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[[Image:PHMvinyl2010.jpg|thumb|2010 Remaster vinyl artwork]]
'''''Pretty Hate Machine''''' (also known as '''''[[Halo numbers|Halo 2]]''''') is the first studio album by [[Nine Inch Nails]]. It was released on October 20, 1989 , by [[TVT Records]] in the US, and on February 18, 1991, by Island Records in the UK (reissued on September 30, 1991), and was a huge success. The first single off of the album, ''[[Down In It (halo)|Down In It]]'', was released on September 27, 1989. It received radio airplay for the aforementioned single as well as subsequent singles ''[[Head Like A Hole (halo)|Head Like A Hole]]'' and ''[[Sin (halo)|Sin]]''. The former also serves as a companion [[Remixes|remix]] album of sorts to ''Pretty Hate Machine''.
== Track Listing ==
*The 2010 remastered edition is split across three sides: side 1 has A1 through A4, side 2 has A5 through B3, and side 3 has B4 & B5 along with "Get Down, Make Love" on the end.
==Recording and ''Purest Feeling''History==Working nights at Right Track Studio as While a handyman member of Cleveland, OH bands [[Exotic Birds]] and janitor[[Lucky Pierre]], [[Trent Reznor]] used studio "down time" to record began the initial songwriting and develop his own musicideas for NIN.[https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=vCimjf7nYxE] Playing most of the keyboards, drum machines, guitars, and samplers himself, he recorded began recording demos. He was hired as a demorecording engineer at [[The Right Track]] studio, and used studio "down time" to develop and record more refined and professional demos. Teaming up with manager [[John A. Malm, Jr.]] they sent the demo demos to various record labels. Reznor received serious offers When the major labels rejected them, they began submitting it to international labels and attracted some interest, including from many of themNettwerk. He Reznor eventually signed a deal with TVT Records who, until then, were known mainly for releasing novelty and television jingle records.
After the album ''Pretty Hate Machine'' was released, the aforementioned demo surfaced on a [[bootlegs|bootleg ]] called ''[[Purest Feeling (album)|Purest Feeling]]''surfaced. It contains the original demo recordings versions of most of the tracks found on the album(including an early version of "Ringfinger" entitled "Twist"), as well as a couple that were not used ("[[Purest Feeling (song)|Purest Feeling]]" and "[[Maybe Just Once]]"). This session was initially believed to be demo recordings, but was eventually revealed by original NIN drummer [[Ron Musarra]] to be a recording of tour rehearsals for NIN's [[VIVIsectVI Tour|first tour dates]] opening for [[Skinny Puppy]].
Various demo recordings exist, but not all are circulated. Versions of "Sin", "Terrible Lie", "Sanctified", "Twist", and "Down In It" are on a cassette handed out by Reznor to important figures, one copy of which is privately owned by [[Martin Atkins]].[https://exclaim.ca/music/article/early_demo_of_nine_inch_nails_pretty_hate_machine_hits_ebay] Versions of "Down In It", "Sanctified", "Kinda I Want To", and "Twist" can be found on the ''[[Demos & Remixes]]'' bootleg. A batch of assorted early tracks, including a demo of "Sin" and non-rehearsal recordings of "Purest Feeling" and "Maybe Just Once", was leaked in 2025. The tracks on the cassette owned by Atkins have been heard by fans during playbacks at his museum in Cleveland and the majority of them have been reported to be the same as those heard on ''Demos & Remixes'', save for "Sin" and "Terrible Lie". A 2011 dissertation by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame museum employee Jason Hanley[https://dspace.sunyconnect.suny.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/b096437e-e280-48ed-8a6a-c4ed87b49736/content], written while a student at Stony Brook University, gave additional background info on the album's early stages. Unheard and unshared demos from Cleveland in early 1988 were played for him by Ron Musarra, and among these were a track called "I'm Not Listening" and an early version of "That's What I Get" entitled "I Can Make Myself Forget". Also included were versions of "Kinda I Want To" and "Purest Feeling". According to the dissertation, the next recordings were pre-production demos that were made in London with John Fryer, and it is mentioned in the footnotes that these tracks have been previously available on bootlegs for many years. As ''Purest Feeling'' was revealed to be a tour rehearsal recording rather than demos, this could imply that the London demos are the batch from ''Demos & Remixes''. ==Recording==''Pretty Hate Machine'' was recorded in various studios around the world with Reznor collaborating with some of his most idolized producers - [[Flood]] at Syncro Sound in Boston, Keith LeBlanc at Unique Recording Studios in New York, [[Adrian Sherwood]] at Roundhouse Studios in London, and John Fryer at Blackwing Studios in London. Flood was originally supposed to produce the entire album, but couldn't because of his prior commitment with Depeche Mode.[https://www.theninhotline.com/archives/articles/display/530] Reznor used his own journal entries as sources and inspiration for the album's lyrics.[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jun/21/trent-reznor-nine-inch-nails-youre-seeing-the-fall-of-america] He also listened extensively The shows with Skinny Puppy went on to [[Gary Numan]]shape the tone and sonics of 's album 'Pretty Hate Machine'Telekon'' while recording , as Reznor realized in this early live presentation that the albumsong arrangements needed a harder edge.[httpshttp://www.electronicbeatsnin-pages.net/mr-style-icon-gary-numan-on-trent-reznorde/1990_BSide_Juni_english.htm]
After the album was finished, TVT Records were not happy about the direction the album had taken from the original demos. This would lead to friction between Reznor and the label. John Fryer elaborated:
<blockquote>'''Where did you get the samples that you used on the album?'''
A couple of people helped me. I'd say, "if you hear anything cool in a movie or any place else, just throw it onto cassette, and I'll dump it into the sampler." Of course, they were all hot to do it for a couple of days, then their interest waned and their output stopped. But every drum sound on ''Pretty Hate Machine'' is off of somebody else‘s else's record. I'd just gotten the Emax but I hated the factory sounds, and I didn't have anything transferred over from the Emulator. So I got a couple of albums out - Front 242, Scritti Politti, a bunch of things - and nicked sounds from here and there. Then I sequenced the songs, and took them into the studio, thinking, "Okay, if I'm gonna do it for real with a producer, let's get some real drum sounds." But the ones I had were pretty cool. We just EQ-ed them, and that's it.
'''Did you take any original industrial noise samples?'''
'''What was the source of the piano sound on "Something I Can Never Have"?'''
'''"That's What I Get" followed an unusual arrangement pattern, with a really big intro, after which the tune gradually diminished to nothing.'''
'''There doesn't seem to be a lot of synth on the album.'''
Actually, there was. I used a Prophet-VS, an Oberheim Xpander, and a little bit of Minimoog, which was down more than up in the studio. I've had the Xpander since it came out. I've always considered it a great analog machine. It's the only thing I've ever owned that‘s that's never let me down. But I'd gotten to the point where it was cumbersome to program. I had the same ten sounds I always thought were great in it. Then, when I worked with Flood, he breathed new life into it for me. He's absolutely a master of programming the Xpander. We really got into the FM section, doing some weird modulation things I'd never attempted and coming up with very strange, non-analog sounds. That ended up being a big part of what we did for a lot of weird modulating sounds. "Terrible Lie" was all Oberheim.</blockquote>
==TouringSupport Tour==
''For more information, see [[Pretty Hate Machine Tour]]''<br><br>
The album also gained popularity through word-of-mouth and developed an underground following. Reznor quickly hired a band for touring with [[Skinny Puppy]], [[The Jesus and Mary Chain]] and [[Peter Murphy]], including guitarist and future Filter/Army of Anyone frontman [[Richard Patrick]]. The headlining [[Hate Tour|Hate]] and [[Sin Tour|Sin]] tours followed, as well as a slot on the first [[Lollapalooza Tour]]. Nine Inch Nails' live set was notorious for louder, more aggressive versions of the studio songs, and also for destroying their instruments at the end of sets. Reznor preferred using the heel of his boots to strip the keys from keyboards. This touring cycle was different from subsequent NIN tours, in that many [[Samples_In_NIN_Songs#Live_Samples|live-only samples]] were utilized. Taking inspiration from the photographer photography of Jeffrey Silverthorne, who did NIN's early press shots, the band would douse themselves in cornstarch before taking the stage.[http://www.nin-pages.de/artwork_phm.htm] This practice would continue through the [[Fragility]] tour.
==Live==
All ''Pretty Hate Machine'' era songs have been played live. Outtake song "Maybe Just Once" was played during the earliest dates with Skinny Puppy, but "Purest Feeling" has never been played.
==Tributes==
The entire album was covered by a string quartet in 2005 as ''[[String Quartet Tribute to Pretty Hate Machine|The String Quartet Tribute to Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine]]'', arranged by Eric Gorfain. [http://www.amazon.com/String-Quartet-Tribute-Pretty-Machine/dp/B0007ZSH5S] It was later re-arranged using retro computers and game consoles by Inverse Phase and released as ''[[Pretty Eight Machine]]''. [http://inversephase.bandcamp.com/album/pretty-eight-machine]
==Re-Releases==
===Rykodisc===
''Pretty Hate Machine'' went out of print through TVT Records, but was reissued by [[Rykodisc Records]] on November 22, 2005 , with slight changes in the packaging. Prudential owned Securities had taken ownership of TVT's Nine Inch Nails recordings, but Rykodisc after TVT defaulted on a loan and leased the rightsto Rykodisc. Reznor had expressed an interest in creating a "deluxe edition" with surround sound remastering and new/rare remixes, similar to the re-release of ''[[The Downward Spiral (halo)|The Downward Spiral]]''. Rykodisc liked the idea, but not enough to pay Reznor to do so.
===2010 Remaster===
In April 2010, [[TVT Records#Bicycle MusicGroup|Bicycle Music]] bought the entirety of TVT's cataloguerecordings owned by Prudential, including ''Pretty Hate Machine''. They confirmed that they would be reissuing the album once more[https://web.archive.org/web/20111005050050/http://www.bicyclemusic.com/downloads/TGH_Press%20Release_v4.pdf], and there was speculation that they would be willing to release the deluxe edition proposed by TVT Reznor in 2005.
<blockquote>
The co-publishing rights to Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails catalog include the songs from all album releases from ''Pretty Hate Machine'' through ''[[Year Zero]]''. As well, in acquiring the master recording rights to NIN’s groundbreaking debut, ''Pretty Hate Machine'', Bicycle will be responsible for re-releasing this album which has been out of print and unavailable through digital distribution outlets for several years. “It goes without saying how important these works are to the entire landscape of Alternative Rock. Our team sees incredible creative and business opportunities with this catalog and we look forward to working with our new partners and artists," said Steve Salm, Partner at Bicycle.
</blockquote>
On October 22, Reznor announced that the reissue was to be a remastered edition, stating on [[nin.com]][http://forum.nin.com/bb/read.php?9,1162370]:
<blockquote>
I'm happy to finally announce the re-issue of the first Nine Inch Nails record "Pretty Hate Machine", releasing worldwide 11/22. UMe and Bicycle Music Group managed to locate the original mixes, so I went in the studio with Tom Baker and remastered it for a greatly improved sonic experience. In addition, Rob reinterpreted [[Gary Talpas]]' original cover to make for a fresh new package.
It's been an interesting trip watching the fate of this record float from one set of hands to another (a long and depressing story) but it's finally wound up in friendly territory, allowing us to polish it up a bit and present it to you now. We had fun revisiting this old friend, hope you enjoy.
The nin.com subsite [[phm.nin.com]] was set up to promote the re-release.
In March 2011 an [[ETS ]] user named wishtheend contacted Tom Baker at Precision Mastering with some questions about the mastering of the re-release, and obtained the following info:
<blockquote>
* Vinyl was mastered from hi-res/24-bit source audio (i'm going to guess 96khz, but he didn't specify)
===''Halo I-IV''===
[[Image:HaloI-IV.jpg|thumb|''Halo I-IV'' Box Set]]
''Halo I-IV'' is a limited edition vinyl box set released by Concord/Bicycle Music for Record Store Day in November 2015. It contains the original version of ''Pretty Hate Machine'' on 180 gram vinyl, as well as the domestic versions of all three 12" singles released from the album on 120 gram vinyl. None of the music in this set is remastered.
==Artwork==
Reznor stated in one of his posts on the Prodigy internet service in the early 90s that "the cover of PHM is a photo of the blades of some sort of turbine stretched vertically so they would look somewhat like bones or a rib cage."[http://www.theninhotline.net/archives/articles/manager/display_article.php?id=327] [[The NIN Hotline]] shared in 2024 that the image is a close-up of the alternator on a 1930s diesel power generator.[https://www.theninhotline.com/news/permalink/1729481140]
In an interview with sleevage.com (later reposted to Patreon[https://webwww.archivepatreon.orgcom/webposts/20101101052703/http://sleevage.com/ninin-prettydepth-hatenins-machine/ Sleevage.com30900269]), [[Rob Sheridan]] described the long process he went through to update the artwork for the re-issue2010 reissue:
<blockquote>
When we began the ''Pretty Hate Machine'' remaster project, Trent discussed with me the idea of tweaking the original artwork a bit to reflect that this was a different version of the album, updated from its original release. We talked about maybe just changing the color scheme a bit – Trent was keen on losing the distinctly 80′s hot pink color, for one. It seemed like a fairly straightforward project, as I certainly didn’t want to try and radically alter an album cover I’d been looking at since I was a teenager, and that some fans had known very well for more than two decades.
The first bump in the road was that no one had the original artwork. We left no stone unturned – we even reached out to the original designer, Gary Talpas, but he had given all his materials to [[Nothing Records ]] long ago. Our best guess is that those materials were lost somewhere in Trent’s split with his old management. I tried scanning the old vinyl cover, but it was poorly printed and looked like an absolute mess when scanned. Even after cleaning it up a bit, attempting to separate the colors was fairly disastrous, and the resolution was terrible.
In 2004 I redesigned NIN’s ''The Downward Spiral'' for its 10th anniversary [[The_Downward_Spiral_(halo)#Re-Release|Deluxe Edition]]. In that case, Trent still had all of [[Russell Mills’ Mills]]’ original art pieces that were used in the album, so I was able to re-photograph them and present the artwork in a new and interesting way. With this album, I didn’t have that luxury. It became clear to me that I was going to have to start from scratch.
I tried a number of different approaches – I even got some various mechanical parts from hardware stores and arranged them in a way that resembled the shape of the cover image (I’d remembered reading long ago that the original image was taken of some sort of factory machine, with spokes that looked like ribs), and photographed it in different ways, then attempted to push the contrast of the photos and pull shapes out of them. Nothing was working out very well though. It either looked too far away from the original cover, or like a weird, sad imitation of it.
At this point I was free to play with the color scheme. I tried a wide variety of colors, ranging from darker, more muted versions of the original color scheme, to ones that looked nothing like the original. The favorite – both of Trent and myself – was the dark blue/blue/off-white combo used in the final image. It was a bit similar to a PHM t-shirt that’s been around for a while, so there was a sense of familiarity in the colors.
I then carefully recreated the title font from the original cover, and the black frames it sat in. The font, a stretched-out version of Helvetica, looked dated to me, but I wanted to be respectful of the original design and not mess with it too much. When Trent saw what I’d done though, he wanted to try a new approach to the title text, as he felt the font was just too dated and could use a more modern look for this remaster. So I went back to the original album and looked at the font that had been used for the credits and lyrics, which turned out to be a slight variation of a font Gary Talpas later used in ''The Downward Spiral''. Putting the PHM title in that font was way too similar to ''The Downward Spiral'', but when I put it in caps it created an odd mix of vintage NIN and modern NIN – perfect for a 2010 remaster of a 1989 album. Trent liked this approach much better, and we settled on the way we wanted the title set on the album cover. The image sitting behind it – my recreated artwork – still felt a bit flat, though.
To push the art a bit further, I got the idea of printing the image out at a very high DPI and photographing it with a narrow depth of field, allowing parts of it to fall out of focus. This gave a new depth to the previously flat artwork, and it turned out to be exactly what the image was missing. After quite a few experiments, I ended up with the image that is now the cover, and immediately felt I’d finally gotten this thing to where I’d wanted it to be. I sent it to Trent without any of the type or anything on it, and while he’d been somewhat lukewarm on the previous material, he was immediately excited about this one. “That looks fucking great,” he told me, “we’ve got it.” I put the black frame and our new type treatment over the new cover image, and everything clicked. The new cover, with the unmistakable shape of the “ribs” and the interlacing effect, remained respectful to the original and still recognizable, while adding a more modern feel and a “fresh coat of paint” on the colors. This is not meant to replace the original cover. This is the cover for this 2010 remastered edition of the album.
I don’t know what Gary thinks of the new design, but he was very friendly when we reached out with him and said he really liked all the stuff we’ve been doing with NIN’s design in recent years. I hope he appreciates what we did with the new cover.
I thought it was going to be a simple job, but the fact that we didn’t have the source art made it actually quite a project. Between my various failed experiments at recreating the art photographically, the meticulous way I ended up doing it by hand, and the amount of finessing it took to find the right presentation, it was actually quite a bit of work, and we had a pretty abrupt deadline for it. All things considered I’m pleased with the way it turned out.[http://sleevage.com/nin-pretty-hate-machine/]</blockquote>
==Album Credits==
*Digital editing and continuity: Trent Reznor, Chris Vrenna
*Mastering: Tony Dawsey at Masterdisk, NYC
*Sleeve: [[Gary Talpas]] for Föhn Design
*Portrait photography: Jeffrey Silverthorne
*Thank you: Bart Koster (The Right Track), Mike Shea, Michael S. Toorock, Roz Earls, Seb Shelton, Bryan Grant, Larry Bole, Alison Fryer, Michelle de Frasia, Gerry Gerard, Martin Horne, Sioux Zimmerman, Paul Conelly, [[Ron Musarra]], Steve Woolard, Mark Jowett and all at Nettwek, Howie Klein, Preston Sullivan/Carlyle, Kevin Donoghue/Native, Frederic Wahleer/Sub Rosa
*Special thanks: All at TVT Records, James Dowdall and everybody at Island
==External Links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20101229095515/http://portraitofdecayphm.netnin.com/wwwphm.prettyhatemachinenin.com/ Official remaster website (archived at Portrait of Decay)Wayback Machine]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCk49CqjOD0 ''Pretty Hate Machine'' EPK on YouTube]
*[http://nincatalog.com/pretty-hate-machine/ ''Pretty Hate Machine'' at nincatalog.com]