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>LiNE NOiZ<                                                       >LiNE NOiZ<


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I S S U E  -  !  @                                   M A R C H  1 1 , 1 9 9 4

: File !
: Intro to Issue 12
: Billy Biggs <ae687@freenet.carleton.ca>

: File @
: Anonimosity and whitehouse.gov
: <anonymous>

: File #
: Square One (Part two)
: Kipp Lightburn <ah804@freenet.carleton.ca>

: File $
: Erland Rating System Explained
: Origionally posted by Al Crawford <awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk>

: File %
: Nibbles of Information
: Billy Biggs <ae687@freenet.carleton.ca>

: File ^
: REVIEW: NIN's "The Downward Spiral"
: Bones, <U38956@uicvm.uic.edu>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
File - !

Finnaly we have issue 12. Out and around. I have put LN up on America On-line
so greets to people there.

I would really like to see more opinion articles by people out there. I feel
there are alot of issues out there that I am not covering because I'm just
not recieving stuff. I have started to write more, but I would really
appriciate some help.

Issue 13 is already well in the making and should be out very soon.

-Billy Biggs, editor.


--NOTICE:

IF you subscribed and HAVEN't recieved any issues, mail me and I'll fix the
problem.


-*- Subscription Info -*-

Subscriptions can be obtained by sending mail to:

dodger@fubar.bk.psu.edu

With the words:

Subscription LineNoiz <your address>

In the body of the letter.

Back Issues can be recieved by sending mail to the same address with the
words BACK ISSUES in the subject.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
File - @

=== Anonymosity and whitehouse.gov =========================================

       By: <anonymous>

>Newsgroups: alt.2600
>From: germnose@expert.cc.purdue.edu (germnose)
>Subject: whitehouse.gov
>Date: Sat Feb 26 10:40:32 1994
>
>just read this in the newspaper yesterday:
>seems as if a University of Illinois freshman used port 25 to send
>the following message to president@whitehouse.gov:
>
>"I am curious, Bill, how you would feel about being the
> 	first president to be killed on the same day
> 	as his wife...It would be best, I think, to not
> 	continue your immediate plans.  Perhaps a vacation.
> 	You will die soon.  You can run but you cannot
> 	hide. -OVERLORD"
>
>he sent the message as ALLMIGHTY@NEVER.GONNA.CATCH.ME
>
>seeing as threatening the presidents life (even in jest)
>is a felony, the Secret Service opened an investigation
>and poor little overlord has been arrested...he now faces
>up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine...
>
>pretty lame, eh?....I guess this means that SOMEONE reads
>the whitehouse email....anyhow, watch yourselves with
>that anon email, it's obviously not as anon as it seems...
>
>Fuck our Government (the bastards),
>
>germ

    A recent post in alt.2600 featured above brought to my attention a
disturbing fact. I am not talking about 'gee that's a bit tough on the guy'
or 'uh-oh look what trouble port 25 can get you in' (or the jerk got what
was comming to him). I'm talking about the fact that the guy was tracked down.

    I like the idea of anonymous mail, the ability to say your opinion without
worrying about your image or your social status (all that's left on the net).
As you can see, this article is posted anonymously and I'm feeling proud
about that. So now we can see that port 25 mail can be tracked, something I'm
sure most people knew, but this was the first proof of this I have seen.

>From this little excursion (thanks to 'Overlord'), we can now assume that:

    - We now know that the Secret Service obviously looks into the whitehouse
e-mail, which makes you wonder if they're poking around on the internet.
    - It also means that you must watch what you say from now on, which is
very very scary.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
File - #
>From: ah804@freenet.carleton.ca (Kipp Lightburn)


                        SQUARE ONE (PART TWO)
                        ---------------------
                                 BY
                           KIPP LIGHTBURN
                           --------------

         Petrol fumes invade my senses as consciousness penetrates my
soul.
 
        Blurry afterimages of the woman and the gun, mix with the
flesh coloured paisley designs that obstruct my vision.  My head
spins.  My body rocks.
        I'm wedged into the back seat of a car.  The bottled sound of
an orchestra is filtered through cheap speakers.
        My body rocks.
        The image of the woman and the gun locked in firefight fleets
in and out of my half dazed mind.
        I stare up through bloodsoaked eyelashes at the driver in the
front.  Short, dark, curly hair hangs above his shirt collar like the
dot on an i.  The rear-view hands me a vision of his eyes.  Dark
like his hair, and black like his shirt collar.
        And then the thought stings me.  Two men carrying me to a
van, while the woman protects them with hot fury from cold steel. 
        I'm in a car.
        My body so numb.  Still.  I force the pain into my
throat, "....van..wheres the girl."
        The driver throws a glance out of his window and chuckles.
        ".....the girl...where is she?"
        The response is silence.
        ".....who are...you?"
        He finally looks into my line of sight, and his eyes speak to
me through the rear-view,"Soon you won't care.  Just go back to
sleep."
        Sitting up makes me look down, as one leg refuses to
respond.  I see everything at once.  Holes.  Bulletholes.  Blood
gently escaping them.  Left leg moves at the thigh when I ask it to,
but the rest, the knee down, hangs from torn flesh.  My body is still
naked and numb.  But my skin is tinted red, with the occasional splash
of pink. As I straighten up, the car seat, blanketed with my blood,
clings affectionately to me, and lets go with a sound like velcro.
        "Whoa there buddy.  You better lay your ass down if you know
whats good for you."  The mirror shows me his panic, as if this
naked, half dead chassis of mine could actually do anything harmful.
        One arm strays from the wheel into the seat next to him.  I
hear metal scraping on leather, as he pulls something closer in.
        The car hurtles through the dark, as headlights paint a path
ahead of us.
        ".....where's the girl."  I try again as I look at the
dash.  The clock reads 11:05:27.  We're going eighty as he eyes me in
the mirror.
        "Look pal, I said lay your ass down!  I mean it!"  His hand
strays to his metal next to him.  The car accelerates as his body
weight shifts to look at me face to face.  His nose has been broken
a few times before and he hasn't shaven in days,"LAY DOWN!"  Panic,
fear and anger write lines on his face.  He swings his arm up and
levels the gun at my head.
        
        Instinct.

        My good leg pushes me into him. One hand grabs his gun, the
other pushes the arm down at the joint, forcing his forearm back and
the gun into his face.  He lets go of the wheel and spins right
around.  I squeeze my thumb into the trigger guard, over his finger,
pressuring it back.
 
        The windshield is sprayed with crimson as his head falls
apart.

        His body slides back, down the seat, and jams itself under
the dash.  My body is thrown into the wet, sticky seat when the car's
speed increases.  His ass pushes down on the pedal.  The stump of his
neck rubs the steering wheel.  My dried blood cradles me as the car
slams left and I go right. 
        Headlights shine pink through the drivers blood.  The
distance to the approaching vehicle drops instantly.
        And again I'm flying.
        The weightless journey through one windshield and into
another plays itself out slowly.  As my body shatters this cars
windshield, someone crashes through the one in front of me.  We soar
past each other, trading places.  I grate through jagged glass and
flop down into the front seat.  I'm still numb from the hypo-patches
I applied at the hospital.  I pray the effect doesn't wear off
anytime soon.
        Motionless.  The woman.  Mind won't let me forget her.
Keeps hammering her image out.  I don't recognize her but I feel as
though I should.
        A loud hissing noise cries out, as the air bag on the drivers
side finally kicks in.  It inflates without a thought next to me.
Ninety-nine percent effective.  He's lying in the other car proving
the margin for error.
        I bleed as red as the flashing lights when they come to take
me to the hospital.  Back to the hospital...
        I black out again as they pull me onto the stretcher...

--
----------------------------------------------------------------
|/    |            [ email at ]                   -------------
|\IPP |_IGHTBURN   [ ah804@freenet.carleton.ca ] -------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
File - $
Subject - Erland Rating System Explained


I thought it would be benificial to post this in here, as I plan to use this
scale for reviewing music.

I would encourage people who wish to write reviews for Line Noiz to use the
Erland scale, it will simplify things.

>Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial
>From: awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Al Crawford)
>Subject: Re: Review: Front 242 - 05:22:09:12 Off
>Date: Tue Aug 31 07:02:58 1993
>
>And lo, sclover@swell.actrix.gen.nz (Stephen Clover) spake unto the masses saying:
>>
>> umm.. whats the erland scale and what is it's range
>
>Here's the standard description...
>
>] Article 8715 of rec.music.industrial:
>] Path: dcs.ed.ac.uk!awrc
>] From: awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Al Crawford)
>] Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial
>] Subject: Re: What is the Erland rating?
>] Keywords: meaning?
>] Message-ID: <32722@skye.dcs.ed.ac.uk>
>] Date: 29 Apr 92 14:21:11 GMT
>] References: <29APR199203185966@juliet.caltech.edu>
>] Sender: nnews@dcs.ed.ac.uk
>] Reply-To: awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Al Crawford)
>] Organization: The University Of Edinburgh - Department Of Computer Science
>] Lines: 69
>]
>] And lo, jaywb@juliet.caltech.edu (Bromley, Jay W.) spake unto the masses
>] saying:
>]
>]> Hi, just curious, what exactly is the Erland rating system?
>]
>] Confusing :-)
>]
>]> or is it in the FAQ?
>]
>] Nope, it's not an r.m.i. exclusive thing, I use it in *all* my reviews, be
>] they r.m.i. relevant or not.
>]
>] I've had a few pieces of mail about the rating system so it's time for an
>] explanation. Those to whom I've mailed explanations previously might notice
>] that this is different from the one I mailed them. This is to be expected,
>] since the Erland Rating has a certain undefinable quality :-)
>]
>] The Erland rating system was first used in rec.music.misc a year or two
>] ago. It was invented by Erland Sommarskog, hence the name. At the time, I
>] thought it would be a good idea to try and arrive at some sort of ratings
>] standard system, and Erland's system seemed as good as any, so I started
>] using it. Needless to say, nobody else on the planet seems to use it
>] anymore, not even Erland, and it's probably the least standard standard
>] ever. Nonetheless...
>]
>] The Erland Rating is on a -5 to +5 scale. The bottom end is -5, the top end
>] is +5. The scale *isn't* linear though. Nor is it exponential. It can be
>] roughly summarised as...
>]
>] +5 - Probably the all-time greatest album in the history of the universe.
>] +4 - truly an all-time classic, one to buy and cherish forever.
>] +3 - a very good album indeed, and highly recommended.
>] +2 - a good album but with limited appeal or an album that has wider
>]      appeal but is slightly less good.
>] +1 - a good album. Pleasant to listen to and certainly worth a listen.
>] +0 - competent but unoutstanding. It's not a *bad* record as such, it just
>]      isn't particularly *good* either
>] -1 - an album you should have reservations about. It's not *really* bad, in
>]      fact you'll probably decide to keep it, but you probably won't play it
>]      that much.
>] -2 - the sort of album which, unless you are completely fanatical about the
>]      artist concerned you probably shouldn't buy.
>] -3 - the sort of album which, even if you are completely fanatical about
>]      the artist concerned you probably shouldn't buy.
>] -4 - really a very bad album indeed. Connosieurs of really bad albums
>]      should buy this.
>] -5 - An album so bad you are unlikely ever to hear its like again.
>]
>] Over the sum total of my reviewing I've dealt with about 75 releases. The
>] lowest I've ever given is -2, the highest +3. The extremes of the scale
>] will probably never be reached. My bias towards higher ratings I put down
>] to the fact that I *buy* my albums with my own money rather than getting
>] them as free promos, so I'm not likely to put out money on something I'm
>] going to dislike. Actually, the stuff at the very bottom of the scale is
>] probably worth keeping for the entertainment value.
>]
>] The same scale applies for singles, although I don't generally pay the same
>] amount of attention to them - if I review an album, chances are I'll have
>] listened to it at least 4 times and probably more than 10 times before
>] writing a review, whereas I'll typically only listen to a single 4 times at
>] most before posting a review.
>]
>] --
>]		      Al Crawford - awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk
>]       "Breakdown. Splinter. A thousand fragments disperse and die."
>
>--
> 	       		Al Crawford - awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk
> 	  Department Of Computer Science, The University of Edinburgh
>   Rm 1410, JCMB, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Rd, EDINBURGH, EH9 3JZ, Scotland
>      	     Tel: +44 (0) 31 650 5165  Fax: +44 (0) 31 667 7209

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
File - %

.. nibbles of information  /by billy biggs


o Internet site spot : Neato stuff to check out

 ------------------
 [ One thing everybody should be on is CUD. I recommend it very highly      ]

 [ This is taken from the list of e-zines, available from johnl@netcom.com  ]
 [ (John Labovitz)                                                          ]

 Computer Underground Digest

  "An open forum dedicated to sharing information among computerists
   and to the presentation and debate of diverse views."

      Editor(s): Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer <TK0JUT2@NIU.BITNET>
         Format: ASCII text
         Gopher: etext.archive.umich.edu:/CuD
                 gopher.cic.net
            FTP: etext.archive.umich.edu:/pub/CuD
                 aql.gatech.edu:/pub/eff/cud
                 ftp.ee.mu.oz.au:/pub/text/CuD
                 nic.funet.fi:pub/doc/cud
                 ftp.warwick.ac.uk:pub/cud
         Usenet: comp.society.cu-digest
     Compuserve: DL0 and DL4 of the IBMBBS SIG, DL1 of LAWSIG, DL1 of
                   TELECOM
     America Online: PC Telecom forum under "computing newsletters"
        FidoNet: File Request from 1:11/70
          Other: GEnie: PF*NPC RT libraries, VIRUS/SECURITY library
                 Delphi: General Discussion database of the Internet
                   SIG
                 PC-EXEC BBS (+1 414 789 4210)
                 Rune Stone BBS (IIRG WHQ) (+1 203 832 8441)
                   NUP:Conspiracy
                 RIPCO BBS (+1 312 528 5020)
                 ComNet in LUXEMBOURG BBS (+352 466893)
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          Phone: +1 815 753 0303
            Fax: +1 815 753 6302
         Postal: Jim Thomas, Department of Sociology, NIU, DeKalb, IL
                   60115, USA
 ------------------

o The Music Review Corner : Reviews of stuff, old and new, bad and good...

 ------------------
 Artist: Kraftwerk                   Date: 1991
 Album:  The Mix                     Length: 11 tracks, 65:14
 Review: I felt like buying something I hadn't heard before, yet had heard of.
   Kraftwerk was a bit of a dissapointment at first, the loads of synth sounds
   mixed with distinctly german-english vocals. The laughable songs like
   'Computerlove', 'Pocket Calculator' and 'Autobahn' make you wonder whether
   the group is a joke, or for real. I must admit though, that I like it.
   While the sound is not too far from techno, it lacks alot of the quality.
   The sound is at times very thin, lacking the depth of many instruments. The
   group has influenced many in it's course, and although I would not buy any
   of their other stuff, I was relitively pleased with the sound. -bB
 Erland Rating: +1

 ------------------
 Artist: the Waterboys               Date: 1991
 Album: The best of ... '81 - '90    Length: 12 tracks, 53:23
 Review: British rock group the Waterboys' best of album is one of my
   favorites. The sound ranges from rock to a more folk-like sound, providing
   a wide variety of sound. The use of the saxaphone with the acoustic
   guitar and piano add substance to the music. The group changed their
   format a few times during the decade that this CD encompases, the sound
   going from rock to folk and then back to more rock. It is a good CD for
   variety, quality and is generally appealing. -bB
 Erland Rating: +3

 ------------------
 Artist: the Waterboys               Date: 1993
 Album: Dream Harder                 Length: 12 tracks, 43:49
 Review: So after I was so happy with the Waterboys' best of CD, I went out
   and got their new one instead of some of their older stuff. Bad move.
   The group seems to have lost the most appealing thing about them, the
   saxaphonist. The sound is now all vocals, keyboard guitar and drums. I
   guess if you're looking for guitar music, this would be a good buy. I
   found the CD lacking in quality and the lyrics stupid compared to the older
   stuff. The first track, 'The New Life', is the only one I would consider
   to be musically appealing. It has suttle vocals and many separate guitar
   lines. Overall, for a 45 minute CD (I find that a bit short) and one
   moderate song, I would not buy it again. -bB
 Erland Rating: -1

 ------------------
 From: jkettune@cs.joensuu.fi (Juha Kettunen)

 Artist: Advanced Art                Date: 1993
 Album: PRODUCT                      Length: 10 tracks, 43 min
 Review: My favourite album. Nearly perfect. At least best Finnish music
   I've ever heard.
 Description: Advanced Art's music is something special. It's neither
   commercial techno nor industrial, but contains elements from both. The
   BPM rates range from 100 to 140, usually being quite high. There are both
   simple & fast and complicated & slower rhythms. Other typical instruments
   are low-pitched synths and chords, numb basses, occasional machine noises
   and samples, screaming metal in general, and (perhaps most importantly)
   the voice of a male singer, who sounds so sad, ironical and desperate.
   That is when it's hearable under the stream of machine music, sometimes
   it's nothing but a whisper. This gives an impression that the machines
   have already won, and there's no point to fight anymore. The _excellent_
   lyrics strongly support this impression. Extremely dark, pessimistic and
   depressing. Stories of failures, fears, pains and this crazy life. Even
   the cover image - a dark grayscale picture of a surface that could be a
   stone wall, concrete or rock - puts you in the right mood. The general
   atmosphere of PRODUCT leaves you in a dead, masochistic, sarcastic and
   suicidial state of mind, call it ecstacy, trance, shock or whatever your
   pleasure. A great example of what's starting to go on in your head when
   you live in a country where its's cold, dark and lonely most of the time.
      -Juha.

 ------------------
File - ^
 From: Bones, <U38956@uicvm.uic.edu>
 Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial
 Subject: REVIEW: NIN's "The Downward Spiral"
 Date: Fri Mar  4 13:25:35 1994

I finally got the CD "The Downward Spiral" and was finally able to give it a
good listen.  Before getting into it, let me include some of the information
that was given in the press release that came with it.

First off, the street date of the album is March 8, 1994.  Three labels again
are on the CD, TVT, Interscope, and Nothing, the label started by Trent Reznor
and his manager John a Malm, Jr.  Artists already signed to the label in-
clude Marilyn Manson, Pop Will Eat Itself, Prick, Coil, and Trust Obey.  Four
videos will be available from the new album, which is roughly 65 minutes long.
Of interest is to note that according to the release, only 50,000 US copies
of _Fixed_ have been pressed up.  _The Downward Spiral_ was recorded at Le Pig,
in Beverly Hills, Trent's own studio.  Interesting to note is that this is
the infamous site of the Manson family murders in the 60s, and the name hails
most likelyfrom the bloody "PIG" that was scrawled in blood on the door, where
today only a thin coat of white paint seperates the beholder from the beheld.

OK, anyways...track listing is aas follows:
1. mr. self destruct
2. piggy
3. heresy
4. march of the pigs
5. closer
6. ruiner
7. the becoming
8. i do not want this
9. big man with a gun
10. a warm place
11. eraser
12. reptile
13. the downward spiral
14. hurt

mr. self destruct
-----------------
    A teeny tiny but disappointing as an opener, but thrashy nonetheless.  It
kind of grabs you, yells, "I'm back!" and throws you into a wall.  The
programming sounds really cool, like banging on a playground slide, and sounds
a little bit like Aphex Twin's (or rather Polygon Window's) "Quoth."  But
not to fear, Trent has not done like most other bands and gone techno...
but he isn't _Pretty Hate Machine_ in this either. . .

piggy
-----
This song slows the album to a near grinding halt prematurely, but the plus
side of this track is that it features more of the strange convuluted sounds
that were characteristic of PHM, but they are a little ruined by the lyrics.
Come on, "Piggy"?!?

heresy
------
OK, cool....the aggressiveness comes back and is near overwhelming, but the
underlying vocals sound too much like Trent doing his best high-pitched
Prince imitation (I suppose I wasn't the only one to pick up on this).
At least they're distorted and his regular vocals eventually come in as
an overdubbing accompaniment.  Guitar work, in lead position, is very
effective here as well.

march of the pigs
-----------------
VERY catchy drum opener which borders "Ballroom Blitz," it prepares you for
the udden bounce you get from a very aggressive vocal and guitar segment
sure to inspire heavy moshing.  If that doesn't shock you enough, how about
the sudden break of continuity by a quiet, lone, piano solo with Trent singing
lke a romantic nightclub act, then returning to the assault?  Irony galore!

closer
------
A funky groove tune which is a little bit uninspired at first then suddenly
comes back with the typical Reznor refrain.

ruiner
------
Enters almost as a sequal to "closer", and turns to a Front Line Assembly-
oriented intro before switching to a very hardcore refrain of near incompre-
hensible distorted screaming set to a keyboard riff that sounds like FLA
side project Will. Sound is definitely experimented with here.  The sole gui-
tar solo is even filtered through synthesizing media.

the becoming
------------
Probably one of the most amazing songs on the album, it begins with a jaunty
yet tinny synth intro then is followed by the most twisted thing:  a con-
stant, continual sample of people suffering, wailing in misery, as if Trent
was recorded playing a gig for the prisoners of a medieval dungeon.  Note
the discreet entrance of acoustic (?) strumming along with Trent's dog
Maise howling in the background, and you've got the ultimate in NIN "screw
your musical rules" songs.

i do not want this
------------------
Melts in as "the becoming" leaves.  A slow crooner at first with piano key-
boards and sinister percussion sounds which ever so shortly break into an
incredibly thrashy metallic segment.  It then adds more electronic wizardry
to tease the listener a little bit more and manages to be a bit trance
inducive before turning into an avalanche of audio samples much like the
end of "ringfinger."  Trent's voice becomes a distorted hissing like  an evil
mechanical snake by the song's end.

big man with a gun
------------------
Seesh, probably the most moronic song on the album, perhaps even in Ttrent's
career!  Musically, it sounds great, much like the song "The Land of Rape
and Honey" , but the lyrics are near rubbish, doing nothing more than show off
Trent's insecurities ("i'm every inch a man, and i'll show you somehow" "i
am a big man/ (yes i am)")...as if we didn't know.  Maybe he purposely put this
song on just to prove a point.  But in any case, the 1.5 minute track must've
just been filler. . .

a warm place
------------
What's this?  A single-length, completely instrumental and ambient NIN song?
No this is more like it (we'll forget about "big man with a gun" for now,
Trent), and friggin' brilliant too!  Doubles as excellent, almost tender back-
ing music, and borders early Skinny Puppy ala Riverz, or Intermix's "Voices",
or more accurately, "Medusa" by Clan of Xymox.  Arguably one of the best pie-
ces on the album.

eraser
------
Fading in from the calm of "a warm place" comes a nearly nightmarish wash
of what must be a stalling engine combined with a drum which sounds almost
like a  This Mortal Coil drum intro.  Nearly enharmonic guitar plucking ensues
and Trent returns with minimalistic lyrics and a guitar rift that mirrors
Ministry's song "Psalm 69".  Reznor fittingly ends with improv.

reptile
-------
A sudden quite dominates, and the only sounds present are the quite beeping of
machinery.  As if we are suddenly plunged into a post-nuclear war era of
devices, the song leaps at you and offers a cyberpunky (for lack of a better
term) musical piece which features the constant whir of power tools, sampled
with the same type of drugs that the "hey hey" of Ministry's "N.W.O." does.
It works quite well, and aids all other audio aspects of the song to stand up
enter the fray.

the downward spiral
-------------------
if you're not careful, this song may pass as yet another instrumental, but
the truth of it is the barely audible vocals seem to be a testament to the
impossible helplessness and resultant suidice of the victim it claims.
A look into the thoughts of someone who is giving up as he puts the gun
to his head and pulls. . .

hurt
----
Trent's claim to the goth-rock fame. Another slow one, with lyrics showcasing
your typical gothis flavor:"i hurt myself today/to see if i still feel/i focus
o the pain/the only thing that's real."  A decent song, and an equally decent
close to the album.


I was a bit surprised at the sound of TDS.  I have to admit I was expecting
Trent to abandon the technical aspect of PHm--the samples, the synthesizers,
the drumboxes--in favor of the growing trend of heavy, churning guitars.
I expected it to be more like _Broken_ where guitr was the main focus.  Nothing
wrong with that, but I would have missed the PHM sound.  Trent, however, did
not concentrate on guitars alone like I expected.  Although, there ARE heavy
riffs like in _Broken_, they are just not as numerous, and the musical taste
of PHM still prevails.  Alot of the computerized bits do sound reminiscent
of early Curve, possibly because Curve producer and Toni Halliday beau
Alan Moulder mixed the tracks with Trent, and also because Flood appears
producer.

Interesting to note is that Trent credits his live band...and all the
members are new: Robin Flick (guitar), Danny Lohner (keys, guitars, and bass),
James Woolley (keys), and Chris Vrenna, taking over the late Jeff Ward's spot
on drums.  Jeff himself appears in the production liners: "we miss you jeff
ward."

The packaging of the disc is kinda neat.  One word of advice though:  carefully
slit the plastic lining to get the contents out and save the plastic as a
jacket.  The CD itself comes in a thin CD single jewelbox (much like UK
imports here in the US) with artwork by Russell Mills and David Buckland,
and the external CD booklet (with lyrics and more art of course) slides
in with the jewelbox into a cardboard sleeve that includes more art and
is labeled "halo eight."

Overall, I liked the CD because it was pretty much the musical equivalent
of PHM, plus some.  The lyrics, however, were a bit disappointing.  They DID
have their moments, but they weren't a continual, momentous flow of meaning
like PHM, which is arguably Trent's best work.

And of course, Trent has a reason for that. . .


******************************************************************************
* Honors Algebra Quiz--Word Problem Solving.  Show all Work.                 *
* Name:   Bones, Inner Sanctum of Sanctuary, U38956@UICVM.UIC.EDU            *
*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*
* In the song "ringfinger" by Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor says: "If I was  *
* twice the man I could be, I'd still be half the man you need."             *
* Assuming Trent is 1 man, how much man would his former girlfriend need?    *
* (10 pts, SHOW ALL WORK)                     Answer ======>__________       *
******************************************************************************

>From: Bones, <U38956@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial
Subject: one more NIN thing
Date: Fri Mar  4 14:27:14 1994

A tour is scheduled to begin in April

Boes


 [  You think you can write a review too, then do so!                       ]

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--
Billy Biggs    Ottawa, Canada    "When all else fails,
  ae687@Freenet.carleton.ca          read the instructions"
