GHOSTS I-IV

Possibly my favourite Nine Inch Nails release, Ghosts I-IV finds Trent Reznor fully indulging a side of his music which had only surfaced as very occasional instrumental snippets on previous albums (aside from the Quake soundtrack). This fully instrumental ambient industrial album is essentially Reznor's answer to Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol. II, immersed as it is in an experimental tradition which can be traced back by the attentive listener to the electronic delvings of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp back in the 1970s. (Fripp sideman Adrian Belew even appears on some tracks.) All the sonic genius of Reznor with none of the embarrassingly bad lyrics or insincere stabs at the mainstream? Yes, please!