And POLL That Could Have Been: ILM Artist Poll #119 - Nine Inch Nails - RESULTS

Failure's "Fantastic Planet" was the first thing that popped in my head.

maybe not quite the same hyper-layeredness but a couple of 90s albums that, for me, still stand out for their (idiosyncratic and or fresh/new/noticeable) production: Sparklehorse's vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, Eels' Beautiful Freak, DJ Shadow's Endtroducing, and why not, U2's Achtung Baby

the guitar on "we're in this together" sounds like the edge's playing on achtung baby

Regarding hyper-layered: first thing that came to mind was the PE/Bomb Squad stuff, as an antecedent. Trent mentioned 3 Feet High and Rising in the Rick Rubin podcast, so Prince Paul, Dust Brothers and other pre-sample crackdown hip hop production would've been an influence.

Failure's "Fantastic Planet" was the first thing that popped in my head.

i tried the first two tracks and this just sounds to me like standard grungy alt rock, sorry!

It's not 90's (though close) but the album I think of when I hear "hyper layered" is Since I Left You. Especially the original cut with all samples intact.

The sonic aesthetic does seem post-Bomb Squad in its layered approach. Prince Paul and The Dust Brothers (at least Paul's Boutique - I'd need to revisit Odelay again) feel slightly different to me, though I'm struggling to put my finger on why? Maybe it's that density never seems like the point of their productions. I can certainly imagine they might have influenced Trent in terms of their strategic use of sounds (sampled or otherwise) though.

The 90s albums that occurred to me as sharing that kind of vibe were New Kingdom's 'Paradise Don't Come Cheap', Disco Inferno's 'D.I. Go Pop', Ruby's 'Salt Peter' and Garbage's 'Version 2.0', though each of them is doing something at least slightly different.

I love seeing "The Becoming" so high. I thought it might have missed the cut. That would have been my top-ranked TDS track, most likely.

The Woodstock 94 performance of "Sin" alone might have made it my #1.

I know when I first heard it, a large part of the appeal of TDS was definitely the densely layered sound of it, but also that a lot of these sounds were things I'd never heard before, like blowing into straw thing from eraser. I feel like the only kind of stuff I'd heard that did that kind of stuff before was Depeche Mode (because of Flood maybe?)

Yup, I was about to say “Violator” and that era of Flood in general, but none of it is nearly at TDS levels of complexity.

I was a fan of Failure and never really thought of them as that hyper produced. Certainly not to the level of TDS.

In my mind, the only thing that came close the noise/sound layering of TDS was some of Foetus’s work, like Gash.

TDS also benefitted from arriving right as CDs were becoming the primary form of physical media. The level of dynamic range and clarity was unprecedented not only on the album itself but also the method in which I listened to it… I remember being gifted a pair of “good headphones” at age 15 (as opposed to the standard Sony Walkman issuances) and feeling like all the CDs I owned (and dubbed on to tape for mobile listening) were suddenly shocked into focus

The Flood discussion, and his contribution to the Downward Spiral, is very interesting to explore.

I recently read “Into The Never: Nine Inch Nails And The Creation Of The Downward Spiral” by Adam Steiner, which I would heartily recommend. Atrocious front cover, but some excellent and considered writing contained within.

In that book, there are was the suggestion was that Flood became increasingly uneasy and uncomfortable with the bleakness, particularly the suicide ideation, of much of Reznor’s lyrical content - especially a song that didn’t make the cut for the album proper - and bailed out after completing the album swearing he’d never work with him again.

most stuff that comes to mind is a bit more turn-of-the-millenium, reznor was really ahead of his time, but fantasma, ok computer, a few super furry animals songs here and there come to mind

Another comparison that occurred to me was the first Laika album together with the second and third Moonshake albums (the second Laika album might not fit here, even if it’s probably my favourite of the four) - stuff like “Hard Candy” on Dirty & Divine. Those albums came out in 94 and 96 (as did Disco Inferno’s second and third albums) so very comparable timewise.

And of course (“of course”) later on El-P’s production work in the 00s (but not really Company Flow earlier on) - at its best sounding like an attempt to split the difference between “The Becoming” and “By The Time I Get to Arizona”.

Kate Van Buren's channel is a gift

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjqZ8RIiRLU

Well, that's "NIN meet David Crosby at Woodstock 94"