Trent Reznor is the New Brian Eno
The only CD I ever checked out of a library that I never returned was “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”, the David Byrne/Brian Eno collaboration. (After many overdue notices arriving in the mail, I went down to the library, told them I’d lost the item, and paid for it. they now have another copy in their stacks). I loved MLITBOG for a lot of reasons, the layered sounds, the samples, the beats, the moods that it created. At the time, I was already familiar with David Byrne’s solo work as well as his work with The Talking Heads, but I had only heard about Eno. Since then, I’ve come to love Eno and his work with a variety of other musicians, including his production work with Devo, Talking Heads, Jane Sieberry (now Issa, who, like Reznor, gives her music away for free) and especially James and the “Laid” and “Wah-Wah” albums. Eno, the “non-musician”, is most known for his prolific catalogue of ambient music, including the fantastic “Music for Airports”, as well as being an amazing record producer and contributor to such movies as David Lynch’s “Dune”.
Eno has always been fascinated by technology and how to twist and bend it for his own purposes. He’s experimented with generative music, music that composes itself, and has branched out into visual art as well, creating a computer game that generates a possible 77 million paintings, chosen by Eno himself. He is currently working on the soundtrack for the multi-player game Spore, “that allows a player to control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a multi cellular organism, through development as a sapient and social land-walking creature, to levels of interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture.” [Wikipedia].
I’m here to make the case that Trent Reznor is the new Brian Eno.
Reznor got his start in Cleveland creating what would become Pretty Hate Machine by himself after-hours at the Right Track Studio where he worked as an assistant engineer and janitor. He became proficient at manipulating sounds and bending technology to his own purposes as well, just as Eno learned to do. He’s produced many record albums, including a handful for Marilyn Manson, as well as the phenomenal “Natural Born Killers” soundtrack and the “Lost Highway” soundtrack. His subtle contribution to Tori Amos’ “Past the Mission” on her “Under the Pink” album showed how quiet he could be when he needed to be. It was also the first time I can remember hearing him sing quietly while someone else took the spotlight.
Reznor’s original music from id Software’s video game “Quake” was long one of my favorite ambient pieces of music to load into iTunes when I needed to get some work done and didn’t want to be disturbed. He expanded his fascination with technology and its possibilities with the release of “Year Zero” and its companion alternate reality websites/reality game and subsequent user-submitted art in 2007.
Eno once predicted that music would one day become user-modifiable constructs, and imagined a day when future generations would look at past generations in wonder, asking in wonder, “you mean you listened to the same music over and over?”. Reznor took that idea and ran with it, releasing “The Hand that Feeds” from his dismal “With Teeth” 2005 release as a multi-track Garage Band download that fans could get for free and remix as they pleased. His newest release “Ghosts I-IV”, was released in a variety of formats, including a free torrent seeded by NIN itself. “Ghosts” was released as with a Creative Commons license (no copyright), and Reznor announced yesterday that the tracks can be used to participate in a NIN sponsored film festival on You Tube.
Talk about user generated content.
The album itself is supurb. I’d love to hear Eno’s thoughts on it. Those of you who haven’t hear it, go grab it at NIN’s official site and give it a listen for yourself. Grab the torrent if you’re familiar with the technology.
“Ghosts” ranges from smooth and quiet piano to the heavy muddy guitar and keyboard laden layers we’ve come to expect from Reznor. I’m looking forward to what people come up with, and might even make a contribution myself if I can find some time along with everything else I have going on.
The frequent Brian Eno references since this release have made me want to check out his work.
Cool post but :
“The album itself is suburb”….what? ;)
@syrav — Ghosts I-IV is *superb*.
Thanks for the catch.
Marc you’re scaring me. I found your post today after Googling keywords my Facebook status: “___ wonders if Reznor will turn into Eno in retirement” (I am THAT narcissistic.) I too have used the brilliant and woefully undiscovered Quake soundtrack as a serious ambient backdrop when coding. Although I had seen Eno’s name in credits on albums over the last 20 years, I did not clue into his own personal body of work until this year. I picked up Ambient 1 (Airports) and 4 (Land) off iTunes a few months ago and were loving them. A few days later I noticed their year of production — I had just assumed they were recent within the last ten years. Airports was 1978. Incredible. I have since gone back and revisited old U2 albums and, once you know what you’re listening for, you can hear Eno’s influence. The recent Coldplay album especially. I have read other pundits point to Eno’s involvement with Coldplay a desperate attempt to freshen up their sound. I’d liken it to the Loudness setting on older stereos: they hit the Eno button. I originally passed over Ghosts, but thanks to a marathon catch-up of the NIN anthology (with reference quality earphones) prior to his “Lights in the Sky” tour coming to my home-town, I have let the Ghosts part of the playlist run through a few times and I’m now sold. Some of it is indistinguishable from Eno, hence my recent status. I hadn’t followed Reznor seriously since Fragile, but the concert has renewed my interest in his work, all of it especially rewarding on good gear, where you can hear the intended nuances. If Reznor is the new Eno, quite possibly Eno was the new Spector … ?
@Fog — Glad you enjoyed the read. Also happy to hear that you’ve discovered and are enjoying Eno, as well as Ghosts. Fantastic.