Ghosts

Never one to shy away from an experiment, Trent Reznor seems to have entered his Brian Eno phase. Okay, maybe not quite Eno, but the latest release from Nine Inch Nails is all instrumental. Set into the world via the website (or Amazon when the site servers crashed from the strain of soooo many people trying to download--f*ck you Oprah and your online book club!!), Ghosts I-IV is much as Reznor himself described. It is a soundtrack to a daydream. A really flippin' long daydream, but a dream none the less.

I was unsure if I would enjoy it, not being into instrumentals myself. Not to mention my concern that I would miss Reznor's voice and all it conveys. I'm pleased to report, that this thing pretty much kicks ass. Or at least, the half that I have gotten through does. There is everything from recognizable piano and guitar to strange squidges, buzzes and other sounds that are both known and unknown. All together they create a hypnotic, but never dull mix. Trent has mentioned on his site that there may be more where this came from, and freed from his record label, I'm sure it will continue to be distributed in this fashion. Allegedly, NIN and Radiohead will be two of the headliners at this year's Lollapolooza in Chicago. I'm not sure how this record will transfer into a live performance, let alone one in such a setting. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

On a side note, I had planned to do a big thing about this weekend's upcoming Duke/Carolina game. But, after reading about the murder of the NC student body president (a really tragic event), discussing such a rivalry seems a bit trivial. It will be an emotional day for the guys from NC, and while I still want Duke to win, I'm hoping that fans from both teams will be able to bond through a shared appreciation of life and how fragile it is.