After retiring Nine Inch Nails a few years back (hopefully only temporarily) and winning an Academy Award for his Social Network score, it would’ve been excusable and understandable if Trent Reznor took a short break and faded into the background for a little while. However, those who track the restless and sometimes enigmatic innovator know that any kind of breather he takes will likely be somewhere between short lived and non-existent. The group has zero live plans scheduled on the horizon, although Prefix magazine describes the video below as its “live debut” (sort of).
Reznor’s current band, How To Destroy Angels, will release a new EP titled An omen_ (which oddly seems like more of a Twitter handle than an album name) on November 11th. This marks LP2 for the group, which includes Reznor, his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, as well as Rob Sheridan and Atticus Ross, his constant collaborator on several late-period NIN projects and recent dream team partner for past, present and future film scoring projects (Social Network, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo). Ross and Reznor have been able to create such a broadly appreciated universe and appeal to their scores that stands apart from the excellent films they’ve scored, no small feat there in itself.
Starting with a slow and glitchy mix of beats, pulses and synthetic drum hits, the new tune “Keep It Together” highlights Maandig’s vocals for the most part before a brief and subtle duet with Reznor. Ominous, brooding and delicately heavy, there’s a lot to like here. See below.
http://vimeo.com/52603601
