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https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1991/MW-1991-02-16.pdf, https://imgur.com/ovBfkQX
[[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 October 12February 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.
==Recordingand ''Purest Feeling''==Working nights at Right Track Studio as a handyman and toilet cleanerjanitor, [[Trent Reznor]] used studio "down time" to record and develop his own music. Playing most of the keyboards, drum machines, guitars, and samplers himself, he recorded a demo, unofficially titled ''[[Purest Feeling (album)|Purest Feeling]]''. Teaming up with manager [[John A. Malm, Jr.]] they sent the demo to various record labels. Reznor received serious offers from many of them. He signed a deal with TVT Records who, until then, were known mainly for releasing novelty and television jingle records.
After the album was released, the aforementioned demo surfaced on a bootleg called ''Pretty Hate Machine[[Purest Feeling (album)|Purest Feeling]]'' was recorded in various studios around . It contains the world with Reznor collaborating with some original demo recordings of his most idolized producers - of the tracks found on the album, as well as a couple that were not used ("[[FloodPurest Feeling (song)|Purest Feeling]], Keith LeBlanc, " and "[[Adrian Sherwood]Maybe Just Once], and John Fryer. Flood was originally supposed to produce the entire album, but couldn't because of his prior commitment with Depeche Mode.[http://www.theninhotline.net/archives/articles/getdowninit.shtml] 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:
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:
===Instrumentation and [[Samples]]===
In a 1990 interview with ''Keyboard'' magazine[http://www.nin-pages.de/1990_Keyboard_April_english.htm], Reznor gave some details on what went into the album:
<blockquote>'''Where did you get the samples that you used on the album?'''
'''Did you take any original industrial noise samples?'''
Most of those sounds I got from other sources. Part of it was laziness. But another part was, "That's a cool sound". I'd Turbosynth it, or put it in Alchemy and EQ it until it came out as a weird new sound. I was tempted to lay in more of other people's stuff, but I thought that would lend a real dated quality to the record, seeing where that has gone the way it has in hip-hop. I didn't go out with a DAT machine and record any thing. That's something I want to do for the next album - maybe dedicate a month to accumulating good sounds. But I had so much work heaped on me that I didn't have time to do that sort of thing. When you're in the world of independent labels, you don't have four weeks to mix two tracks.
'''What are some of the more memorable samples on your album?'''
On the last chorus of "Sanctified," you'll hear a weird little beat; that's kind of an obvious one. At the end of the last song on the album, "Ringfinger," the idea was to get as many loops playing at the same time as possible. We got about 12 before we ran out of channels. For a lot of weird percussion things, I would cheat: I'd get a track up, and if I couldn't find something that would make a groove, I'd take, say, a Public Enemy two-bar loop, turn it backwards, modulate it through Turbosynth with an oscillator tuned to the pitch of the song, and get this weird flanging-type thing that's in key. No one would guess that‘s actually another song playing. Every drum fill on "Terrible Lie" is lifted intact from some where. There are six other songs playing through that cut, recorded on tape, in and out, depending on where they worked.
'''"Terrible Lie" also features a very provocative dissonant theme right after the false ending.'''
That sound has quite an interesting history. It started out as a woodblock. I ran it through a distortion pedal, sampled it, then did my Emax trick by dropping it down a couple of octaves. Then I chopped off the beginning of it. I might also have put an envelope on it with Turbosynth. That's probably my favorite sound on the record.
'''What was the source of the piano sound on "Something I Can Never Have"?'''
That‘s the one song I kind of backed away from. I did that in London, with John Fryer. He's done a lot of things on the 4 A.D. label, like Cocteau Twins, System Event, Xymox. There's a dreamy quality to a lot of the stuff that he produces, so that track lent itself to him. It ended up being some sample off an [Akai] S900 with the filter way, way down. He's the reverb master, so it was buried in the AMS reverb. All the weird stuff in the background is from a project he does called This Mortal Coil, which is a collaboration of 4 A.D. artists. He had a bunch of half-inch tapes that they had done for backing tracks, with bass guitars slowed down. I was listening to them while he was mixing other things on the tape, checking out what was there, and accidentally brought this up in the mix. We recorded it on a couple of tracks of 24- track. Somehow it worked perfectly.
'''"That's What I Get" followed an unusual arrangement pattern, with a really big intro, after which the tune gradually diminished to nothing.'''
Initially, I didn't intend that track to be on the album. It was supposed to be a b-side or something like that. Lyrically, it didn't fit the flow of the record. So I figured I'd approach it in a different way, rather than in the Nine Inch Nails formula of small, big, small, big, big, small-verse, chorus, etc. We had kind of run out of arrangement ideas, so we just threw up some loops and things. The percussion on it wasn't ten different parts; it was one loop that John had from something else, and it worked. He's got 600 disks of weird things I've never heard of.
'''There doesn't seem to be a lot of synth on the album.'''
==Touring==
''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. Taking inspiration from the photographer 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.
==Purest FeelingLive==After the album was released, a recording known as ''Purest Feeling'' surfaced. This bootleg album contains the original demo recordings of most of the tracks found on All ''Pretty Hate Machine'', as well as a couple that were not used ("[[Purest Feeling (era songs have been played live. Outtake song)|Purest Feeling]]" and "[[Maybe Just Once]]")was played during the earliest dates with Skinny Puppy, but "Purest Feeling" has never been played.
==Tributes==
===2010 Remaster===
In April 2010, [[TVT Records#Bicycle Music|Bicycle Music]] bought the entirety of TVT's catalogue, 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 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.
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]
In an interview with [https://web.archive.org/web/20101101052703/http://sleevage.com/nin-pretty-hate-machine/ Sleevage.com], [[Rob Sheridan]] described the long process he went through to update the artwork for the re-issue:
<blockquote>
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.
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==
*[[TVT Records]] TVT 2610-1 - 12" Vinyl
*[[TVT Records]] TVT 2610-2 - CD
*[[Rykodisc]] RLP 10836-1 - 12" Vinyl*[[Rykodisc]] RCD 10836 - CD
*Bicycle B0015767-01 - 12" Vinyl
*Bicycle B0015099-02 - CD
==External Links==
*[http://portraitofdecay.net/www.prettyhatemachine.com/ Official remaster website (archived at Portrait of Decay)]
*[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]
*[http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref_%3Dnb%5Fsb%5Fnoss%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Dnine%2520inch%2520nails%2520pretty%2520hate%2520machine%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Daps&tag=thniinnawi-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957 ''Pretty Hate Machine'' at Amazon]*[https://craftrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/pretty-hate-machine-remastered ''Pretty Hate Machine'' at Bandcamp]
*[http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=9&pub=5574848848&toolid=10001&campid=5336384580&customid=&icep_uq=nine+inch+nails+pretty+hate+machine&icep_sellerId=&icep_ex_kw=&icep_sortBy=12&icep_catId=&icep_minPrice=&icep_maxPrice=&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229466&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg ''Pretty Hate Machine'' at eBay]