Further Down The Spiral

Here’s how massive Nine Inch Nails were in the platinum-plated aftermath of The Downward Spiral: Its noisy, single-less companion album sold more than 500,000 copies on its own. Try doing that in the age of digital downloads and streaming! And unlike most remix records, Further Down the Spiral actually had a reason to exist outside of padding some record company’s pockets while the iron’s hot. On a superficial level, folks like J.G. Thirwell, Rick Rubin and Dave Navarro were able to exploit the mad-for-it melodies and floor-rushing rhythms of Reznor’s complicated song stems even further. But where this record gets really interesting is in its multifaceted contributions from Coil and Aphex Twin. While the former gets freaky and slightly frightening with three distinct versions of “Eraser,” the latter delivered a pair of original productions that are similar to The Downward Spiral in spirit alone. Or as Richard D. James reportedly said after the fact, “I never heard the originals. I still haven’t. I don’t want to either, or my remixes for that matter.” Well all right, then; this one’s definitely for the completists and curious.