Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

Nine Inch Nails

Not the Actual Events

Label: The Null Corporation Release Date: 23/12/2016

104340
random_dan by Dan Cole January 3rd, 2017

Even after coming back from hiatus, there was a sense that Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails were stuck with a certain formula: a post-industrial template for mid-lifers who secretly wanted their music safer. Yet at the same time, Reznor’s film-score work alongside Atticus Ross was taking off into a completely direction – epic, avant-garde and wholly original. In 2016 alone, the two managed to score a piece dedicated to NASA’s Juno mission, as well as contributing several stirring pieces to the environmental documentary, Before the Flood. So with the late announcement of new Nine Inch Nails material, I was curious to see which Reznor would be turning up.

The answer to this; neither and both. Not the Actual Events is a five-track EP that is an erratic display of new wave-punk, synth-pop, formulated grooves, and gothic overtones. It sounds like Reznor working in the studio like no one is watching, shouting to himself, punching random synthesizers. It’s an artist free of any unnecessary expectations. In that way it’s very reminiscent The Fragile, perhaps the most creative body of work by the project.



Interestingly enough, Atticus Ross is now listed as a permanent member of the band. That being said, with Nine Inch Nails forever being a carousel of performers and songwriters, it leaves us in ambiguous territory as to who else might be behind this latest incarnation of the act. It’s not as if Atticus is new to the fold though. He’s credited on most of Nine Inch Nail’s recent works, including the tame Hesitation Marks and The Slip. So what his offical role is now, we can’t be sure. But his contribution to the further running of things is profound. The EP kicks off with ‘Branches / Bones’, a bare-backed Reznor classic built a programmed drum-loop, bassline and typical guitar. There’s ‘She’s Gone Away’, a kind of homage to The Cult, and ‘Burning Bright (Field on Fire)’, a hells-on-wheels soon to be set-closer that your Apple earbuds will never do justice to.

Just when you thought Reznor and his obscenely large biceps had been plugging away far too long on what was essentially a Nine Inch Nails tribute act, he sets things straight again with an original, well-produced, no-bullshit record. More of this please, and less of that other stuff. And let’s hope that further Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross film scores don’t start sounding like old Nine Inch Nails records, because that would just be weird.

![104340](http://dis.resized.images.s3.amazonaws.com/540x310/104340.jpeg)
  • 8
    Dan Cole's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing


  • Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alternative must sees


  • A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash


  • Way Out East: DiS Does Sharpe Festival 2019



Left-arrow

Various

Action Time Vision: A Story Of Independent UK Punk 1976-1979

Mobback
104339
104342

Lush

Live At KCRW

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141
  • news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139

    Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138
  • Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137

    Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136
  • Festival Review


    Way Out East: DiS Does Sharpe Festival 2019

  • 106135

    Festival Review


    25 years of SPOT Festival: DiS Picks Its Best 11

  • 106134
  • Festival Review


    Twelve Hours Of Drone Is Just The Beginning: Di...

  • 106133
MORE


    review


    Reverend And The Makers - @Reverend_Makers

  • 93547
  • feature


    The National: "We nearly lost our minds making ...

  • 30199

    news


    RIP: the Neu-Kraut scene

  • 28881
  • news


    Brian May in DiS-hating shocker!

  • 20986

    news


    The Neptune Music Prize 2016 - Vote Now

  • 103918
  • Staff-generated


    Reviewed: Shut Up And Play the Hits a documenta...

  • 83336

    DiScussion


    Guyliners: Why Do UK Festivals Have So Few Fema...

  • 97325
  • news


    My Chemical Supergrass: Gerard Way and Gaz Coom...

  • 98527
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2021 DROWNED IN SOUND