Dale

Find My Way is excellent. A get the impression so far that the album will contain a lot of variety. But I wouldn't mind if he put out a minimal electronic album with tracks just like Find My Way. It's a mature sound for Reznor.

I am honestly not getting tired of this album at all. I listen to it almost every day, and to me, it might even beat Geogaddi as being my favourite BOC album. I may even go as far as stating that this is my favourite musical piece of all time so far. I identify with the theme/concept greatly, knowing full well the long term negative consequences of our current economic model and the detrimental effects we put on our environment. There is a lot of variety throughout the album; you have those beautiful montage pieces, and the longer, more fleshed out tracks. Lots of lush moments (Nothing Is Real) and some energetic moments (Cold Earth). And of course, not forgetting emotional pieces like Reach For The Dead and New Seeds. I stated before that I did not like the flow of the album but that view point for me is changing. I can't imagine what the next BOC album will sound like, and I would still be happy if they carried on using a similar sound palette to TH.

Find My Way appears to be the most interesting one to me so far. The instrumental would have fit nicely on the Ghosts release - very minimal. Not keen on the lyrics though (no surprise):

what I find fascinating is that all the people who dislike NIN's recent output make their criticisms heard in this thread, but continue coming back to it to read more posts. It's as if they still hold some faith in NIN and don't want to follow through with a complete abandonment.

this one sounds promising

yep - you know what you're always getting with autechre: consistently high quality, innovative releases with no over the top marketing. I hope they announce a live tour after this EP.

just get it closed until there is some more news on the release

artwork confirmed as completed by tDR via twitter so I don't see why not...

Didn't Warp release MoT pretty fast? I recall the release happened literally one month after it was announced - do I have this right? Seems like the EPs have a shorter waiting time from announcement to release.

one of the best tracks they've ever created.

Excellent

lol - what were you expecting? better. It's not the music - it's your expectation that let you down.

lol - what were you expecting?

For me, that track is incredibly emotive. I get a sense of positive emotions from it though, despite the track itself resting within a dark album overall. Lots going on in the background on this track as well.

The ending of that track is worth the wait - with the introduction of that lush synth in the background.

Interesting interview. So in summary, they plan to release only one more album via Warp. It's unfortunate that Plaid don't have a fanbase as big as the likes of BOC or Ae - I'm not sure how things would be for them if they go it alone without a big label like Warp behind them. They deserve more attention.

good post mate (because I agree with everything you said lol) The reason I keep coming back to hear or pay attention to a new, upcoming release from NIN is because Year Zero is still fairly recent - if that album was never created, and we had been left with the Ghosts tracks, The Slip etc., then I probably would have given up on Reznor altogether in terms of future releases. There's still a little bit of hope in me that he'd go back to the Year Zero sound, and expand upon it some more, or perhaps take that style and manipulate it into another interesting package of tracks. Again, I emphasise that it's the Year Zero instrumentals that skeptics need to pay attention to - there are some really good skills at work on that album. Ignore the lyrics if they're too hard to withstand.

Although I'm not setting any high expectations, I'll no doubt check it out when it is released. As far as recent NIN output is concerned, Year Zero was the last release that I enjoyed a lot. If the lyrics are a big turn-off for most people (which is understandable), just download the instrumental versions of the tracks via the NIN remix site http://remix.nin.com/ I just love the distorted synth work on that album and I wish he had explored this area further.

Still enjoying this album - consistently gets regular plays each week. Originally, Exai didn't enter into my top 3 Ae releases; however that's definitely changed now. You can tell they're getting more masterful in their approaches and techniques on every new album that comes out.

That podcast interview was very interesting - thanks for posting.

@SR4 - There is not much I disagree with you on, but I did qualify what I meant by 'their terms' here: I understand why the US may believe that sending bombers the other day to fly over is the 'right thing to do' - but I am challenging this assertion. Like I said before - it seems to me that N. Korea is quite aware of what the US government has within it's military capabilities. There's no need, from an outside-of-US-government standpoint to send the bombers to fly over, unless you want to provoke further issues and tensions within the N. Korean dictatorship.

I don't know that I'd call it childish.. but rather a testament to the fact that the administration takes other nations' war threats seriously. I'm sure N. Korea are fully aware of the extent of the US government's military technology/capabilities - there's no need to parade some bombers nearby - it proves nothing and accomplishes nothing productive at all.

i believe this kind of mindset about the intentions of the US government is a bit of an oversimplification and verges on being ignorant and divisive in the same kind of way that all Amerrrican armchair generals like to throw all the axis of evil nations in a pool and label them "freedom-hating". i think people are multi-faceted and dynamic, even government workers (i know that's so hard for conflict theorists to believe). i believe that in addition to actions, that it's a leaderships intent, mission statements, core values and beliefs that also count in international relations. in this case of NK, it is clear from the perspective of almost every other nation, that the NK leadership is hellbent on purposely taking out innocent lives. How is one to sit down and "talk" with a leadership like that on "their terms"? I do believe that dialogue and diplomacy can be constructive in some of the most complicated settings. However, when it comes to a leadership that is clearly set on genocide, it involves a mental (not political issue). I can't ever imagine sitting down and "talking" with David Duke (which is why human progress and social concern-valuing society members rightfully pass him off as irrelevent/unreasonable), or Osama Bin Laden (which is why we rightfully went after him). There comes a point where diplomacy does not work. I'm not sure that a dictator who imprisoned and tortures his people is simply just going to "stop all that nonsense" if we lifted sanctions the same way hamas probably isnt going to stop wanting to push israel into the sea and murdering jews if the israeli govt just handed over land or stopped building settlements... same way an unnamed german dictator wasn't going to just stop committing genocide if his economy had just improved. I judge the US government's intentions based on historic evidence of their behaviours towards other nations in the past and in the present. I also take note of the highly corrupted governments of many nations across this planet, whereby corporate and profiteering interests are important to take into account when it comes to foreign relations and geopolitics. Take Iraq for example; do you seriously believe the US intervened because they cared, first and foremost above everything else, about the treatment of the Iraqi people under the governance of Hussein? If that is so, why don't the US intervene in countless other places around the world where there are many human rights problems? I admit I am no expert on the Korean issue here, but I think communication is all we have left in order to avoid any kind of conflict or military activity. What I meant by 'their terms' (and I should have qualified this in the first place before mentioning this) is for an attempt to be made to hear them out on what they want exactly, and see if some common ground can be found amongst ongoing communications - without any communication of threat or aversiveness between either side. Have the US tried to mediate something like this to a large extent? Can the US communicate more than they are doing now? It seems to me that these are important questions to be answered. Here's an example of a failure in communication: the US flying bombers nearby to North Korea recently. This is incredibly childish and immature.