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Herald Rating: * * * *
Earlier this year Trent Reznor, the brains behind Nine Inch Nails, put out Year Zero which proved a return to form and his best work since 1994's The Downward Spiral.
This remix album of tracks from Year Zero is an excellent companion to the proper album and keeps up his fine tradition of remix projects which started back in 1992 with the mangled excellence of Fixed.
Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D is a double disc package with 14 songs on CD and a DVD which is designed to "expand the concept of the remix record" by allowing fans to manipulate Reznor's songs. A squelchy and breathy industrial dance remix of My Violent Heart by a NIN fan is included here alongside creations by the likes of Joy Division and New Order drummer Stephen Morris, classical avant gardists Kronos Quartet, and dub terrorist Bill Laswell's beats on Vessel are like shorting wires flailing and lashing around. Elsewhere Capital G, the best song on Year Zero, gets a clunky techno beat-up, Meet Your Master is turned into deliciously cheesy funk, and the Knife's Olof Dreijer's 14-minute Me, I'm Not is downright bizarre. Listen to it, get inspired and create your own demented remix of Reznor's work. Just remember, the nastier the better.
Label: Interscope
Verdict: Remix album ups the oonst and industrial crunch
