As a droll droog I have never really been much of a Nine Inch Nails fan. I loved whirling around to ‘Head Like A Hole’ every time it was played at student discos and I recognize that they really took industrial music to an, umm, industrial level. The over weening self-importance and lack of fun forever failed to tweak my twiddly bits properly, despite all the swearing. Someone once told me they sounded like Depeche Mode in a really bad mood, which seemed about right and none too appetizing.
Over time I admired some of the soundtrack work and noted that Atticus Ross of 12 Rounds had joined up to serve under the NIN banner. So by 2017 I had softened on them slightly.
The cover of Add Violence was what sold this EP to me, I really like the old-style switches, dials, diodes and meters labelled with goodies like ‘Amplify Chaos’, ‘Deviation’ and ‘Event Intensity’. It looks like a control panel from Chernobyl mounted on the side of an old twin tub washing machine.
I am very glad I bought it. Let’s switch it to existential spin cycle.
Closing track ‘The Background World’ is just an incredible thing. It is 11:44 long and they get the song bit out of the way before the 4 minute mark; it is ironically an angsty, menacing, bleak Depeche Mode-y thing. That’s when it gets amazing.
NIN take an 11 second sample, which glitches unsatisfyingly but dramatically, half way through and repeat it for the remainder of the song. The sample degrades slowly, horribly, interestingly each time it plays, sounding like a worse copy of itself, feeding off multiple ever diminishing returns until by the end all you can hear are the imperfections; the rhythm and cadence of the original sample existing solely in your own head. Eventually all is distortion and bleeding.
It is a brilliantly clever piece, exactingly realised and I have played it almost a quigazillion times now. True story.
Opener ‘Less Than’ is another Depeche Mood piece, all soaring chorus and excellent sudden terminal stop. It is a great lead off tune and I got very excited about the video, featuring as it does an attractive goth and a Jeff Minter* designed game.
Plus Trent gets 1537 bonus points for say-singing ‘Shut Up‘ for absolutely no reason at all early in the track.
Add Violence serves us ‘The Lovers’ next, all cloying trapped-under-ice paranoia and claustrophobia set to masterfully constructed skittering beats and a deep melody. Music to soundtrack your being buried alive, should you require it**.
I prefer the slow build and depth of ‘This Isn’t The Place’ with its rather beautiful piano chords engulfed by a rising tide of edginess. It carries a decided sense of a high stakes mental balancing act and a very fragile piece of peace. The medium is the message, indeed.
The least impressive track here is ‘Not Anymore’ is the angriest, there’s nothing essentially wrong with that but in the context of Add Violence it serves only as a palate cleanser for ‘The Background World’. Small fry, essentially.
Alienation, anger, claustrophobia, hatred, fluffy bunny-wunnies, tension, catharsis and paranoia, add your own words from the NIN Random-word-generator to describe Add Violence, they all fit, it is all cliché now but it still really packs a punch, with added bonus arty finale.
Trust me, your existence could do with being spun a little by this.
1184 Down.
*Wales-based leftfield game genius and ruminant enthusiast; responsible for the Llamatron series of games. I may have just outed myself as a former Amiga nerd. Ah well, so it goes.
**shortly to be included on the 1537 Records compilation Fester Pussycat.