The humble beginnings of Nine Inch Nails sounds like a wild story: a young dude hanging around a recording studio doing whatever odd jobs he’s paid to do, working on his debut album during down time. He makes the right connections, sells millions of records, and becomes an iconic musician and producer. The rest, as they say, is history. Such is the story of a young Trent Reznor, who worked as a janitor at Right Track Studio in Cleveland. He used his and the studio’s down time, often the very late hours of the night, to work on his industrial project’s debut album Pretty Hate Machine, an album that would be an emblematic symbol of the EDM scene, and one that set the standard for industrial music to come.
Pretty Hate Machine was released through TVT Records on October 20, 1989. It was a hard-hitting, groove-filled, danceably dark effort, and it quickly gained traction. From the animalistic, demonic bassline of aggressive opener “Head Like A Hole” to the pulsating club beats and static-y guitar ending of “Ringfinger”, Pretty Hate Machine is a classic textbook example of a debut LP that captivates from start to finish. It is a mix of synth-pop and punk, full of lyrical and melodic hooks, and its angry guitars and electronic distortion create a big wall of noise unlike Phil Spector’s famous “wall of sound”.
1989 was a year of outsider releases in alternative music. Nirvana released Bleach, the Pixies had Doolittle, and perhaps the biggest album of all was The Cure’s Disintegration. All these fit the mold of isolation, juvenile angst, and living inside your head. Pretty Hate Machine was the exact same, and like the rest, much of the artistic imperative was not to fit in. TVT Records owner Steve Gottlieb declared the album “an abortion” for being too outside of the mainstream, and Reznor later exited his deal with Gottlieb and went on to much bigger things. TVT would later release music from Sevendust, Jurassic Five, KMFDM, and The Black Crowes (to name a few), and without Reznor’s “abortion”, TVT would have probably remained a small-time novelty label, releasing only television theme song compilations. Yay for that, yeah?
To the casual music consumer, Pretty Hate Machine probably wouldn’t be on their radar, yet it’s accessible to many. Unlike the more challenging The Downward Spiral and The Fragile that followed it years later, almost anyone can enjoy Reznor’s early work. It is relatively minimalist compared with the rest of Nine Inch Nail’s discography, and has appeared in many “best of” lists. It holds major influence on many of today’s artists and musical endeavors, such as Miley Cyrus’s strange cover of “Head Like A Hole” and Snoop Dogg’s Nine Inch Dix (nothing to do with NIN other than name.) Reznor’s influence even prompted Johnny Cash to cover the gloomiest of NIN’s work, “Hurt”, and turn it into a depressingly beautiful swan song before he passed away in 2003. It even spawned sound-alike styles from other industrial acts like Gravity Kills and Stabbing Westward. No matter how or who, much like Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures, Pretty Hate Machine was ahead of its time, and with a careful ear, you can hear the blueprint in today’s music.
What Pretty Hate Machine does, it does very well: it is seductive, despondent, provocative, and anthemic. Many dance clubs play its songs, and “Terrible Lie”, “Down In It”, “Sin” and of course “Head Like A Hole” still bring the mosh at NIN shows. At times, it makes you cry in self pity ("Something I Can Never Have"). Throughout the span of 49 minutes, what you get is an authentically genuine performance, with Reznor fucking going for it. The best audio systems almost don’t do it enough justice. Being from small town Mercer, Pennsylvania with no way of looking back, Pretty Hate Machine had to be the way out, and indeed it was for a quiet weirdo trying to make it in Cleveland’s music scene. 30 years onward, it feels relevant and fresh, and the bleak worldview that provided the backdrop at the time is still felt today.
The album has wizened, its listeners are older, yet the angst and outlier feelings never really went away. People young and old have/had The Smiths, Depeche Mode and The Cure to cling to as their voice of inner turmoil, and for others it’s Nine Inch Nails. They continue to pack arenas, continue to release exciting and fresh music, and haven't succumbed to the "nostalgia act" slump that hits many of the greats of yesteryear. Pretty Hate Machine will still be kicking ass another 30 years from today.
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