"REPTILE" musical analysis by composer (Nine Inch Nails // The Downward Spiral)
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- Опубліковано 26 чер 2021
- The companion video to the Reptile sound design vid! Let me know what you think of all the sounds and melodies in this monstrously beautiful, disgusting track. Thanks to Manu who made the TDS samples video I sampled (with permission)! You might find out about some other amazing references - check it out: • The Downward Spiral - ...
KEY: D Mixolydian/b6
BPM: 64/127 depending on how you feel it
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Why has it taken almost 30 years for anyone to analyze a song (and album) so well? This man is a genius and yet I feel he is still under appreciated by so many.
Thank you for giving your analysis the time and depth it needs.
Underappreciated? He does have multiple Oscars, Golden Globes, Grammys and one Emmy...
It's because people don't care about musical genius. They just care their music is not abrasive and won't challenge them. Life is hard enough.
@@claymccoy I know a lot of people who think NIN is a ‘one hit wonder’ with Closer. When I saw NIN at Lollapalooza in 2008, probably a fourth of the crowd left after Closer was performed towards the beginning of their set.
Plenty of people that have a passing interest in NIN don’t even know that it’s basically one guy. They don’t even know who Trent Reznor is.
So yeah, Trent and NIN are still definitely under appreciated.
Not to mention all the dumb fucks who literally think that “Hurt” is a Johnny Cash song.
@@kdog909 Maybe in the mainstream, it's true that the masses may not really recognize anything else other than Hurt. NIN has always been about the alt crowd though, which doesn't necessarily always mean commercial success. It's just been done so well that it broke through a bit to the mainstream.
He and Billy Corgan are music geniuses that came from the 90's. I swear the 90's didn't just mark the end of the 20th century. It marked the end of an era of true musical genius. The music industry plummeted afterwards.
This is pure, industrial rock. You can quite literally feel the heat from the machinery in this song. You're in the gearworks, and it's eating you up.
The gravedigger getting stuck in the machine
Discussing scales on the song called “Reptile” 🐍
Precissssssssely!🐍🐍🐍
Ayyyyyyyy!
THIS is the one I've been waiting for. Absolutely outstanding.
I love when I find my favorite hobby UA-camr's on completely unrelated videos! Yay Guy!
Ixi lipstick tyranids 🥰
"Like raindrops...before some deluge comes and destroys humanity, or like blood drops from the ceiling...before a body falls through." That's ixi! Fricken love this channel.
she’s got a trail of comments just underneath her clip
I sssssssssee what you did there! 🐍
The Downward Spiral is one of greatest albums ever recorded for so many reasons but one of those being the most obvious. It's timelessness. This album could have been released today and it would still sound just as modern as it did 30 years ago. One simply cannot discern what era whence it came.
That bowed metal sound is easily the weirdest thing I've heard in music. It's so distant, and enormous, and menacing. It's like the Eye of Sauron suddenly focused on something.
I think I used to imagine it was a horn or something. Other folks are saying elephants, Godzilla...mysterious!
I've listened to this song for years but you make me want to learn how to play the piano and learn how to read music.
Don't stop doing what you're doing.
Yes! Me too!
How she shows the way u can creatively just dance around chords and make something so .... just awesome!
I now know the depths of your analysis are limitless
On an album that's just one masterpiece after another, this song is truly next level.
I remember seeing Trent and David Bowie doing Reptile when they were on tour in the early 1990s. Cool. As. F**k.
Did you get to see them live? I've seen video of those shows and what I wouldn't give for a time machine!!
I am eternally jealous of you.
I have seen videos of Peter Murphy singing Reptile in a radio show with Trent
@@enterlinemediavisual There are a couple videos of Peter Murphy, Trent, Atticus, and Twiggy playing in front of a few people. One of the Songs they play is Reptile. They are pretty good, it’s on NIN’s channel.
I just looked at the description. I’m telling you about the same videos you are referring to. Doh. 😖
@@Len_M. there is another Reptile video I just watched where Peter Murphy is hanging upside down and signing Reptile
When I listen to this song in my car the ad libs sound like Trent reznor is trapped under my passenger seat
Sorry I just pictured it and can´t stop laughing xD
I have thought that too! Like, is he in the trunk or…?? 😂😂😂
This is my absolute favorite NIN track. It's so deep, sinister, it's got a very Eraserhead quality- the otherworldly perception of normal feelings
The moster wails in the 2nd and third chorus always give me chills (DUUUUUU)oh (DUUUUUU)my [horrifying wail] beautiful liar
Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good
You can tell this is one of Trent's overall favourites, by the way he makes it special in live performances and how he made a whole sequel/homage song to it in Not The Actual Events
52:18 the "Kirk, help" part blew my mind. That sound in the song always reminded me of a girl sneezing :D :D
“…And then a body falls through the ceiling” 😆
Dance break at 45:56 is all of us at that point in the song.
Nice find with the spiral theme in the chorus!
It's validating to have others mention it, my gf thought I was crazy when I pointed it out to her a few years back. The recurring theme is one of my favorite parts of the album.
I feel like Mixolydian b6 is pretty much the definitive NIN scale.
Truly!!!
And the data proves it! I made a spreadsheet with a subscriber, Oliver Michalowski, of the keys of all NIN releases, and the numbers show that it's the most commonly used scale.
Add the minor 3rd playfully when you want more emphasis and you really got it I'd say
Some of my favorite Trent lyrics and vocals ever. One of those songs where when you're alone and singing along you get really into it and would be really embarrassed if you turned around and people were watching you. Especially during the 'ooh hoo ooh whoa oh' part. Ugh so good.
The HUGE power chords in the chorus hit like a truck. Then the bounce down to the synth-like beat, then the power chords again. All this contrasted with the tone and drone of the rest of the song. Just incredible.
I know lyrics and Poetry aren't EXACTLY the same here, but in reference to how he tends to change up the 3rd line of his verses, I found this info about Quatrains (or four line poem):
"Ruba’i", [is] A Persian quatrain. English poets rediscovered the form, first used by Omár Khayyám in the eleventh century, in the eighteenth century, and incorporated the structure of quatrain into their work. A ruba’i has a rhyme scheme of AABA.
This matches Trents AABA structure he often uses with groups of 4 lines.
Very cool find! Thank you for sharing with all us!
What an amazing piece of information. Thank you for sharing!
I hear a sprinkler on a fine summer day, but, you know, different strokes for different folks!
Also, yes, it's all about the nuances of Trent's voice, and what he has to say. The rest is frosting on the cake!!
I think when he sings the word "reptile" is almost as if he's seeing it for the first time. Like he wasn't expecting to see it and it startled him. Much like when you're walking along a a path and what you think is a stick laid across the path turns out to be a snake sunning itself, and quickly slithers away.
The "girl sample", could also be a lure for the beast, hence the unstable resolution on that tri-tone. that moment when he realized that another fall is coming.
The tazer sound reminds me of a dead car battery and a snakes flicking tongue at the same time.
@ I always felt like the "oh" was him fully embracing his depravity. He's down in the thick of it and has a momentary vision of what goodness or innocence used to be associated with himself and the "oh" was a surprised but still detached realization. Like "Oh, how quaint. That innocence used to be a part of me." Then it dives back into him fully reveling in new his form.
Interesting that you hear the sample of the girl in the bridge to be a gasp of fear, I always heard it as a tiny little giggle, almost mocking. In my mind, that portion of the song is a moment where all the delusion and mania is stripped away and we see her, just a tiny delicate little girl, and it reminds us that HE is the real problem, he's Mr. Self Destruct and she's just a person. He's built her up as a literal monster born of demons, but that is just the image of her that he's built up in his own head.
Anyway, I love these videos and thank you for the deep dives!
I like this take on it. It kinda recontextualizes the whole song, like HE’S the horrible person spitting venom at her because he’s so far gone
ixi: "I know I know, I get really excited about this stuff!"
us: this is why we are here
The machine sounds at the beginning of the song, when they rest & begin again, having always made me think of a huge automaton trudging towards me, slowly walking to come get me, & one which cannot be stopped.
This song sounds like the trailer for every sci-fi comic book action movie that has come out in the past 15 years, but when this came out in ‘94 there was nothing remotely like it out there.
The live version with David Bowie is so ace!
The excitement that you express when describing the ascending scale that "resolves" at the tritone is something I wholeheartedly relate to. Plus you threw in a Star Trek reference? You rule so hard ha ha
An hour and three minutes???? Oh, let's GOOOO 🦎
I always heard the"hi hats" as a mechanical reptile flicking it's tongue
ooooh
The mechanical pounding from the main riff to me is like the legs of a Mecha Godzilla, the fisical avatar of the Reptile, it's so awesome that a song can evoke something so concrete yet so outlandish!
Your breakdowns are so incredible! I've learned more theory from them than I have from plain "instructional" theory courses, AND they're so enjoyable to watch. Your enthusiasm when you get nerdy about the little easter eggs and callbacks is so fun, some of these thoughts I've had while listening to Trent's work too but never had the knowledge nor vocabulary to express (or even fully understand what I was thinking/feeling). You just NAIL it all of the time!
Reptile is one of my favorite tracks ever, of any genre, era, artist, anything. It's literally like a painting, a masterpiece of one of the "old masters".
So grateful for what you do 🤘
PS. Would you be interested in doing one for "The Mark Has Been Made"? I know it's not quite as complex as Reptile, but it has such sharp teeth and so much contrast, so dynamic.
Yes I would! I love The Mark Has Been Made.
@iximusic OOOOOHHH, how exciting! 🤘
I think that Trent isn't actually talking about a woman in this song, but about his addictions, like he did earlier in Sanctified and then later in With Teeth (the song) where he refered to them as a "she".
Yes I think this is very possible too! I love it when he personifies certain subjects like this. It's really clever. I guess it's easy to assume on one hand he could be talking about a woman, but it could also be about how he feels so helpless and keeps giving into his addictions.
Addiction brings chaos and ruin. Natural disasters do the same, and you are just as powerless against them in the moment. Nature is always She.
There's a reason we go wild when the lights turn green at a live show. Reptile is an experience. Thank you for breaking it down.
The first time I saw Reptile live it became my absolute favorite NIN song. That sheer giant wall of sound when the guitars all come in at once on top of the drums... man... it hit me so hard, I can't even describe it. '94 really was the best year for concerts (for me personally). lol
I always pictured the swerve-o sound as him recording the hydraulics of opening a mini van's rear door. Chris Vrenna said in that unofficial documentary that the team purposely picked neutral sounds and made them sound unsettling like you said.
At 55:20, "I know, I know, I get really excited about this stuff ... " - exactly why I am here. You have a tremendous ability to identify the harmonic, melodic and rhythmic elements were mixed together to create great music, including explaining the underlying music theory. Your UA-cam series is fabulous!
Just left the studio pissed, only to find this. Thank you.
I'd suggest the song's She isn't a woman, but addiction.
I've loved NIN since I was a teenager but you help me to understand exactly why it's so satisfying. Thank you for doing this.
It's not a horn, it's GODZILLA! *not gonna lie, I got chills a couple times during this video. I completely identify with your enthusiasm.
A few minutes in, and I am hooked on your content. You are teaching music appreciation skills that I don't believe any college professor has ever laid out for me in such a clear concise manner. As an aspiring composer, listening to you speak is immensely inspiring.
I believe the gear/mechanical sound was taken from Aliens. Apologies if that was mentioned later than the point I'm watching.
I've been watching your videos for a bit and damn do I love the analysis. Really helping me in terms of intervals and tonal nuances. I feel I've become more of an educated musician in this last year from watching things than years of playing before.
I never could pick where that little "help" sample was from... nice.
The burned disc of The Downward Spiral my friend made me always skipped during the "scat" vocal section to the end of the song. It's how I hear it in my head every time now. It was actually kind of neat, as the weird cut outs/noise would fit in time with at least one of the crazy background layers. Like my own personal remix.
I bounce back and forth between Reptile and The Becoming as my favorite off TDS. And the "Devils speak" section just sends shivers up and down my spine when that new guitar riff kicks in! Thank you so much for all the work you've put into these videos!
This is my favorite track in this record, and that entire record is so good
This is one of the top 5 industrial songs ever written. So good.
i think the “careful / kirk help” sample could be the woman he’s singing about, showing her real side not the hate-filled picture painted by the protagonist
i really appreciate the explaining of different musical concepts, makes it clearer and organized! great video as always!
Glad you found it helpful, and your insight is pretty cool!
That's how I always saw it, that, "oh..." at the end being the recognition of her humanity, and his projections just as harmful as anything else she may or may not have done to him.
I always heard it as "hurtful".
@@dylanhanny1582 I always heard the 'Oh...' as a very cynical, completely devoid of humanity reaction to the plea for help. But I like your interpretation just as well.
Personally I think I always interpreted the woman's screams as someone kind of fighting? Maybe it's the imagery of machines, reptiles and insects, maybe it's something else. The whole reptile + machine thing makes me think of some supervillain or something, something changing itself into a reptile hybrid? idk
Also this song felt like it was more about primal lust when I was younger and didn't pay a lot of attention to the lyrics.
As for the bridge part, it really makes me think of Laura Palmer's theme from Twin Peaks. Considering the show was quite popular in the couple years before the album, I wouldn't be surprised if it had an influence on Trent like Crystal Japan did (also, yeah, finally gotten around to watching all the album, after… at least a year and a half of following your channel, lol)
I've always loved how Trent's vocals have a single soft echo effect that persists throughout the entire song.
I honestly can't believe this. I've never met anyone who even knows this song. You are blowing my mind. You have the blood of reptile!
It is nice timing that about a year later, TR did his first soundtrack, which was for the computer game Quake. It definitely continues that ominous and dark atmosphere from TDS and it definitely anticipates all (or at least nearly all) the soundtrack work he would do going forward. It was inevitable that he would do this 😁
Another thing that just occurred to me … horror films rely on tension and release. Lingering on C creates that tension, whereas going into the D releases it.
In my own dealings with vocal melodies, I’ve found that it is fun to “dance around” the main key as well as the underlining chord sequence. I also keep in mind the lyrics and when would be a good time to either do some slight word painting or to bring attention to something in the lyrics, especially if it is telling a story. A hint of things to come from me personally 😉
I’ve imagined “Reptile” as the protagonist creating a woman-machine and all noises point to that image. It fulfils a number of contradictions he has already build into himself and perhaps the last “good” thing he could do before the end.
Now I know why I remember absolutely loving the music in Quake so much. It was always right on point.
The sound always felt the most industrial of any NIN as it sounds just like a machine.
Love that you put that downward spiral "sound " on top of the song!!!
Female Borg? That is EXACTLY what I picture in my head when I hear this song... jeez um
my favorite track from TDS. i love the little dances IXI does during the video.
Thank you ixi, for diving so deeply into this song, but especially that two-note horn stab you mention at 45:22. I had never consciously perceived that before in the song!
Every time I watch a video its a Mixolydian b6 😂. Love your videos, I'm not convinced its really in this mode though, I think it more switching combining/ mixing between major (or dominant as the seventh is always flattened) and minor scales to create uncertain, floating, unnerving and fragile qualities as it means we get dissonant clashes between notes like major thirds and flat sixes, and like you say at times he'll use tritones too. Technically it's correct to say its "Mixolydian b6" at times but I think it only really tells half the story.
Not a criticism, just an opinion with which you might disagree. Love your videos anyways, and really appreciate the time and effort you've gone to to bring them to us! :)
Ps. Would love for you to analyse some of his sountrack stuff (or even the Ghosts stuff). Much more minimalist, but so much to learn from it. Thanks again!
..watched this now 4 times.. ..it just gets better..
..absolutely brilliant breakdown..
..and ovation to YOU..
Wow. I was born in ‘89 and have been listening to NIN for my literal whole life, and only your videos have made me realize what a colossal impact this song IN PARTICULAR has had on my music tastes and sensibilities for a quarter-century. God-tier video, as always, Ixi. 🎵❤️
It’s the gongs that give it life
It's super interesting that you hear that "screech" as a mechanical "servo" sound as you describe it, like a mechanical robotic arm moving etc.
I always imagined it as the screech of some horrible reptilian monster of some kind, most likely due to the title of the track haha
That melody behind the Texas Chainsaw Massacre sample honestly reminds me of some of Angelo Badalamenti’s scores in Twin Peaks. I remember coming across theories that the song references the character of Laura Palmer in the show a while back. Just spitballing.
YEP! always had a taser come to mind as well.
Never noticed that C->D transition from the bass in the beginning. Damn, that makes so much sense and it’s so genius! It always felt to me like it “elevates” the melody to some sort of constantly unstable plateau. Especially since the intro is so violent it feels like it is pushing the listener to the ground.
Yeahhh that's perfect! 👌
'She has the blood of reptiles just underneath her skin" my favorite line in this song
You realise IXI that you are influencing the next generation of sing writers? And that's awesome
Thank you
FINALLY a day to sit and savor "Auditory-Candy"...
Danke!!!
I remember playing this song at a house party '97-ish, with me & my bassist friend's Korg- Roland box array setup & my old Dean guitar. It got such a crowd reaction playing this one, Wish & Happiness In Slavery. I was really unafraid to go full ham back then. Even on our bad "original" Skinny Puppy imitations. I hope other people got to have that kind of fun.
This is my favorite song on this album. For me, the sonic atmosphere conjures a stop-motion claymation, played out all around me. Broken clay structures revolving and figures materializing and then disassembling again out of the dark brown, tan, and black clay material. You feel the layers all around you the more you listen, because so many sounds are hidden underneath melodies. I can feel the drugs I used to do when I listen to this. The surges of excitement followed by waves of relieving buzz and vibration. I want to hear Trent Reznor react to your analysis, and explain what he did in conversation with you, revealing what he used every time you point out the obscure sound effects, loops, and melodies. I really hope this happens. Especially for this song.
24:06 Leonard Bernstein calls this method of melodic development "the 123 method" in his lecture "What is a Melody?" The first line establishes a melody. The second line repeats it, possibly with slight variation, and the third line takes the melody somewhere dramatically different. I don't know if that was precisely what you were looking for though, and I wouldn't know how official or how widely used that term is. It may have simply been his way of explaining the concept to a popular audience.
Wow. Just... Wow, @ixi! I have struggled with this song in the past, but breaking it down in both of your videos is helping me make sense of the wall I was hitting. I've also decided to pick up an instrument for the first time in about 15 years - my new urge to learn and understand the chords and structure of the music I listen to is 100% inspired by your channel. 🤘❤️
Love you vibing at 46:00 to “Devil speak of the way in which you manifest.” :) great analysis as always. Def one of my top fave downward spiral tracks.
I needed this video! Love all your work but really appreciate the depth you go into on this track in particular
I love how it isn't until "Need to contaminate to alleviate this loneliness" that the melody actually begins on I, and that one lyric is the TL;DR of the entire song's point in the protagonist's journey. I hadn't actually noticed that before but it's extremely fitting. Again don't think it was thought out theoretically necessarily when the song was written, but it goes to show the innate knack for songwriting Trent has either way that the message and melody line up that perfectly.
Hey ixi, you've hit one of my faves from the album.
I like how they dropped the third from the chorus melody. It works with the ambiguity of the lyrics. 'Beautiful liar', etc. Ambiguous chords that imply but do not insist on a clear third degree reaaaally work here.
In general, I feel like you've outdone yourself on this one. It's so obvious how much you're in your element and how happy you are to be doing this.
With gratitude!
S
That sound at 58:32 sounds like one of those children's toys that play a little song if you hit a button but if one of those were hit and broken or the batteries in it are almost dead
Wow!!!! This song is very near and dear to me on many levels. And you breaking it down really solidifies that. I could never really express why I love it so much and accidentally replicate sond things from it in my music. You analyzed this greatly. Much respect!!
I really, really look forward to these videos. The attention to detail on Reptile is a highlight, and I expect will carry through to the closing songs on the album, too. I'm the kind of guy who listens to say 100 bands in immense detail, not particularly keen on keeping up to date with new releases but rather committing time to listen to my favourite musicians in a lot of depth, diving into bootlegs, reissues, etc. So this series is like a whole new thing altogether - and I am thrilled at the prospect of something similar with Ghosts I-IV (perhaps abbreviated?), The Slip and Year Zero, given multitracks are available for all.
That ascending whole tone strings thing sure sounds like the Twin Peaks Laura Palmer theme to me.
The resolution to a major third is something I never realized I loved. But now that you’ve pointed this out I know why love NIN. Other songs I’m realizing have this but are outside my normal interests are Kiss From a Rose, Beautiful Stranger, Waiting Line, etc.
It seems like a lot of my musical conditioning came from listening to Trent's music🐷. And then you explain it much further. You are adept at bringing practical theory to light, and you're covering a foundational influence of mine, even though I wasn't so conscious of that. Trent was sure conscious of these moves, so I'm happy to become more intentional about them, too. Therefore... thanks for making these videos! I used to love playing along to Reptile especially, but it was osmosis more than analysis.
One thing I would do is fill out the chords, like you do in the "implied harmony" part, and then play them slower, on my own, with the melody. TDS is SOOOO good for that. I bet a lot of people do something like that, and absorb some of the characteristics that way.
Ok, you blew my mind with that bit at the end, playing the TDS theme over the song. Amazing!
When Gallagher says how the bass in Reptile live "blows your head off" in the Sound Design anaysis video..
I FUCKING WISH I SAW REPTILE LIVE. FUCK.
I'm sad that after 2009 I wasn't able to afford or have the time to see NIN anymore. 😭
Thanks for more epic content, Ixi!
I must say this is one of the greatest musical analysis videos I've seen. The amout of dedication and passion is just... AMAZING.
I would love to see an analysis of "The day the whole world went away". This was the first song I listened to from Nine Inch Nails.
Greetings from Mexico, keep up the good work. :)
This analysis, along with the sound design video, through me down the most wonderful of youtube rabbit holes ever. I watched a 15 part Chris Vrenna interview and found out he's currently a music teacher. Listened to Nitzer Ebb for the first time and loved it. Also came across a 2021 interview with Aaron North, who no one has heard from in a long time. Love your channel, thanks for doing it.
This is my all time favourate NIN song its so deep, bruding and mechanical yet organic sounding
yes to the servo! and the clicking (taser) for me is a relay switch. It's such a great piece... that beat when it kicks in is... murderous
Maybe it’s because the song is called “Reptile”, I always heard the 32nd note high hat/ride 1/2 of the loop thing as like a rattlesnake tail.
And what you call the servo arm, as a slowed down camera shutter aperture .
Man, you have no idea how many new things i'm hearing after i thought i knew the song in and out 15 years later.
THANK YOU for this!
Loved it, thxs once again!
I've always thought that "taser", flickering sound was like insect wings.
that's awesome!
@@iximusic The Weeknd's Life of the Party uses a similar sound (more cymbal-esque though, if not cymbals, period) during the end of the choruses. Always reminded me of Reptile.
such a passion in you, brilliant!
Loving these! Thank you so much
Fantastic work. I always picture a gigantic snake that uses its mechanical tongue as one of the mechanic sounds. In the part of the song when he says "bring it" it appears and its gigantic, we are trapped like a mouse starring into death.
50:49, looking back, is clearly the work of someone with a future in film scores. At least that's what I took away from that and ixi's dissection of it. That tender moment in the song is similar to how A Warm Place is a tender moment of respite and peace before things get ugly again.
Been waiting a while for this one