Shrewd marketing, but at least the music is good: part I

The two singles from "The Downward Spiral" were 'Closer' and 'March of the Pigs'. Each of these singles was released in a two cd format, in which you bought one cd in a traditional plastic case, and the other in a card case with room to fit the other one in, discarding the plastic case and leaving you with two double cd sets. Yes, it's shrewd marketing, it gets all the obsessive completists (i.e. me) to buy two singles. But I have to hand it to Mr. Reznor, he is one of the few artists that I know who makes the purchase of his singles worthwhile.

The track-list is as follows
CD 1 (Card case)
1- march of the pigs (clean version)
2- all the pigs, all lined up
3- a violet fluid
4- big man with a gun
CD 2 (Plastic case)
1- march of the pigs (lp version)
2- underneath the skin
3- reptilian

Let's face it, Reznor is the master of the art of 'versions' as he calls them, and remixes which is what the rest of the world calls them. He has sufficient talent to pull off completely different versions to the songs we recognise, giving them a distinctly different feel, such as on the multiple remixes of 'Mr. Self Destruct' on "Further Down the Spiral". Arguably this double single is one of his weakest efforts, but there are still moments of genius that any Reznor fan must pursue.

The 'clean version' of 'March of the pigs' is just the song but with the f*ck timely muted. 'All the pigs all lined up' is an amazing industrial remix of the song, stretching the punchy 3 minute track to 8 minutes. Part of the joy of this remix is the gradual build up and all the tiny nuances in the construction of the song. I remember listening to this song on my walk-man on holiday in the car (whilst my parents played bluegrass... <sigh>) and drawn into the song, following all of the minute changes and the intricate and beautifully constructed drum loops that made "The Downward Spiral" the visceral experience that it is. 'A violet fluid' is a below par musical piece, and 'Big man with a gun' was already on "The Downward Spiral", and I didn't like it there either. It is perhaps Reznor's only song that I heatedly dislike.

Cd 2 focuses on Reptile, giving us the industrial remix 'Underneath the skin', mostly just music apart from occasional screams of 'REPTILE', which I never fail to scream in public when I'm seeking attention. I generally hate remixes, but Reznor doesn't fall into the 'extended remix' trap, you can tell he works on his remixes very hard, always maintaining the spirit of the original. Therefore, 'Reptilian' is obviously a remix of 'Reptile', but the joys of hearing him remove different instruments one by one, showing the various textures of the songs, from unexpected drum solos and backing noises brought up to a higher volume. 'Reptilian' stretches 'Reptile' out, but instead of just being longer, it draws all the texture out into the open.

Admittedly, the two reasons for buying this are 'All the pigs all lined up' and 'Reptilian', but they're the two best damn reasons I can think of. Onwards and upwards.