Nine Inch Nails: Broken / Fixed (1992)

NIN: Broken E.P. (1992)

Broken is an angry, audible 'F**k You!' to the stifling conventions and contrivances of the music business, conceived, written, performed and co-produced by Trent Reznor. It's the sound of Reznor the 'commodity' hating on the people that want him to be marketable and make them money.

Ironically, it went on to make a lot of money, but it also saw NIN turn from being syth-pop-friendly to kicking it with the Industrial big league.

It wasn't just a Pretty Hate Machine (1989) retread with distortion, it was a whole new NIN sound that two years later, once the anger had subsided, would further develop into something altogether more mature, resulting in one of the best albums the genre ever produced: The Downward Spiral.

To promote the release a short film was made (but not officially released). It complemented the music in an intentionally non-media-friendly way. See The 'Broken' Movie (1993) for details.

NIN: Fixed E.P. (1992)

I've used Fixed to clear a room. I'm not kidding. I also love it, so will be as biased as I can while writing about it.

It contains tracks from the Broken E.P. that got 'remixed' by such luminaries as Coil, Butch Vig, and J. G. Thirlwell; each of whom attempt to hide something interesting inside something that's principally chaotic.

It has just six tracks, and while the first half is recognisable as music the latter half goes off the rails and offers up some harsh fragments that may require repeated exposure for a listener to find any kind of rhythm in.

However, far from being a misnomer,  in a strange way Fixed puts right the feelings that inspired Broken, because it's born from the freedom to do what the artist wants.