a very influential project is nine inch nails, founded and mainly driven by trent reznor. i first stumbled about nin when listening to a video called last poet, using the song hurt from nin‘s the downward spiral album. that song made me buy that album, and i already dedicated two posts on spielwiese to the song hurt. another famous song from that album is closer, coming with a rather disturbing music video:

another song i want to present is the hand that feeds from the album with teeth.

another awesome song from that album is besides you in time, which i already presented on spielwiese. another example for the more rocky side of nin is discipline from their newest album the slip, released in 2008.

besides rock songs, there are also very different nin songs. one example is the 7:33 minutes instrumental corona radiata (some speculations about the meaning of the title can be found here). it’s a track best listened to loud.

(remember to turn the volume down again.) the album the slip can be downloaded from its official site.

a very astonishing release by nin is the ghosts i–iv album. 36 tracks, created in a process of improvisation and experimentation. combined with the beautiful booklet, this piece of art is my favourite nin album (next to the downward spiral). i want to present four tracks from the album. the first is 2 ghosts i, a slow piano oriented piece.

the second is 12 ghosts ii. starting slow and calm, as the above track, it evolves into something more powerful after approximately half of the time.

the third is 14 ghosts ii, an impulsive, funky tune. hard to describe.

the fourth is 32 ghosts iv is centered around a single piano key, rythmically played. somewhat mesmerizing.

ghosts i can be downloaded for free on the ghosts homepage; you need to go to the order page and select the free version.