Saul Williams (w/Reznor)-"The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!"

[GeraldFord]

I've talked about this in the NIN thread, but I think this deserves a thread of its own.

For those of you who don't know, Saul Williams is a very talented rapper/poet/actor. He has teamed up with Trent Reznor (whom he opened for in 2006) for a new album titled The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!

Imagine Gnarls Barkley meets Public Enemy meets Nine Inch Nails, and that is how I would describe the sound of the new CD. It's really cool, definitely worth checking out.

The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! is not available in stores, only online. You can download the album for FREE! Or, if you choose you can pay $5.00. Either way you get the artwork.

I've only listened to this CD twice but I can already say that it's one of my favorites of 2007. Check it out!

http://niggytardust.com/saulwilliams/download

[Robman?]

I've only listened to this CD twice but I can already say that it's one of my favorites of 2006. Check it out!

2007 

It was released today, I got a copy, great album, like a mix of NIN, hip - hop, and a bunch of other stuff. You can definitely hear the Reznor influence, yet its very original.

The U2 cover is really good.

[PJ]

GREAT DISC
a must have!!

sounds very year zero-ish
but the vocals are fuckin amazing, i love how this guy raps..
one of the best discs of 2007

[Evil Ash]

fuck what a great album!! it's gonna sound even better after a few listenings, i'm sure

[Where is Hassan Nasrallah ?]

great cd!
i'll give him 5 bucks next month

[LeftToDecay]

Reznor posted some random info about the record in ETS:


Here's some misc info regarding Saul's record to share with you from my perspective.
Part 1.

Black History Month
A Thavius track originally titled "Banana Peels". Probably my favorite track on the record and one I pushed to be first. Also one I had very little to do with musically aside from some arrangement work. This was always the first track I'd play for people from this project to freak them out. Try it on nice speakers REAL loud and you'll see what I mean.

Convict Colony
One of the first tracks we worked on together. We began the process of experimenting together by me giving him I think 10 tracks or so of stuff I had around. Some of it was new, some were orphans from various other projects and none of it was written with Saul in mind - I was just fishing around to see if anything inspired Saul. He came back with the intro drums from a demo I gave him (I think from a Tapeworm track) chopped up into the basics of what you now hear. It was so much better than what I gave him and unexpected - I was sold on the idea of pursuing the relationship and off we went.

Tr(n)igger
This track arrived on my doorstep while we were mixing the record. Saul had been working on this and when I heard it I knew it needed to be included. We had two rooms set up at Chalice where we mixed the record. Alan was mixing in the control room while I was set up with another rig in the small "live" room finessing various tracks and whatnot.
The relationship between Saul and myself had grown to a place by this time where we trusted each other's sensibilities and could get things accomplished without second-guessing everything too much.
And by the way, for those wondering how much Saul did vs myself in terms of the music - every track so far on the record is virtually unchanged from the way I first heard them aside from some finessing.

Sunday Bloody Sunday
We were halfway through the mix when I realized I was caught up with my duties in the second room. We discussed playing around with some covers and threw some ideas around. We did two - you've heard one. Saul suggested SBS and I spent about a week wrestling around with the right way to pull it off. It probably sounds more like a NIN arrangement than I would allow NIN to sound these days, but in this context I felt it was the right thing to do.
A record as sonically and lyrically complex and challenging as this one needs moments of accessibility to anchor things together and I think this performs that function well.

Break
Born in the woods of Malibu in a small place I was staying in from the simple challenge: can we make a piece of music Saul can flow over that combines unusual time signatures without sounding like math-rock? Atticus and I did the chorus by recording several 2-bar long heavy rock "songs" we then sampled and performed on the MPC. Fun to do and I still get goosebumps when Saul sings verse 2.

NiggyTardust
Another true product of collaboration. Born from two pieces of music I gave Saul spliced together - the verse was a fairly new thing and the chorus was from an unused Fragile track. Never would I have considered the two coming together and NEVER would I have imagined those lyrics involved! If you ever get access to the multitracks, I'm sure you can hear lots of laughing in the background. The vocoder over the end makes me smile every time. Very fun to work on.

More later - the coffee is wearing off.


Rutheless, rutheless cock teasing of nin fans going on^^
"the verse was a fairly new thing and the chorus was from an unused Fragile track."
"He came back with the intro drums from a demo I gave him (I think from a Tapeworm track)"

It's like " I WANT YOUR FUCKING 5 DOLLARS YOU SLUT!!"
...fine fine i pay, Christ...

[maynard]

great album!

[greendog]

easily one of my favourite albums.

and jesus fucking christ about that fragile bit. thats ace and is also my favourite track along with the pure noiseness of the opener.

id recommend this album to anyone.

[von]

Agreed. Phenomenal album. I need to send some $ Saul's way once I get the chance.

[LeftToDecay]

easily one of my favourite albums.

and jesus fucking christ about that fragile bit. thats ace and is also my favourite track along with the pure noiseness of the opener.

id recommend this album to anyone.

Yeah Niggy Tardust is very cool.
That and Break are only tracks I am really liking for now. But can feel the album  starting to open more and more. It's so easy to spot inspired, definite  "keeper" record  when you hear one. Easier than beginning to like one  actually.

Will never get too  exited over the  rap heavy parts.  Just find it very hard  to get into that particular way of artistic expression:O

The spoken word  and,  Jesus bless, Industrial Rock oriented aspects of the album will start kicking my ass very soon, I'd guess.
No idea if it is real me or the Nin whore in me speaking here tho 

"Hey! Niggy Tardust No Guitar" <- Hope Bowie is flattered^^
Liking lyrics of Break a lot.

[TAP]

Listened to it today for the first and second time - it's cool, I like it.

[LeftToDecay]

The music video of Sunday Bloody Sunday has just been released.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GypGWifQ9GM
(Version with better quality available via Yahoo)

It's not a bad cover at all or anything...but it's still a cover.
While it makes a whole lot of sense that artists who wants to make a name of himself releases cover of a dmous song  as a 1st single of an album..
..it's still somewhat meh.

There's few genuinely exiting tracks on the record..hope atleast one of them gets a music vid too in future.

[GeraldFord]

A CD version comes out 7/7

[LeftToDecay]

Intereting to see what sort of response it gets.
This album has a "breakthough record" written all over it, hope it gets the attention it obviously deserves.