Isn’t it sad that after all these years, I’m still excited when NIN releases new material? It’s even more exciting when it’s free!

Following the steps of Radiohead, Saul Williams and the like, NIN has self-released a new instrumental album: Ghost I-IV. Even taking it a step further by making the album available directly on bittorrent.

We’re very proud to present a new collection of instrumental music, Ghosts I-IV. Almost two hours of music recorded over an intense ten week period last fall, Ghosts I-IV sprawls Nine Inch Nails across a variety of new terrain.

Now that we’re no longer constrained by a record label, we’ve decided to personally upload Ghosts I, the first of the four volumes, to various torrent sites, because we believe BitTorrent is a revolutionary digital distribution method, and we believe in finding ways to utilize new technologies instead of fighting them.

We encourage you to share the music of Ghosts I with your friends, post it on your website, play it on your podcast, use it for video projects, etc. It’s licensed for all non-commercial use under Creative Commons.

We’ve also made a 40 page PDF book to accompany the album. If you’d like to download it for free, visit http://ghosts.nin.com/main/pdf

Ghosts I is the first part of the 36 track collection Ghosts I-IV. Undoubtedly you’ll be able to find the complete collection on the same torrent network you found this file, but if you’re interested in the release, we encourage you to check it out at ghosts.nin.com, where the complete Ghosts I-IV is available directly from us in a variety of DRM-free digital formats, including FLAC lossless, for only $5. You can also order it on CD, or as a deluxe package with multitrack audio files, high definition audio on Blu-ray disc, and a large hard-bound book.

And here is the link to the official torrent here.

Saul Williams - Black History Month
Saul Williams - Sunday Bloody Sunday
Saul Williams - List of Demands (Reparations)

Radiohead made a big splash recently because of their truly alternative way of providing their album, In Rainbows, via download where the listener gets to decide how much to pay. The move to cut the middleman created an incredible buzz throughout the music industry - and beyond.
Saul Williams, a protégé of NIN’s Trent Reznor (who also produced this record and whose voice Williams’ own uncannily resembles), went the same path for his latest album, The Inevitable Rise of Niggy Tardust, with much less success. It’s unfortunate because Williams has a wonderful way with words, and the music mixes hip hop and rock effortlessly - unlike those awful nü-metal bands.

The first two songs are from Niggy Tardust. I thought since today is the last day of Black History Month, it would only be fitting to have that song on. Sunday Bloody Sunday is indeed a cover of the U2 song. While Williams doesn’t quite have Bono’s vocal chords, he makes up for it with the instrumentation. List of Demands is from his self-titled 2004 album.

You can choose to purchase Niggy Tardust for $5 or download it for free from the site.

First up, is a band i never gave any attention to for large amounts of time; they came about pre-internet on my radar and were swiftly dismissed at that early time. For years they wallowed (ignored) out of sight and sound along my musically maturing journey; a foolish error, school boy stuff. Which is precisely the time it occurred, so that excuse is entirely valid and useful. That’s right, i am going to hide behind that one.

However, a couple of years ago perhaps, whilst milling around my now dearly beloved-yet-now-defunct Fopp record store, were they not playing the most joyous indie psychedelic pop songs i’d heard for ages. So inventive! Who the devil were these ingenious musical chameleons? Song after song did it not just delight yet never register who. Steal drums, bongos, harmonies….glitchy electronics, beats, echoed brass, then…a harmonica….then a rave breakdown? Loungy funk and electric-kissed vocals that sounded so like Air, but then it gets all fuzzy, washed out guitars that reminded me so fondly of those American undergrounds, then warbles right out into outer space….Who? The bloody Super Furry Animals?! Well, bugger my ignorance!

Super Furry Animals - Northern Lites
Super Furry Animals - Slow Life
Super Furry Animals - Ice Hockey Hair

Blur were always known. Course they were, in their media jousting with Oasis whilst Radiohead were clearly making the best guitar rock right under their noses. Big House in the Country charts and Song 2 on some FIFA computer game, i forget which, but i played it quite a lot. At least Coxon and Greenwood appreciated each other. Talents were obvious but clouded. But whilst Oasis went nowhere with their sound, and Radiohead went pioneering, Blur went and matured and got worldly. And they made an album i adore. An album that nestles so right in my groove of life just now, a loose but smartly together sound, a travelled sound, a hint exotic, spicy yet woody. You can hear Morocco and a hot orange sunset giving way to some inky blue abyss.
Think Tank burns some late night oil in my soul, coaxing and flickering. So i want to put a couple of tracks up to tick the night away…

Blur - Caravan
Blur - Sweet Song

Girl in a Coma - Road to Home
Girl in a Coma - Clumsy Sky
Girl in a Coma - In the Background

Girl in a Coma - or if the Smiths were punk girls. Some of the melodies by this three-girl ensemble are reminiscent of Moz and company - they certainly don’t deny the influence (see name) - but it would be confining to put them in such a tight box.
Girl in a Coma are punky, spunky, versatile and deftly blend pop, rock, punk with a wee (wee!) bit of country and even Elvis (Mr. Chivalry). And Nina Diaz’ extraordinary voice truly is a gift to the world of music.

i am too exhausted to purge the net for exciting new music tonight. blame the rain, or a new work schedule. so take comfort in the old. even the old can reveal wonders that new music just can’t match sometimes.

Big Star - Femme Fatale

a favourite of mine off third sister, i think the despondency that permeates that album just makes this cover all the more convincing, like a damp bitterness you can’t shake.

Nina Simone - Another Spring

a song that encompasses so much in its simplicity. nostalgia and wisdom. it’s light and dark; morosity embodied in that loose minor jazz and spoken verse and it’s turn to hope, to gospel, that splash of tambourine and hands clapping, to joy. it makes the soul blossom.