Lots of music hitting the inbox this week, from Reznor scoring a movie about Facebook to Ghostly giving away rarities.

Trent Reznor and bandmate Atticus Ross have scored The Social Network, and created a shadowy, throbbing musical landscape that I feel perfectly fits a biopic of geekdom’s dark underbelly. (The music mischievously asks, is it possible to be a bit seedy, lusty, and dorky at the same time?) They’ve also given away the first five tracks, and if you buy in the US on the 28th and 29th next week, you can get the whole thing for three bucks. Insert silly reference here to “hitting the Like button” or “friending something” like I keep hearing in the mainstream press every time this movie comes up. It’s totally going to be better than Pirates of Silicon Valley. (Okay, that goes without saying…)

Soundtrack: http://www.nullco.com/TSN/
News @ NIN

Our friends at Percussion Lab have been going absolutely nuts lately. Let’s first catch up with what they’ve been giving to us. Daedalus’ live set at the grungy, scene-y Santos Party House in TriBeCa is available for full download, a monome-powered, musical shot of energy drink. “I’ve been developing a little bit of a sweet tooth for tempo,” says Daedelus before launching into a frenetic live set.

Daedelus – Live from Santos Party Haus

If all that sugar gives you a head/toothache, here’s an alternative way to go at PercussionLab. It’s a scintillating, glowing assemblage of “beatless” (but pulsing and vibrating) sounds made for an art museum. Nicely assembled, and fantastic for chilling or coding.

Melodic Shapes by James Healy (Escape Art, Air Texture)
Sound Mix for Leo Villareal at the San Jose Museum of Art

Repeating sonic structures, creating melodic shapes, may form iconic pathways into abstract thought. Nice work by James Healy. It’s a perfect match for Leo Villareal’s visual work.
Tracklisting:

Loscil “Fern and Robin”, Antonio Trinchera “Just To See You Tomorrow”, bvdub “I Knew Happiness Once”, Mick Chillage “Hypothermia”, Antonio Trinchera “The Wind Make Himself”, Schwanbeck “Glow”, Aquadorsa “Daylight Fading Into Evening Silence”, Ulf Lohmann “Kristall”, Antonio Trinchera “Voce Falena”, Ulf Lohmann “My Pazifik”, John Barry “Out of Africa”, Klimek “for Michael Gira and Vladmir Ivanovich”, Loscil “Hyphae”

http://www.sjmusart.org/content/leo-villareal

Escape Art Melodic Shapes for Leo Villareal

Lastly, Burial and Kode9 assembled a set for the last BBC Radio 1 show hosted by Mary Anne Hobbs. (See that news, previously on CDM.)

Finally, some retrospectives from two titantic and well-loved electronic labels this month:

Ninja Tune turns 20, and also happen to be giving away an epic mix by founders Coldcut to anyone who registers for (or signs in) to their site.

I’m sure we’ll be seeing plenty of Ninja Tune coverage as they reach this landmark, but for eMusic users, legendary electronic music journalist Philip Sherburne chooses classics and essentials from their catalog. At eMusic prices, this could be a cheap way to round out your collection.

Starting this month, there are huge party events planned around the world.

And, of course, there’s the enormous, collectible Ninja Tune XX box set, as pictured above. You can hear samples on SoundCloud, below.

Heck, there’s even an iTunes app, though… well, to be honest, I don’t quite get it. It just plays tracks and tells you about releases, both of which your Web browser does just fine. Maybe I’m more old-fashioned than I thought; I’d rather sprawl out on the sofa with the box set and a pair of cans.

Ninja Tune XX Box Set Previews (CDs 1-4 only) by Ninja Tune XX

Not to be outdone, younger label Ghostly International has a free second volume of rarities which is hitting repeat in my player.

Highlights include Matthew Dear’s “Stab In The Backs”; Mobius Bands’ “You’re Wrong (Benoit Piouluard Remix)”; and Christopher Willits’ “Orange Lit Spaces (Electricwest Remix)”.

Those were some obvious choices; there’s more in my inbox and pile of things to hear, so watch for more, and keep it coming, music makers.

Ah, the BBC. Their world news sounds like an apocalyptic rave and their inexplicably long-running, trippy strange “children’s” sci-fi show has one of the greatest pieces of synthesized music ever.

I’m running out of ways to say Delia Derbyshire is one of the most brilliant composers ever to use electricity, so let’s just get straight on to the bit where Coldcut show up and hold a big musical party for the Beeb Radiophonic Workshop and do their own kickass remix of Who’s opening titles and sounds. (Making the classic Doctor Who video feedback seem psychedelic? Not really a challenge. And yet these episodes always wound up with wandering around a rock quarry…)

Coldcut were there, the wonderfully-talented Dick Mills and Mark Ayres… sounds delicious. I’m still waiting for the Derbyshire music release, and I think there’s still more that could be done to document the UK’s electronic history — CDM stands at your aid, ye worthy workshop of sound.

BBC Electric Proms 2008: Coldcut
Via Carter Rosenberg’s tumblr and
vdmx co-creator David Lublin’s Twitter

Because it must be done, let us also consider Orbital’s classic remix (thanks, gwenhwyfaer) – provided it doesn’t make you hide behind the sofa: