Nine Inch Nails / Coil - Recoiled

Prick up your ears, fans of Nine Inch Nails and Coil - you are in for an exquisite treat. Prepare to be taken on an unnerving journey to the pitch-black depths of four legendary tracks from NIN's opus The Downward Spiral, as you explore lurid untapped dimensions of these classic works.

Recoiled presents us with unpredictable forays into experimental drone territory, buoyed by a downbeat, throbbing energy and interspersed with a myriad deranged effects. This sensational collaboration came into being during the production of NIN's 90s remix works Further Down the Spiral and Fixed. It was released as a bootleg after the passing of Jhonn Balance and Peter Christopherson, the founding members of Coil.

As the original Nine Inch Nails tracks undergo deconstructive transformation, the prevailing feeling fostered by the resulting reworked versions is one you presumably experience when emerging from an extended drug haze, with an emptying sensation and auditory hallucinations to boot.

Gave Up (Open My Eyes) kicks off the proceedings with an airy intro punctuated by disparate chunks of vocals from the first verse of the original. In the background, Reznor's distorted and echoing screams make for a rather dissonant state of affairs, and then the track takes an aggressive turn and proceeds to batter the listener with a rugged staccato rhythm overlaid with looping guitars from the original's chorus.

Supplementary parts of the original are brought into the foreground on Closer (Unrecalled), cutting in ad hoc amid intensifying percussion. As with Gave Up (Open My Eyes), there is a guitar-driven change of tone, softened at the end of the track by subdued piano chords. The Downward Spiral (A Gilded Sickness) features decelerated and often circuitous vocal parts which, in contrast to the original, take center stage and alternate between clean and heavily processed.

Eraser (Reduction) hits in waves of labyrinthine, jarring atonality reminiscent of the soundtrack Reznor did for the first installment of id Software's Quake. Mutated phrasings surface briefly and are swallowed up again by surges of shrill synth noise, disappearing in the intricate and raucous textures. This track is best summed up with a quote from Trent Reznor: "I think there is something strangely musical about noise." The EP concludes with the oddly-named Eraser (Baby Alarm Remix), which is a mixed bag of uncharacteristically up-tempo drum loops, heavy and layered guitar riffs and a rolling low end.

All in all, this rare gem leaves a sour taste (in the best way possible), and will most assuredly please staunch Nine Inch Nails/Coil fans as well as admirers of dark experimental music. Aug 02 2014