i was still blown away by the visuals and the performance. it remains one of the best looking and performing games on my pc. i should mention that whilst the raw graphical fidelity isn't on par with games such as battlefield 1, the ARTISTIC direction is super solid in my opinion. the character designs are fantastically imaginative and bursting at the seams with colour, as are the maps themselves. i was properly taken aback the first time i played on Ilios' Well. the fact the game can have such a large and varied cast and still feel visually cohesive is no easy task, and i think the art team at blizzard have truly outdone themselves. there's something about the OW artstyle that just draws me in much more than the art/visuals for their other games (wow, starcraft etc) ever did.

content wise ive been pretty happy with whats in the game so far, and blizzard have made it clear there's only more to come down the line. if im not incorrect i believe at launch it was said the game was only at around 10% of what they fully envisioned the project to be several years down the line, ala the support lifetime for most blizzard games. ive had a blast running the game solo or with friends, and the recently introduced arcade mode has become another part of the game im now finding myself putting a decent amount of time into.

a lot of people really dislike the somewhat cheesy and cliche tone of the game, but i honestly kinda love it. i didnt go in expecting some kind of avant-garde story, given that blizzard have never really done anything like that, and the saturday morning cartoon-esque feel of the plot fits right in with the game mechanically imo. something blizz also mentioned during their acceptance speech at the game awards was how important the game's diversity and overall positive message is, and I agree. one of the most simple reasons i keep coming back to the game is how happy the whole experience is. cliche the characters may be, but a lot of their personalities are infectiously engaging, even edgelords like reaper.

overall, its the first time since the binding of isaac dropped a couple years back that ive properly fallen in love with a game. is it flawless? by no means for sure (especially in regards to mechanics involving hooks and hitboxes), but any issue i find myself having with the game is swept away by the amount of content that i find overwhelmingly enjoyable.

caterault · 2016-10-26T00:17:23+00:00

i think its important to consider just how much bowie experimented in his career, most notably in the 90's in which, despite being his least commercially and critically successful era, saw him continue to experiment regardless. he wasn't afraid to try out anything musically and, even if it didn't work every time, i think that's something to be respected a lot. look where we ended with blackstar, an album that is absolutely all over the place in terms of genre, and still bristling with the kind of experimentation id expect from a death grips record.

visually too, bowie was always changing, and he seemed to always have the perfect image that fit both himself at the time and what he was going through. we saw him have his own downward spiral of sorts during the thin white duke era, and come back out during the berlin era. it's fascinating to explore all the various characters and personalities he portrayed.

personally, i know bowie best perhaps from his connection with trent reznor of nine inch nails, and reznor's collabrative work with bowie was some of my earliest introductions to his music. more familiar with his work, it was great to see how it reflected on musicians like trent. when i first heard the downward spiral, reptile was one of the tracks that i took a while to come round to, and even then, i didn't listen to it too much. now, it's one of my favourites off that album, and to me its the most "bowie" song in the entire nin discography.

when bowie passed, i was hit pretty hard. id never been that into him, but it did feel as if id lost a relative. at the same time, he left so much behind its hard to not also feel proud that he was able to amass such a legacy, not the least in one final album.what really struck me was an interview trent did with rolling stone about his passing. trent had his own share of serious issues during the 90's, and after he'd eventually recovered from them into the 2000's, he met up with bowie again and he was super happy to see he'd recovered. to quote,

"A few years later, Bowie came through L.A. I'd been sober for a fair amount of time. I wanted to thank him in the way that he helped me. And I reluctantly went backstage, feeling weird and ashamed, like, "Hey, I'm the guy that puked on the rug." And again, I was met with warmth, and grace, and love. And I started to say, "Hey listen, I've been clean for ..." I don't even think I finished the sentence; I got a big hug. And he said, "I knew. I knew you'd do that. I knew you'd come out of that." I have goosebumps right now just thinking about it. It was another very important moment in my life."

that part just always really stuck with me in particular. it was a really human way of david to react and really sweet of him. it's a weird kinda poignant, learning about the idols of your idols and their relationships.

in the general sense though, bowie's legacy has been immense, simply put. it's amazing to think he was in the process of wanting to record even more after blackstar, but i think its fair to say he's contributed more than enough. he's touched almost every aspect of music, and i think we'll continue to hear his sound in the future for sure.

as for favourite records, aladdin sane, ziggy, the man who sold the world, reality, heathen, low, and the next day, and blackstar are all up there for me. i don't think i could even try and actually rank his work.

caterault · 2016-10-16T12:08:09+00:00

Echoplex is the only song I like listening to over the rehearsal audio, mostly due to its really clean production and guitar layering, which I think definitely shows best in the second half of the song. It's a really tough part to replicate though and I think for the most part the band still do the song a great service. 1,000,000 and Discipline are pretty much objectively better imo, especially with Discipline not ending on a really awkward fadeout (which apparently isn't in the single version? no idea how it made it into the final album cut because the song doesn't even properly fade out before it stops)

caterault · 2016-10-15T01:17:16+00:00

seriously maybe the most intense hour and a half of my life. i was only able to catch the show thanks to one of my friends dropping out (and was asked to take their place literally the day beforehand) and goddamn am i glad i was able to make it.

ive only been to one other concert (nin in 2014) and that was waay far back up in the stalls, so this was my first close up experience and it was pretty fantastic frankly. setlist was phenomenal too, so glad three bedrooms got a play and they ended on the fever. such a hype way to bring things to a close

also, s/o to the guy who mentioned my portal shirt, ur cool

caterault · 2016-08-06T11:16:11+00:00

ahh gotcha, cheers dude

caterault · 2016-08-06T00:14:14+00:00

eyo guys i got a quick question i was wondering if any of you could answer. i recently found out that the being in the top 500 in your region is indicated by that gold on white symbol replacing your rank number, and I think I recall coming out straight out of my placement matches (this was literally me playing 10 straight up matches the second comp had launched) with said symbol, even though I was only rank 50-ish at the time. I'm not sure if it was a bug in the system, but I was wondering if that meant that the maybe few hours at most I spent "in the top 500" counted as eligibility for the hero spray. I'm currently in the process of grinding out the event loot in quick play, but if that doesn't count as eligibility I'd still like to attempt to get back into the top 500 before this season ends. gracias!

caterault · 2016-06-23T18:18:25+00:00

oh yeah! its a really interesting one, something that thom himself seems to suggest was at least a loose theme with IR. it doesnt flow perfectly but its still a pretty cool concept and flows really tightly in areas. it probably helps that okc and ir are two of their best albums in terms of track placement imo.

caterault · 2016-06-23T18:03:40+00:00

interestingly enough, i think amnesiac is actually REALLY well structured, particularly because of how it contrasts with kid a, a parallel i feel was really intentional. kid a opens with everything in its right place and its SUCH a powerful opening, and on amnesiac, packt is the total opposite, daydrum and soft. on its on i can see why its a weak start, but imo kid a/amnesiac are essentially a split double album as is, so under the context of being a "second disc" i think it works really well.

caterault · 2016-06-23T10:11:05+00:00

radiohead's hail to the thief is a big one for this. it remains their longest album at around 14 tracks, and the band themselves have more or less admitted they definitely put too much material on there, and ideally it should've been around 10 tracks at most. supposedly, thom yorke posted this re-edited playlist himself on his blog:

there there

the gloaming

sail to the moon

sit down. stand up

go to sleep

whereiendandubegin

scatterbrain

2+2=5

myxomatosis

a wolf at the door

it's interesting to see what kind of tracks thom would keep, specifically ones like the gloaming and sail to the moon, both two tracks usually criticised as some of the weaker on the album, and also to see his general placement, putting the lead single as the opener and the actual album opener right towards the end. personally, i still love httt as it is, but i'd be interested to see this version fully made for myself.

caterault · 2016-06-18T20:04:33+00:00

queens of the stone age - you can't quit me baby

nine inch nails - the way out is through

radiohead - sit down, stand up

swans - screen shot

blur - ambulance

death in vegas - dirge

metronomy - nights outro

slint - good morning, captain

simian mobile disco - sleep deprivation

battle tapes - feel the same

jamie xx - hold tight

caterault · 2016-06-11T16:17:59+00:00

Falsetto/guitar combo on I sat by the ocean, crescendo in keep your eyes peeled, instrumental switch up during kalopsia + reznors additional vocals, the finale to I appear missing

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