The Long Way Round
3 Sep 2026
Six Degrees of
Trent Reznor
Start here, end up somewhere else
Ø needs no excuse to celebrate Trent Reznor but we do actually have one. Sort of. Bear with us here. Lanterns is our current favourite show and the soundtrack reminded us of another DC TV show, Watchmen, and who did that soundtrack? Mr Trent Reznor and Mr Atticus Ross.
Trent Reznor▸Six ways out Six tracks and a bonus · 1989 to 2011 · one that never came out
ViaPretty Hate Machine changed the face of industrial music and what better place to start than Halo 1: Down in It. Down in It is despair with a beat so dirty that you have to dance to it. It brought industrial kicking and screaming into the mainstream, and was a foretaste of what Nine Inch Nails would be. Listen to Closer or Only and you can hear echoes of Down in It.
ViaFull disclosure, Trent Reznor is a cheat code when it comes to connecting artists. Here we see him appearing in the video for this single, which also features a version by Ice Cube. I'm Afraid of Americans is the aural chaos you could only get from Bowie and Reznor. Unsettling, direct, and leaving you wanting more.
ViaIn 2005, Saul Williams opened for Nine Inch Nails at the Brixton Academy and hearing Act III Scene 2 was one of those moments that have shaped our musical taste. Trent produced The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! and Saul Williams is one of the few people that could do justice to this U2 masterpiece. Ø notes that another cover that deserves a place in the pantheon is Hurt by Johnny Cash but that's for another day.
ViaA glimpse at a lost album. Zack de la Rocha worked with a number of artists on a solo project, including DJ Shadow and Trent Reznor. It will likely never see the light of day but this gives a clue as to how it might have sounded. Ø also recommends checking out One Day as a Lion, which is why we're giving you a bonus link.
ViaAnother album lost to time but for a while in the early noughties it genuinely looked like the Tapeworm project would take over the world. A Perfect Circle previewed Vacant from that project and eventually reworked it into Passive. We love this but we can't help but wonder what might have been.
ViaWe would be remiss if we didn't mention the film and TV work that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have done. Sorry, we should say the multi-award winning film and TV work. Multiple Oscars say more than we ever could so put this on and imagine the Vikings are coming.
On this trip we learned to take joy from the glimpses of things lost to time and to celebrate collaborations.
ø