Fred McGriff

and yeah as for the vocal samples i think it lends identity and uniqueness to the music

listened to this again on my really good heaphones for the first time and it was like night and day, it sounded fucking immense. what was originally a ho-hum album totally opened up to me on headphones...

great track choices here. what is the track playing 41 minutes? fantastic mix. really enjoyed this.

when you pay the five bucks you can choose if you want 192, 320, or FLAC. i guess some people dont give a damn and would rather have whatever takes up the least amount of space/ downloads the fastest. not sure what they were expecting but 18% aint bad. I think the mistake they made was having a fixed price--shoulda made it optional. some people might have paid a buck or two instead of nothing and others might have paid 10, 15, even 20 bucks to show their support

here's a recent post from trent reznor over at nin.com. he released the sales figures for this album (in bold below): It's a strange time to be an artist in the recording business. It's pretty easy to see what NOT to do these days, but less obvious to know what's right. As I find myself free from the bloated bureaucracy of major labels, finally able to do whatever I want... well, what is that? What is the "right" way to release records, treat your music and your audience with respect and attempt to make a living as well? I have a number of musician friends who are either in a similar situation or feel they soon will be, and it's a real source of anxiety and uncertainty. I'd like to share my experience releasing Saul Williams' "The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust" and what I've learned from the process. Perhaps by revealing of all our data - our "dirty laundry" - we can contribute to a better solution. A quick history: Saul makes a great record that I produce. We can't find the right home at a major label. We decide to release it ourselves, digitally. Saul does not have limitless financial resources so we shop around for a company that can fulfill our needs. We choose Musicane because they are competent and are willing to adapt to what we want. The results are here: niggytardust.com We offer the entire record free (as in totally free to the visitor - we pay bandwidth costs) as 192 MP3s, or for $5 you can choose higher fidelity versions and feel good about supporting the artist directly. We offer all major CCs and PayPal as payment options. Here's what I was thinking: Fans are interested in music as soon as it's available (that's a good thing, remember) and usually that's a leak from the label's manufacturing plants. Offering the record digitally as its first appearance in the marketplace eliminates that problem. I thought if you offered the whole record free at reasonable quality - no strings attached - and offered a hassle free way to show support that clearly goes straight to the artists who made it at an unquestionably low price people would "do the right thing". I know, I know... Well, now I DO know and you will too. Saul's previous record was released in 2004 and has sold 33,897 copies. As of 1/2/08, 154,449 people chose to download Saul's new record. 28,322 of those people chose to pay $5 for it, meaning: 18.3% chose to pay. Of those paying, 3220 chose 192kbps MP3 19,764 chose 320kbps MP3 5338 chose FLAC Keep in mind not one cent was spent on marketing this record. The only marketing was Saul and myself talking as loudly as we could to anybody that would listen. If 33,897 people went out and bought Saul's last record 3 years ago (when more people bought CDs) and over 150K - five times as many - sought out this new record, that's great - right? I have to assume the people knowing about this project must either be primarily Saul or NIN fans, as there was very little media coverage outside our direct influence. If that assumption is correct - that most of the people that chose to download Saul's record came from his or my own fan-base - is it good news that less than one in five feel it was worth $5? I'm not sure what I was expecting but that percentage - primarily from fans - seems disheartening. Add to that: we spent too much (correction, I spent too much) making the record utilizing an A-list team and studio, Musicane fees, an old publishing deal, sample clearance fees, paying to give the record away (bandwidth costs), and nobody's getting rich off this project. But... Saul's music is in more peoples' iPods than ever before and people are interested in him. He'll be touring throughout the year and we will continue to get the word out however we can. So - if you're an artist looking to utilize this method of distribution, make of these figures what you will and hopefully this info is enlightening. Best, TR

let's do back and forth together

"WTF!" is really good, it's like what NIN would be with good lyrics. it's comical how much saul williams can whomp the lyrics over trent reznor.

lol so after the fucking rave reviews in this thread i decided to download the free version and give it a fair listen. I can't help but think TR's production detracts from whatever talent saul williams has. it's just shitty, like YZ and With Teeth. there are some good tracks though, i liked niggy tardust (when I say niggy you say nothin), scared money, WTF!, and the ritual. not enough to warrant a purchase. in short, MEH!

yeah no shit. but he's a little bit right and it has nothing to do with the content of the album but just how they're releasing it and the scale of the audience that is going to give them money for it. radiohead should've done the lossless idea although i personally dont give a crap. but their approach was like, we dont give a fuck, and as you implied PO, much more likely to actually be an "important part of history." i think if a revolution on how albums are being released is starting now, history will bookmark the radiohead album and pretty much forget about saul williams/trent reznor. i mean this shit is BAD with all capital letters completely capitalized and underlined. someone needs to tell trent reznor to just stop. just stop it already. the way to do it is if the loyal fans didnt mercifully give him money for this, which they will. but it would send a message: make better shit. but watch. the NIN community is going to reach into its pockets because they're all IT managers now and fork over a few bucks a download. thanks for the memories trent. well it's a better service to the artist to not pay for shit if you dont like it if they're going to release it in this format.

jesus. it's worse than bad. the third track leaked, banged and blown through or whatever, sounds like shit new era NIN with niggy kravitz singing come to think of it, who wrote the following lyrics, kravitz or reznor: i want to get away i want fly away yeah yeah i wish that i could fly way up in the sky way up so high i want to get away i want to fly away yeah yeah too tough to decide when it's on paper innit

this shit is just bad.

yeah you know what i'm really not interested enough to mess with registering and all this technical torrent shit

hey what's the difference, nin IS hip hop. like down in it yo! someone post the leaked track plz

i'll check this out because i'm curious to see what reznor can do productionwise in a non-nin climate these days. last such thing i heard was his production of the zack de la roachy solo effort, and it was just about the worst sounding fucking thing i've ever heard. so i'm just curious how this will sound. you know i used to think reznor was the most brilliant producer ever but then i heard some demos from the downward spiral when they re-released it, and i'm starting to think it was just the engineers he had that could actually polish a turd. also i think the title would be better if it was just niggy tardust but whatever

so does anyone just have like a laptop or something?

err well i a 2 part ep, like come to daddy innit? gotta love the US combining that shit. the US ventolin ep is like just a massive sweatpants boner

i would kill to right now realize there was half an aphex ep out there i had somehow overlooked and never heard before

read the rules

the ventolin ep, especially the US version, is a shining example of what a remix ep should be. i got mine for like 4.50 brand new when it came out, and it's like an album pretty much, and it all sounds fucking amazing. you fags who dont like it dont get aphex twin and need to be removed from the planet. crowsmengegus mix should be number one or two on the list, you fail at appreciating ventolin.

i liked that scorn track a lot, didnt get much into the cluekid track

i dont suppose someone could post a sample dubstep track could they?