As many of you may be aware, Trent Reznor is currently hatching some sort of artistic master plan in order to publicize the release of NIN's Year Zero later this year.

It began simple enough with their track "My Violent Heart" being leaked into the hands of radio stations that proceeded to play the hell out of it, much to the chagrin of NIN's record executives. In the most outlandish cases, such as radio Q101 Chicago, Interscope records actually sent a "Cease and Desist" letter to the station, and cut all ties regarding their concerts and artists... the main reason being that "My Violent Heart" wasn't supposed to be the first single, rather Interscope wanted people to hear "Survivalism."

In any case, soon the record company figured out that:
a) People were enjoying the new songs.
b) It was Reznor himself who was leaking the songs.

So they backed off.

It turns out that as part of this post-apocalyptic fantasy/horror world that Trent is creating, he was leaving flash hard drives containing the leaked songs at the venues of shows they were playing in Spain, Portugal, etc. (Reportedly in the bathrooms of said venues.)

Within weeks, radio was being flooded with "My Violent Heart," "Me I'm Not," and most recently "In This Twilight," and it would seem a new marketing and hype-phenomena was born.

Released earlier this week, "In This Twilight" also contained a phone number on the hard drive, that, when called, plays a recorded of a "wire tap" of epically creepy proportions. (If you would care to give a listen, call 216-333-1810.)

It would seem that the hub of this masterpiece is contained here.

Listed are all of the tracks on the forthcoming album, and those which have been leaked and found are now visible, and available to listen. Also within the mixed up Web page, links can be found scattered about that undoubtedly pertain to future or current discoveries regarding the Year Zero album (Including a link to "uswiretap," where the first time you visit you can read a brief/scrambled police summary of the events recorded at the phone number you may have called.)

Whether you choose to follow the hype or not, I would like to extend a heartfelt "kudos" to Mr. Reznor for bringing something new and exciting to your standard CD release by creating what could be considered one, giant, conspiracy-like, twisted piece of art.