Released on November 25, 1997 from nothing records and Interscope Records, Closure (halo 12) is a 2-VHS set home video release from Nine Inch Nails that features a documentary of the band’s tour in 1994 and 1995 in the first VHS tape and a collection of their music videos from 1989 to 1997 in the second VHS tape. The release would mark the end of a successful period for NIN and its mastermind Trent Reznor as it is a retrospective release of sorts of the band’s career from that point on. The result is one of the finest home video releases for any musical act.
Self-Destruct (tape 1)
Nine Inch Nails: "Closure" part one: Self Destruct (1997) from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.
Directed, edited, and shot by Jonathan Rach with additional footage from Jeff Richter, the documentary film doesn’t really have a narrative as it’s a collection of performances and backstage footage during the band’s tour for The Downward Spiral in 1994 and 1995. Throughout the entirety of the tour, Reznor would struggle with stardom while trying to have a good time whether it’s backstage antics with members of the live band at the time such as drummer Chris Vrenna, guitarist/keyboardist Robin Finck, keyboardist James Wooley (who would leave the group in December of 1994), Wooley’s replacement Charlie Clouser, and multi-instrumentalist Danny Lohner. Along with shenanigans with one of the opening bands in Reznor’s protégé Marilyn Manson as well as the Jim Rose Circus, the film would feature cameo appearances from El Duce of the Mentors and Lou Reed who compliments Reznor’s approach to rock music.
The footage that was shot on video at was the norm at the time where it would look grainy but there is something unique to the way it looks. Even as it has a sense of realism into the performances that includes a duet of the song Hurt with David Bowie who would also appear in a backstage scene talking with Reznor and other members of NIN at the time. The video would also showcase Reznor and Clouser doing work on music for the Natural Born Killers soundtrack. It’s a documentary that is filled with a lot of excitement even though alternative music at the time was trying to avoid the antics of rock stardom and the usual forms of debauchery including trashing dressing rooms and groupies.
Music Videos (tape 2)
The collection of videos is presented with footage directed by Peter Christopherson that mixes stock footage with material that comes in between the music videos the band did from Down In It to The Perfect Drug as the only music video from that period that doesn’t appear is Burn from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack while Sin appears in a partially-edited version. While many of the videos on the tape do appear years later on YouTube uncut and uncensored (including the widely-popular video for Closer in its uncut form), the collection would also include three video clips exclusive to the release such as a different video for the song Gave Up that is completely different from the video made for The Broken Movie that is directed by Jon Reiss which has the band recording the song at the infamous home where Sharon Tate was killed by the Charles Manson family as it features a young Marilyn Manson playing guitar on the track.
The collection included three live videos for the songs Wish, Hurt, and Eraser as Hurt was an official video release as these three live videos directed by Simon Maxwell for what was supposed to be a live video concert film that was eventually rejected by Reznor aside from the three videos that appear. Both Hurt and Eraser have the band performing behind a projection screen with footage appearing for the audience to see.
Halo 12-DVD appendage
In August of 2004 while recording the fourth full-length album With Teeth as well as doing remastering for a 10th Anniversary release of The Downward Spiral, Reznor announced plans for a DVD release of Closure with additional material that would include additional rare footage, rehearsals, a photo gallery, unreleased versions of scrapped music videos for March of the Pigs and Hurt, making-of footage for a couple of music videos, and live footage from Lollapalooza ’91 and Woodstock ’94. It was supposed to come out later that year but issues involving Interscope Records postponed the release indefinitely as a DVD/Blu-Ray release as of 2018 still hasn’t come to fruition. The main bulk of the bonus feature is a 50-minute compilation of live footage from the band’s early tours from 1989 to 1991 including news snippets and interviews with the band during that time that included future Filter co-founder Richard Patrick, Wooley, and the late Jeff Ward of Lard. The section also showcases the band’s very first show back in 1988 as well as tour antics from the Self Destruct tour including a hilarious tribute to This is Spinal Tap.
Then in 2006, material for the 2-disc DVD release was leaked through the Pirate Bay BitTorrent site that would include an audio commentary track by Mark Romanek for the making of the Closer music video who reveals many of the tricks that he did on the video including information of the film stock. The most popular rumor about the leak is that it came from Trent Reznor himself who hasn’t denied nor has he said that he was the one who leaked it.
Closure is a tremendous home video release from Nine Inch Nails as it showcases the outfit at the time when they were extremely popular as well as creating music that was daring. Though it’s unavailable publicly in a physical component, it does remain one of Trent Reznor’s finest releases as well as marking the end of an era for NIN. In the end, Closure is a spectacular release from Nine Inch Nails.
Nine Inch Nails: halos: halo 1 - halo 2 - halo 3 - halo 4 - halo 5 - halo 6 - halo 7 - halo 8 - halo 9 - halo 10 - halo 11 - halo 13 – (halo 14) – (halo 15) – (halo 16) – (halo 17) - (halo 18) – (halo 19) – (halo 20) – (halo 21) – (halo 22) - (halo 23) – (halo 24) – (halo 25) – (halo 26) – (halo 27) - (halo 28) – (halo 29) – (halo 30) – (halo 31) – (halo 32)
seeds: (seed 1) – (seed 2) – (seed 3) – (seed 4) – (seed 5) – (seed 6) – (seed 7) – (seed 8)
Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross Film Soundtracks: null 1 - null 2 - (null 3) – (null 4) – (null 5) – (null 6) – (null 7)
Soundtracks/Miscellaneous: The Broken Movie - Natural Born Killers OST - Quake OST - Lost Highway OST
Live Shows: (NIN/Bauhaus/TV on the Radio-6/7/06 Atlanta, GA Hi-Fi Buys Amphitheater) – (NIN/Deerhunter-8/13/08 Duluth, GA Gwinnett Arena) - (Jane’s Addiction/NIN/Street Sweeper Social Club-5/10/09 Atlanta, GA Hi-Fi Buys Amphitheater) – NIN/Godspeed You! Black Emperor-10/24/13 Atlanta, GA Philips Arena - NIN/Jesus & Mary Chain/Tobacco-9/27/18 Atlanta, GA Fox Theatre
© thevoid99 2018
Released on February 19, 1997 from nothing records and Interscope Records, the soundtrack to the David Lynch film Lost Highway is an audio companion piece to the film produced and assembled by Trent Reznor. Featuring two score pieces from Reznor as well as a new song from Nine Inch Nails, the album also include original score pieces by longtime Lynch collaborator Angelo Badalamenti as well as contributions from Marilyn Manson, the Smashing Pumpkins, Barry Adamson, David Bowie, Rammstein, Lou Reed, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. The result is a thrilling and eerie soundtrack from Trent Reznor and David Lynch.
The album opens and ends with David Bowie’s I’m Deranged from his 1995 album Outside as it is this ominous track with pulsating synthesizers and drums along with driving guitars and Mike Garson’s piano flourishes as Bowie sings the song’s haunting lyrics as the opening version of the track fades out in the middle while the closing track opens with a fade-in of Bowie’s vocals in its reprise version. The first of two instrumental tracks by Trent Reznor in Videodrones: Questions is a forty-four second instrumental piece of wind-like textures and loops with contributions from Peter Christopherson of the industrial group Coil. The Perfect Drug by Nine Inch Nails is the first song by the outfit to not be written solely by Trent Reznor as it was written with then-live band members in multi-instrumentalist Danny Lohner, keyboardist/programmer Charlie Clouser, and drummer/programmer Chris Vrenna as it is this mixture of industrial rock with the drum n’ bass electronic sub-genre as it feature cryptic lyrics from Reznor with driving guitars, pulsating beats, hammering live beats with a drum solo, and flourishing synthesizers.
The first of seven score pieces by Angelo Badalamenti in Red Bats with Teeth as it is this jazz piece with as it includes a bopping rhythm with flourishing pianos, layers of saxophones including a blazing solo by Bob Sheppard as it play into the world that Bill Pullman’s character is in as his character is a jazz musician. Badalementi’s Haunting & Heartbreaking is this soothing ambient piece that is performed by Badalamenti with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra as it is a haunting track that play into the sense of horror that Fred and Patricia Arquette’s character Renee is encountering. From the Smashing Pumpkins is the song Eye as it is this somber electronic ballad with a rhythmic drum machine beat and warbling synthesizer melodies as Billy Corgan sings the song’s melancholic lyrics as it is one of the strongest cuts on the album.
The third Badalamenti score piece in Dub Driving is this bass-driven cut co-written with David Lynch that led by a melodic bass line from Peter Richards with as it features backgrounds of soothing guitars along with some percussions from Lynch and soothing keyboards from Badalamenti and Robert Muller. The first of four contributions from Barry Adamson is the first variation of a music theme for Robert Loggia’s character Mr. Eddy as it features dialogue of Mr. Eddy driving his car as it is this cool, jazz-like track with eerie horns, melodic organs, and a smooth and steady percussive track that delves into different time signatures as it builds up some momentum. The second version of the theme is a more menacing version that play into Mr. Eddy’s notorious temper as it relates to a reckless driver as it features some woodwinds to play up the atmosphere of the track. A cover of the Drifters’ song This Magic Moment from Lou Reed from a Doc Pomus tribute album is another standout cut as it has Reed singing the song with melodic guitars and driving power chords as it is a snarling yet somber cover from Reed.
The fourth Badalamenti piece in Fred and Renee Make Love is a haunting orchestral track led by soothing bass and atmospheric textures during a sex scene between Fred and Renee. The first of two cuts from the shock rock industrial group Marilyn Manson is Apple of Sodom as it is this bopping mid-tempo track with its steady drum beats, warbling guitars and keyboards, and Manson’s creepy vocals as it play into lyrics of temptation and terror as it is another of the record standout cuts. Antonio Carlos Jobim’s Insensatez is a soothing bossa-nova track led by soft percussions and a melodic piano track as it play into the tired mood of the character Pete Drayton who is played by Balthazar Getty. A shortened version of Adamson’s piece Something Wicked This Way Comes is this groove-based instrumental with samples from Massive Attack and a couple of tracks as it this mixture of jazz and trip-hop that appears in a party scene in the film where Fred meets the mysterious man that is played by Robert Blake.
A cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ I Put a Spell on You by Marilyn Manson from the group’s Smells Like Children EP is this fierce and menacing version of the song with driving guitar riffs, Manson’s screams, and heavy rhythms as it plays into the character of Alice, also played by Arquette, as she tells Pete a story about Mr. Eddy. The next two score pieces from Angelo Badalamenti in Fats Revisited which is a piano-based track that is a darkly-comical piece with string flourishes while Fred’s World is a more eerie piece with haunting synthesizer textures that play into the horror that Fred is about to encounter that would end with a laugh from the mystery man. The first of two tracks from the German industrial metal group Rammstein from their 1995 debut album Herzeleid is a shortened version of the song named after the band as it is this fierce and intense track with driving metal guitars and hard-hitting beats with vocalist from Till Lindemann.
The fourth and final score piece from Barry Adamson in Hollywood Sunset is this soothing ambient piece with some throbbing percussive beats and warbling organs to help set a mood for the dark aspects of the film. The second Rammstein contribution in a shortened version of Heirate Mich is bopping yet driving track led by rhythmic drums and metallic guitar riffs with Lindemann providing a dark mood to the song as it help play into the suspense of the film. The final Badalamenti score piece in Police as it has these sounds of police sirens created by strings as it play into some of the mystery of what is happening as it closes with dialogue from the film where a character says “Dick Laurent is dead”. The second Trent Reznor score piece in Driver Down is this instrumental piece produced with Peter Christopherson as it is this industrial-metal track with driving guitar riffs from Danny Lohner and hard-hitting drums from Chris Vrenna as it include wailing sounds of loops and synthesizers with Reznor also playing a saxophone on the track as it fades into the album closer in the reprised version of David Bowie’s I’m Deranged.
One song on the film that doesn’t appear on the soundtrack album is a cover of Tim Buckley’s Song to the Siren from the 4AD label outfit This Mortal Coil that is performed by Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie of This Mortal Coil as it this devastating and haunting version due to Fraser’s vocals as it plays during a sex scene between Pete and Alice.
The soundtrack to Lost Highway is an incredible soundtrack album from Trent Reznor. Along with the score contributions from Angelo Badalamenti and Barry Adamson, the record is definitely an adventurous and eerie album that play into the dark world of David Lynch with songs from David Bowie, NIN, Lou Reed, Marilyn Manson, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Rammstein. In the end, the soundtrack to Lost Highway is a sensational album from Trent Reznor and David Lynch.
Related: Lost Highway
© thevoid99 2018
