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'''''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''.

==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 [[bootlegs|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]]" and "[[Maybe Just Once]]"). Two other batches of demos, Keith LeBlancdistinct from those on ''Purest Feeling'', also exist. One batch ("Down In It", "Sanctified", "Kinda I Want To", and "Twist") can be found on the ''[[Adrian SherwoodDemos and Remixes]]'' bootleg. Another batch ("Sin", "Terrible Lie", "Sanctified", "Ringfinger", and John Fryer. Flood was originally supposed to produce the entire album, but couldn't because of his prior commitment with Depeche Mode"Down In It") are on a cassette privately owned by [[Martin Atkins]].[httphttps://www.theninhotlineexclaim.netca/archivesmusic/articlesarticle/getdowninit.shtmlearly_demo_of_nine_inch_nails_pretty_hate_machine_hits_ebay] 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>"We were trying to make ''Pretty Hate Machine'' was recorded in various studios around the hardest record we could make. It was very strange because we made itworld with Reznor collaborating with some of his most idolized producers - [[Flood]] at Syncro Sound in Boston, we thought it sounded brilliantKeith LeBlanc at Unique Recording Studios in New York, we had it on the big speakers just blowing us away. Then someone from the record company came [[Adrian Sherwood]] at Roundhouse Studios in — London, and because the demos were more synthy and not as industrial as John Fryer at Blackwing Studios in London. Flood was originally supposed to produce the entire album, he listened to it and but couldn't because of his mouth dropped open and he said 'You've ruined this recordprior commitment with Depeche Mode.' But of course it's gone on to be a classic[https://www. It was done in 20 daystheninhotline. I think it was a good thing that we made records so quickly back then because there's a lot of energy in there com/archives/articles/display/530] Reznor used his own journal entries as sources and mistakes are left in, so it sounds human and itinspiration for the album's not blanded out over timelyrics."[httphttps://www.soundonsoundtheguardian.com/sosmusic/2018/jan06jun/articles21/johnfryer.htmtrent-reznor-nine-inch-nails-youre-seeing-the-fall-of-america] He also listened extensively to [[Gary Numan]]</blockquote>===Instrumentation and samples===In a 1990 interview with 's album ''KeyboardTelekon'' magazinewhile recording the album.[httphttps://www.ninelectronicbeats.net/mr-pages.destyle-icon-gary-numan-on-trent-reznor/1990_Keyboard_April_english.htm], Reznor gave some details on what went into the album:<blockquote>KM: Where did you get the samples that you used on the album?

TR: 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 After the sampler." Of coursealbum was finished, they TVT Records 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 record. I'd just gotten not happy about the Emax but I hated direction the factory sounds, and I didn't have anything transferred over album had taken from the Emulatororiginal demos. So I got a couple of albums out - Front 242, Scritti Politti, a bunch of things - and nicked sounds from here This would lead to friction between Reznor 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 itlabel.John Fryer elaborated:

KM: Did you take any original industrial noise samples?===Instrumentation and [[Samples]]=== TR: Most of those sounds I got from other sources. Part of it was laziness. But another part was, "ThatIn a 1990 interview with ''Keyboard's a cool sound". I'd Turbosynth it, or put it in Alchemy and EQ it until it came out as a weird new soundmagazine[http://www. 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 hipnin-hoppages. I didn't go out with a DAT machine and record any thingde/1990_Keyboard_April_english. That's something I want to do for htm], Reznor gave some details on what went into the next album - maybe dedicate a month to accumulating good sounds. But I had so much work heaped on me that I didn:<blockquote>''t have time to do that sort of thing. When you're in the world of independent labels, Where did you don't have four weeks to mix two tracks.  KM: What are some of get the more memorable samples that you used on your the album?'''

TR: On the last chorus A couple of "Sanctifiedpeople helped me. I'd say," if you'll hear anything cool in a weird little beat; thatmovie or any place else, just throw it onto cassette, and I's kind of an obvious onell dump it into the sampler. At the end of the last song on the album, "RingfingerOf course," the idea was they were all hot to get as many loops playing at the same time as possibledo it for a couple of days, then their interest waned and their output stopped. We got about 12 before we ran out But every drum sound on ''Pretty Hate Machine'' is off of channelssomebody else‘s record. For a lot of weird percussion things, I would cheat: I'd get a track upjust gotten the Emax but I hated the factory sounds, and if I couldndidn't find something that would make have anything transferred over from the Emulator. So I got a groovecouple of albums out - Front 242, Scritti Politti, a bunch of things - and nicked sounds from here and there. Then I'd takesequenced the songs, sayand took them into the studio, a Public Enemy two-bar loopthinking, turn it backwards"Okay, modulate if I'm gonna do it through Turbosynth for real with an oscillator tuned to the pitch of the songa producer, and get this weird flanging-type thing thatlet's in key. No one would guess that‘s actually another song playingget some real drum sounds. Every drum fill on "Terrible Lie" is lifted intact from some whereBut the ones I had were pretty cool. There are six other songs playing through that cut, recorded on tapeWe just EQ-ed them, in and out, depending on where they workedthat's it.

KM: Most of those sounds I got from other sources. Part of it was laziness. But another part was, "Terrible LieThat's a cool sound" also features . 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 very provocative dissonant theme right after 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 false endingworld of independent labels, you don't have four weeks to mix two tracks.

TR: 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 '''What are some of octaves. Then I chopped off the beginning of it. I might also have put an envelope more memorable samples on it with Turbosynth. Thatyour album?'''s probably my favorite sound on the record.

KM: What was the source of the piano sound on '''"Something I Can Never HaveTerrible Lie"?also features a very provocative dissonant theme right after the false ending.'''

TR: That‘s the one song I kind of backed away fromThat sound has quite an interesting history. It started out as a woodblock. I did that in London, with John Fryer. He's done ran it through a lot of things on the 4 A.D. labeldistortion pedal, like Cocteau Twinssampled it, System Event, Xymox. There's then did my Emax trick by dropping it down a dreamy quality to a lot couple of octaves. Then I chopped off the stuff that he produces, so that track lent itself to himbeginning of it. It ended up being some sample off I might also have put an [Akai] S900 envelope on it with the filter way, way downTurbosynth. HeThat'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 probably my favorite sound 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 perfectlyrecord.

KM: "ThatThat‘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 What I Get" followed 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 unusual arrangement pattern[Akai] S900 with the filter way, way down. He's the reverb master, with so it was buried in the AMS reverb. All the weird stuff in the background is from a really big introproject he does called This Mortal Coil, after 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 tune gradually diminished to nothingtape, 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.

TR: 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 '"That's What I figured I'd approach it in Get" followed an unusual arrangement pattern, with a different wayreally big intro, rather than in after which the Nine Inch Nails formula of small, big, small, big, big, small-verse, chorus, etctune gradually diminished to nothing. 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.

KM: '''There doesn't seem to be a lot of synth on the album.'''

TR: 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 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 ltit. 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>

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.

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.

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:

"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.

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>

*[[Rykodisc]] RLP 10836-1 - 12" Vinyl*[[Rykodisc]] RCD 10836 - CD

*[httphttps://wwwweb.bicyclemusicarchive.comorg/web/downloads20101229095515/TGH_Press%20Release_v4.pdf Bicycle Music press release confirming their purchase of ''Pretty Hate Machine'']*[http://bicyclemusicphm.nin.com/downloads/PHM%20Press%20Releasephm.pdf Reissue press release]*[http://sleevagenin.com/nin-pretty-hate-machine/ Interview with Rob Sheridan about the cover redesignat Wayback Machine]*[httphttps://portraitofdecay.net/www.prettyhatemachineyoutube.com/ Official remaster website (archived at Portrait of Decay)watch?v=CCk49CqjOD0 ''Pretty Hate Machine'' EPK on YouTube]

*[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]