Yowza, I found the secret compartment too (didn't peek on here first!)... what a cool surprise! Think I can get the box back together and keep everything in there, if I move the brown divider to the opposite end of the box, and use the bubble wrap to keep the other... contents... packed against the back. Yeah, this thing certainly has... an aroma.
Last edited by botley; 11-25-2019 at 09:33 PM.
I think this is the best vinyl packaging they've ever put out, maybe second to Dragon Tattoo (but only because it had that amazing little USB stick necklace). This feels very lavish, and it's clear that they were proud enough of this score artistically that they wanted to give it a real deluxe treatment for the physical release.
Yes, legit. Three feathers, this thing stinks too, but its a pretty cool set. The LP's slipsleeves are unique too. Lstening to WT right now, so can't comment on the vinyl sound, but the packaging of NULL09 is great. Hopefully well get a repress of TGWTDT someday...thats the only one I'm missing.
Last edited by psus2h; 11-26-2019 at 10:28 AM.
Sound-wise, the vinyl is great too. All four of my LPs arrived without any visible dirt or damage and the surface noise on them was pretty low.
I'll go track-by-track on the stuff that wasn't in the abridged version. "It Can Happen Here" is a claustrophobic, portentously rising tone poem. On a loud, deep bass-reproducing sound system, it has the brain-frying quality of shutting yourself in a cupboard during a panic attack! This and "Trespasser" are the most ominous noise collages imaginable, with hardly a recognizable melody in the thick morass of sounds. This is the sort of thing they'd never usually put out for wide release, because it just feels so left-field... but it's also awesome.
Next is the closest thing to an "Adrift and At Peace" sequel that exists in their catalogue, and speaking of Still feels in "Still Feels" (sorry for making this dumb joke a second time), it occurs to me that the woodwind section that layers over top of the eerie piano ostinato in "Outside" is redolent of "The Persistence of Loss". That vinyl reissue of Still they were supposedly working on a couple of years ago would be a most welcome complement to this (oh, and let's have The Walled-Off Hotel complete score also, including a real-life player piano roll, please and thank-you)...
"Dreaming Forwards & Backwards" begins with a woozy, unsettling drone that slowly expands out of silence then twists and unfurls itself into a soaring and diving whine, while discordant bowed instruments moan and cry in the background. Again, quite amelodic at first, but there is a harmonic pulsation of bass that enters around three minutes in and it eventually resolves a progression I didn't even initially realize was happening. Very clever.
"Exposure" is another nasty, drone-y, screamingly full-of-dread number with no friendly topline melody aspects whatsoever, just blistering synth washes and throbbing, off-kilter backbeats that all of a sudden race themselves into a recognizable drum machine pattern, before burning out into a distorted husk just as suddenly and leaving the earth scorched in its wake with a mighty whirring-whooshing effect, and a low bass thud that trails off inconclusively. It's another seven-minute beast of nightmarishness.
"Further Outside" is a brief reprise of the opening ostinato piano theme, but with less of the slow build and decay in melody, and more of the creeping tension-mounting noises showcased throughout, in their own swooping climaxes and dimenuendi.
"Can't Seem to Wake Myself Up" is another rhythmically unsettled, noisy collage (it made me think of the "20 Ghosts III" noise fanfare, before the 'rock out' section takes over, or "I'm Not from This World" off Side Two of Bad Witch) but with a keyboard line that recedes into the dreamlike distance as various untethered stabs of drum or bass sputter out before the soundfield is dominated by textures of ping-pong stereo delayed synths that ring like alarm bells. It drops out and slides ungracefully into the loping, tap-dripping comedown of "Contagion A".
"Contagion B" has an insistent bass loop, more infinite-delay strings, and an alarm-bell cadence of clanging whines that spin out abruptly into the beautiful, quiet piano melody of "Last Thing Left". "Contagion C" does a similar trick, whipping up the frenzy of bass into a frantic pace with buzzing synths soaring high above. Love the driving tempo of this one, and the finale is like something out of a 1950s musique concrète track.
"So Much to See" reprises the bell-like synth chime ostinato and swooping horn blasts of "Careful What You Wish For", but with more frequent fits and starts over its short run time. "Incomplete Resolution" is a totally straight lullaby, played on what might be a sampled vibraphone. "Maybe This Is" reprises the recurring piano theme from "Looking Forwards & Backwards" but with an even more resigned, world-weary quality, leaving a haunted feeling that's the perfect space for having just witnessed the previous two hours of freakish mind-pictures that this soundtrack has conjured.
Last edited by botley; 11-26-2019 at 12:38 AM.
Hey so anyone know if i can use paypal credit on the NIN store...i think i NEED this now.
That's the other reason I didn't write a review. I can like this soundtrack with all my heart, but it doesn't make me a better writer. Excellent, Botley.
I thought it was worth mentioning that there's a cat meow clearly audible from 7:11 - 7:28 on "Trespasser". It starts distorted around 6:55.
I loved what they were doing with this score in the context of the Abridged version, and the director's cut version adds way more depth and scope to the whole thing, even if it's on the self-indulgent side. Filling it out to two hours makes this score an odyssey like GWTDT, Gone Girl and Vietnam War are: the more you spend time with it, the more it envelopes you into the world it creates..
10/10, was definitely worth waiting for. If you're a hardcore fan/completist who absolutely must have everything TR/AR, this is a sonic feast..
Amazon.de 's release date is apparently set for Janaury 10th 2020. I guess Bird Box won't probably be as "limited edition" as Deviations 1 after all
« Exposure » is cool as fuck. It’s nearly all screechy and screaming and swirling, and then delves into an aggressive pulsation and ends after a last living synth screams and dies.
« Contagion C » is too short, this is really some wonderful electro-industrial delving into electro-acoustic at the end, focusing on the texture of the screeching synth.
Last edited by StockAvuryah; 11-26-2019 at 07:14 PM.
Got my box in the mail today... and holy fuck, I love it. I totally get why the abridged version was released as it was, but man, these additional tracks from the recording sessions add a whole new layer of tension and paranoia. Hot damn.
Anyone from Canada you can get BB for $119 and WT for 45 from Srcvinyl.ca but release date is January 10. So Birdbox is about $7 cheaper if you want to wait that long. If your lucky to not get charged duty.
Edit: my order still unfulfilled why is it taking long to get it shipped? Mine never had preorder date listed.
Last edited by Leprekon666; 11-27-2019 at 10:43 AM.
Everyone stop asking for people to send you the files.
UK orders are expected to be shipping at the same time as Watchmen Vol 2, so I guess we should start getting them by the middle of next week.
does anyone have a really high resolution file of the digital artwork (bird box lid with holes)?
Here are detailed pictures of about everything I can possibly capture on the bird box packaging, records, etc. Enjoy!
http://nincatalog.com/trent-reznor-a...-vinyl12-1589/
has anyone mentioned that the box is textured? because it is. there's...crust(?) around the air holes, and on several other areas around the outside of the box (on all sides). and i got THREE FEATHERS! but seriously, holy shit this thing is so well put together. i cannot wait to listen to it.
I did notice the texturing and it grossed me out a little lmao. The feathers, the texturing, the weird smell (which I think is just the vinyl outer sleeves and not a deliberate aroma)...this thing is grody. But it's a great package.
@spahn @eversonpoe Thanks for sharing! I'm waiting until after Christmas to get this thing because I have a lot of people to buy gifts for (and my wife may end up getting this for me), so until then, I have to live vicariously through others on the physical aspect of this release.
Also, I saw this image on Reddit yesterday and initially thought it was intended to be the digital artwork:
Last edited by sonic_discord; 11-30-2019 at 01:20 PM.
Are they real feathers?
Isn't there a risk they'll rot for any folks who don't realise they're there?
Is this a problem for vegetarians or vegans?
Good point about the feathers eventual demise, gonna move mine into ziplock plastic bags. I know that won't preserve them forever but it'll help. And it'll help keep the feathers from staining the box (if that's a possibility.)