The second (but first to be released) album of 2008 by Trent Reznor is titled Ghosts I-IV. A sprawling instrumental double album clocking in at nearly 2 hours, Ghosts has no song titles, but seems to be divided up into four sections with nine tracks each. Like The Slip, it is available to download for free via their website, except you can only download part one of four (but there are other, less legal ways of obtaining the album in its entirety of course).Reznor is accompanied by some interesting guest musicians on this experimental outing. Andrian Belew, of King Crimson, plays guitar on three tracks and Brian Viglione, of the World Inferno/Friendship Society plays drums out of a drumkit he built out of scrap metal and various objects.
It's not surprising that Reznor has finally decided to put out an instrumental album. He did the soundtrack for the orginal Quake video game back in 1997 and has always been known for his expermintation. This collection of anything goes is filled with deep rich somber piano, minimalist tribal beats, haunting scraping heroin withdrawals, droning slumber, whisping auras, and electronic raptures. If you thought the Fragile was ambitious, you might change your mind.
The length of this record may be intimidating, but it is a rewarding listen if you take the time to listen to it all the way through, or in chunks. Either way, Reznor has a way of putting out interesting shit no matter what the format is.
Download Ghosts part I!
