''Broken'' is the first
extended play
An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record. (EP) and second major release by American
industrial rock
Industrial rock is a fusion genre that fuses industrial music and rock music. It initially originated in the 1970s, and drew influence from early experimental and industrial acts such as Cromagnon, Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten a ...
band
Nine Inch Nails. It was released on September 22, 1992, by
Nothing
Nothing, the complete absence of anything, has been a matter of philosophical debate since at least the 5th century BC. Early Greek philosophers argued that it was impossible for ''nothing'' to exist. The atomists allowed ''nothing'' but only i ...
,
TVT, and
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mus ...
. The EP was produced by frontman
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, wh ...
and
Flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
.
The release consists entirely of new material and replaces the
synth-pop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...
style of the band's 1989 debut album ''
Pretty Hate Machine
''Pretty Hate Machine'' is the debut studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by TVT Records on October 20, 1989. Production of the record was handled by NIN frontman
Trent Reznor and English producer Flood, amon ...
'' with a considerably heavier sound that would act as a precursor to their second album ''
The Downward Spiral
''The Downward Spiral'' is the second studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on March 8, 1994 by Nothing Records in the United States and Island Records in Europe. It is a concept album detailing the self-destru ...
'' (1994). Its lyrical themes are in line with those of their succeeding work. The record was promoted with music videos for five of the eight songs which were censored due to their violent content, as well as a short film
of the same name, which was never officially released, but was later leaked as a
bootleg
Bootleg or bootlegging most often refers to:
* Bootleg recording, an audio or video recording released unofficially
* Rum-running, the illegal business of transporting and trading in alcoholic beverages, hence:
** Moonshine, or illicitly made ...
.
Although it was derided by some critics for its lyrical content, Broken also received positive reviews from critics and reached number seven on the US
''Billboard'' 200, eventually receiving a platinum certification from the
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
(RIAA). The recording helped to propel Nine Inch Nails into mainstream popularity, and later received two
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
s (both for Best Metal Performance) for the songs "
Wish
A wish is a hope or desire for something. In fiction, wishes can be used as plot devices. In folklore, opportunities for "making a wish" or for wishes to "come true" or "be granted" are themes that are sometimes used.
In fiction
In fictio ...
" and "
Happiness in Slavery
"Happiness in Slavery" is a song by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from their extended play, '' Broken'' (1992). It was released in November 1992 as a promotional single from the EP. The song takes its title and refrain from Jean ...
".
Background
After the commercial and critical success of ''
Pretty Hate Machine
''Pretty Hate Machine'' is the debut studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by TVT Records on October 20, 1989. Production of the record was handled by NIN frontman
Trent Reznor and English producer Flood, amon ...
'' (1989),
TVT Records
TVT Records (Tee-Vee Tunes) was an American record label founded by Steve Gottlieb. Over the course of its 24-year history, the label released 25 Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum releases. Its roster included Nine Inch Nails, Ja Rule, Lil Jon, ...
, the first record label to sign the band, pressured
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, wh ...
to record a very similar album in the hope that it would have similarly successful singles. Steve Gottlieb, the
CEO of TVT Records, was insistent that he would not release anything other than an album very similar to ''Pretty Hate Machine''. Reznor demanded his label terminate his
contract
A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...
, due to their restriction of his creative control of the Nine Inch Nails project. They ignored his plea.
Reznor then objected to the label's attempted interference with his intellectual property.
This much-publicized feud with TVT led Reznor to use a variety of monikers for the production of his next studio release. Reznor later said that he hated TVT, in part due to their classification of Nine Inch Nails as a
synth-pop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...
band. He reached a deal with the record label
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mus ...
:
We made it very clear we were not doing another record for TVT. But they made it pretty clear they weren't ready to sell. So I felt like, well, I've finally got this thing going but it's dead. Flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
and I had to record ''Broken'' under a different band name, because if TVT found out we were recording, they could confiscate all our shit and release it. Jimmy Iovine
James Iovine ( ; ; born March 11, 1953) is an American entrepreneur, record executive, and media proprietor best known as the co-founder of Interscope Records. In 2006, Iovine and rapper-producer Dr. Dre founded Beats Electronics, which produces ...
got involved with Interscope, and we kind of got slave-traded. It wasn't my doing. I didn't know anything about Interscope. And I was real pissed off at him at first because it was going from one bad situation to potentially another one. But Interscope went into it like they really wanted to know what I wanted. It was good, after I put my raving lunatic act on.
Recording
Reznor secretly made the then-untitled recording under various pseudonyms to avoid record company interference. English record producer
Flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
, who produced "
Head Like a Hole
"Head Like a Hole" is a song by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released as the second single from the group's debut album, '' Pretty Hate Machine''.
Although one of the more rock-oriented tracks on the album, many elements ...
" and "
Terrible Lie", the first two tracks on ''
Pretty Hate Machine
''Pretty Hate Machine'' is the debut studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by TVT Records on October 20, 1989. Production of the record was handled by NIN frontman
Trent Reznor and English producer Flood, amon ...
'' (1989), returned to work in 1992 on the EP for "Wish", "Last" and "
Gave Up".
[''Broken'' (]Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mus ...
/Nothing Records
Nothing Records was an American record label specializing in industrial rock and electronic music, founded by John Malm Jr. and Trent Reznor in 1992. It is considered an example of a vanity label, where an artist is able to run a label with some ...
/TVT Records
TVT Records (Tee-Vee Tunes) was an American record label founded by Steve Gottlieb. Over the course of its 24-year history, the label released 25 Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum releases. Its roster included Nine Inch Nails, Ja Rule, Lil Jon, ...
, September 22, 1992) digipak
Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage.
Jewel case
A ...
artwork.
As Reznor explains in retrospect: "''Broken''
..had a lot of the super-thick chunk sound, and almost every guitar sound on that record was
apes consisting ofme playing through an old Zoom pedal and then going direct into Digidesign's TurboSynth
oftware in a Macintosh computer Then I used a couple of key ingredients to make it
e heard as beingunlike any 'real' sound."
The instrumental break of "Physical" (at 3:49) features a half-speed recording of Reznor's dog, Maise, barking, and
Sean Beavan
Sean Beavan is a musician, record producer, and audio engineer best known for his work with Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Guns N' Roses, God Lives Underwater, and Slayer. His production style is typically heavy, with heavily saturated guita ...
's line, "Ow!...fucker!", after Maise bit him. Maise was credited with "barks and roars" in the liner notes as a result. After being owned by Reznor for over three years, Maise died after falling from a three-story balcony during the
Self Destruct Tour
The Self Destruct Tour was a concert tour in support of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails' album ''The Downward Spiral'', which took place in early 1994, running until mid-1996, and was broken into eight legs.
Overview
The tour was filmed fo ...
.
The record underwent development at six different studios, Hell (
), Royal Recorders at
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, South Beach Studios at
Miami, Florida
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
;
Village Recorder
The Village (also known as Village Recorders, or the Village Recorder) is a recording studio located at 1616 Butler Avenue in West Los Angeles, California.
History
The building was built by the Freemasons in 1922 and was originally a Masonic ...
and
A&M Studios
The Jim Henson Company Lot, formerly A&M Studios, is a studio property located just south of the southeast corner of North La Brea Avenue and Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Originally established by film star Charlie Chaplin, the property serv ...
at
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, and
Le Pig at
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. B ...
. The last two studios were later used during the production process for ''
The Downward Spiral
''The Downward Spiral'' is the second studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on March 8, 1994 by Nothing Records in the United States and Island Records in Europe. It is a concept album detailing the self-destru ...
'' (1994). Tom Baker
mastered
Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via meth ...
the EP at Futuredisc. Following this step, Reznor presented the recording to
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mus ...
in September 1992, and signed to the record label, making ''Broken'' Nine Inch Nails' major label debut.
Music and lyrics
Heavier than ''
Pretty Hate Machine
''Pretty Hate Machine'' is the debut studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by TVT Records on October 20, 1989. Production of the record was handled by NIN frontman
Trent Reznor and English producer Flood, amon ...
'', ''Broken'' takes influences from
industrial metal
Industrial metal is the fusion of heavy metal and industrial music, typically employing repeating metal guitar riffs, sampling, synthesizer or sequencer lines, and distorted vocals. Prominent industrial metal acts include Ministry, Nine In ...
bands such as
Ministry
Ministry may refer to:
Government
* Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister
* Ministry (government department), a department of a government
Religion
* Christian ...
and
Godflesh
Godflesh are an English industrial metal band from Birmingham. The group formed in 1982 under the title Fall of Because but did not release any complete music until 1988 when Justin Broadrick (guitar, vocals and programming) and G. C. Gre ...
.
There are
louder mixes and more
distortion
In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal ...
on every instrument, including
John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
's
Mellotron MKII heard most particularly on "Gave Up". Reznor said he wanted the album to be "an ultra-fast chunk of death" for the listener, something that would "make your ears a little scratchy". In the
liner notes
Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes.
Origin
Liner notes are desce ...
, Reznor credited the
1991 Nine Inch Nails touring band as an influence on the EP's sound.
The lyrics are a critique on
society
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...
, the majority of its themes involve
angst
Angst is fear or anxiety (''anguish'' is its Romance languages, Latinate cognate, equivalent, and the words ''anxious'' and ''anxiety'' are of similar origin). The dictionary definition for angst is a feeling of anxiety, apprehension, or insec ...
,
control
Control may refer to:
Basic meanings Economics and business
* Control (management), an element of management
* Control, an element of management accounting
* Comptroller (or controller), a senior financial officer in an organization
* Controllin ...
and
dependency struggles.
The second promotional single from the EP, "
Wish
A wish is a hope or desire for something. In fiction, wishes can be used as plot devices. In folklore, opportunities for "making a wish" or for wishes to "come true" or "be granted" are themes that are sometimes used.
In fiction
In fictio ...
", includes the expletive
fuck
''Fuck'' is an English-language expletive. It often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested to aro ...
thrice, used on the lines "Now there's nothing more fucked up I could do", "I'm the one without this soul/I'm the one with this big fucking hole" and "Gotta listen to your big time hard line bad luck fist fuck."
Clocking at roughly one minute, "Pinion" is one of the shortest Nine Inch Nails songs. It features a series of short, ascending, distorted guitar
power chord
A power chord (also fifth chord) is a colloquial name for a chord in guitar music, especially electric guitar, that consists of the root note and the fifth, as well as possibly octaves of those notes. Power chords are commonly played on ...
s and a collage of atmospheric loops, including a reversed sample of
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
's "
It's No Game
"It's No Game" is a song written by English musician David Bowie for his 1980 album '' Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)'', featuring lead guitar played by Robert Fripp. The song is split into two parts, opening and closing the album. "(No. 1)" ...
" (which is not credited in the artwork for ''Broken''). A portion of this is used as one of the guitar riffs in "Wish", one of the two promotional singles released from the album. "Help Me I Am in Hell", another instrumental, ends with another uncredited sample, this time from ''
The Empire Strikes Back
''The Empire Strikes Back'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back'') is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based on a stor ...
'' (1980).
There are two bonus songs, which follow 91 silent, one-second tracks (numbered 7 through 97) on most CD copies, but were included as a separate
3" CD or 7" record with early pressings. "Physical" is a cover of the
Adam and the Ants
Adam and the Ants were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. The group existed in two incarnations, both fronted by Adam Ant, over the period 1977 to 1982. The first, founded in May 1977 and known simply as The Ants until November of t ...
song "Physical (You're So)", originally released on the ''
Kings of the Wild Frontier
''Kings of the Wild Frontier'' is the second album by English new wave band Adam and the Ants. It was released on 7 November 1980 by CBS Records in the UK and Epic records internationally. The album was the UK number 1 selling album in 1981 ( ...
'' LP."
In 1995, Nine Inch Nails performed "Physical" live with
Adam Ant
Stuart Leslie Goddard, better known as Adam Ant (born 3 November 1954), is an English singer, musician, and actor. He gained popularity as the lead singer of new wave group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring 10 UK top ten ...
for two nights in a row. After Reznor introduced Ant and
Marco Pirroni
Marco Francesco Andrea Pirroni (born 27 April 1959, London, England) frequently credited simply as Marco, is a British guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He has worked with Adam Ant, Sinéad O'Connor, Siouxsie and the Banshees and man ...
on the second night, Ant proclaimed to the audience, "It's nice to be on stage with the best fucking band in the world." "Suck" was written by
Pigface
Pigface is an American industrial rock supergroup formed in 1990 by Martin Atkins and William Rieflin.
History
Pigface was formed from Ministry's ''The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste'' tour, which produced the '' In Case You Didn't Feel ...
, whose ever-changing lineup once included Reznor.
The slower, sparser, radically different original version appeared a year earlier on Pigface's ''
Gub
''Gub'' is the debut studio album by American rock band Pigface. It is notable for featuring contributions from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, with Reznor later re-recording the song "Suck" for the Nine Inch Nails EP, '' Broken'', released in 1 ...
'' album.
Packaging
''Broken'' was originally packaged in a trifold-out
digipak
Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage.
Jewel case
A ...
, containing the six tracks on a regular
compact disc
The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...
and an additional three-inch
mini CD
Mini CDs, or pocket CDs, are CDs with a smaller diameter and one-third the storage capacity of a standard 120 mm disc.
Formats
Amongst the various formats are the
*Mini CD single, a small disc. The format is mainly used for audio CD si ...
with the two remaining songs, covers of
Adam and the Ants
Adam and the Ants were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. The group existed in two incarnations, both fronted by Adam Ant, over the period 1977 to 1982. The first, founded in May 1977 and known simply as The Ants until November of t ...
' "Physical" and
Pigface
Pigface is an American industrial rock supergroup formed in 1990 by Martin Atkins and William Rieflin.
History
Pigface was formed from Ministry's ''The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste'' tour, which produced the '' In Case You Didn't Feel ...
's "Suck". Due to the high cost of producing a two-disc EP, only 250,000 copies were released with the mini CD, subsequently Broken was re-released as one CD in October 1992, having the bonus songs heard on tracks 98 and 99 respectively, without any visual notice except for the credits,
and tracks 7-97 each containing one second of silence. The cassette release featured tracks 1–6 on side one, with "Physical" and "Suck" appearing at the tail end of side two, after approximately 15 minutes of silence. The United Kingdom
vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...
release was pressed onto a one sided 12" which featured the six main tracks. The two bonus cuts were issued on a
7-inch single given away inside the EP in a white die-cut sleeve (an unusual method for packaging an album on the
vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...
format).
All copies include the logo of
Nothing Records
Nothing Records was an American record label specializing in industrial rock and electronic music, founded by John Malm Jr. and Trent Reznor in 1992. It is considered an example of a vanity label, where an artist is able to run a label with some ...
, a first for the works of Reznor, making the EP itself
Nothing's first release. The
vanity
Vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. Prior to the 14th century it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant ''futility''. The related term vainglory is now often seen as an archaic ...
record label was founded by Reznor along with
John Malm Jr.
John A. Malm Jr. is the former manager of Trent Reznor and his band Nine Inch Nails. He was also a co-founder, along with Reznor, of Nothing Records.
Early career and collaboration with Trent Reznor
Malm grew up in Cleveland and completed a deg ...
, who was his manager at the time, when he had involvement in a feud with TVT Records. It had a short lifespan (Nothing Records existed for nearly 15 years); the label was created in 1992, as Reznor signed to Interscope before TVT entered into a joint venture with that major record label, where he mailed parts culled from his publishing rights to TVT Music, in exchange for the freedom of having his own imprint.
[Huxley, Martin (September 1997). ''Nine Inch Nails: Self Destruct''. ]St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...
. .
The influence of Reznor's conflict with his former label, TVT, is evident in multiple aspects of the EP. After a long list of credits, the packaging reads, "no thanks: you know who you fucking are" followed by "the slave thinks he is released from bondage only to find a stronger set of chains."
[''Broken'' (Interscope Records/nothing/TVT, September 22, 1992) ]vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...
artwork. These comments are likely directed towards TVT Records' Steve Gottlieb, who refused to let Reznor out of his contract, sparking legal battles between the two parties.
The "no thanks" part may be a response to the liner notes of
Ministry
Ministry may refer to:
Government
* Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister
* Ministry (government department), a department of a government
Religion
* Christian ...
's ''
Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs'' album, which featured a cryptic "no thanks, you know who you are."
Aurally, at the beginning of "Physical", Reznor whispers, "eat your heart out, Steve." Visually, in a music video for "Gave Up", the monitor of a
Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...
computer running
Pro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...
reads "fuck you steve".
Despite the addition of "no thanks: you know who you fucking are", there is a "Thank You" section. People listed in that portion include
Jimmy Iovine
James Iovine ( ; ; born March 11, 1953) is an American entrepreneur, record executive, and media proprietor best known as the co-founder of Interscope Records. In 2006, Iovine and rapper-producer Dr. Dre founded Beats Electronics, which produces ...
, Ros Earles,
Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...
, Eric Greenspan,
Rick Rubin
Frederick Jay Rubin (; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is the co-founder (alongside Russell Simmons) of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records.
Rubin helped popula ...
, Joe Mcewen,
Seymour Stein
Seymour Stein (born April 18, 1942) is an American entrepreneur and music executive. He co-founded Sire Records and was Vice President of Warner Bros. Records. With Sire, Stein signed bands that became central to the new wave era of the 1970s ...
, Susie Tallman,
Mark O'Shea,
Ian Copeland
Ian Adie Copeland (April 25, 1949 – May 23, 2006) was an American music promoter and booking agent who helped launch the new wave movement in the United States.
Early life
Copeland was born in Rif Dimashq near Damascus, Syria, the second of ...
, Kevin Westenberg and Sheroa Rees-Davies.
The writing credit for "Suck" caused a minor controversy. Whereas Pigface albums list all contributors to each of the songs, in this case "Atkins/Rieflin/Barker/Reznor" as listed on ''
Gub
''Gub'' is the debut studio album by American rock band Pigface. It is notable for featuring contributions from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, with Reznor later re-recording the song "Suck" for the Nine Inch Nails EP, '' Broken'', released in 1 ...
'', the credit on ''Broken'' states "written by t. reznor/pigface".
On the later Pigface release ''
Truth Will Out'', the writing credit for the song is "whatever trent says – really – no shit". Reznor talked about his problem with Pigface in an unreleased 1992 Melody Maker Magazine interview. Reznor says he came in at the end of the ''Gub'' recording session, when time was running out, sang the lyrics for Suck over the leftover drum snippets they had, threw it together and said it was done. He stated he doesn't like the recording. Later when Pigface were going to go on tour, Reznor taught them the proper music he had written for the song which is completely different than the music that he sang over on the Pigface studio recording. Pigface toured with the song with NIN, even playing the song with Reznor a few times. (Note: the Original Pigface recording is abstract noise and occasional bass over drum beats; nothing like Reznor's version.) The following year, Reznor put out his version on ''Broken''. In the liner notes, he mentions that there were personality conflicts and people saying they deserve more than they have.
Release and reception
"It's heavy", wrote Danny Scott in ''
Select'', "it's loud and it'll rip your stinkin' head from your shoulders if you so much as breathe without permission."
"Beats are hammered home with the gleeful force of a dentist's drill", said Peter Kane in ''
Q'', "while layers of rabid guitars and Reznor's spiteful voice pile on the nihilistic agony." "Reznor has shaken off the shackles of influence", observed ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'', "and found his own suitably idiosyncratic niche." "Like a harrowing rape account", marveled ''
Making Music'', "it's an intensely vicious and shocking 30 minutes."
Writing for ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
'',
J. D. Considine stated: "Harder than Ministry, hookier than
Nitzer Ebb, this EP is everything industrial music should be."
''
CMJ
CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...
'' described ''Broken'' as "an astonishingly cold, brutal and bleak EP."
The EP was certified platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
(RIAA) on December 18, 1992,
despite a complete absence of touring in support of it. The first promotional single, "Happiness in Slavery", received moderate airplay, but its video's depiction of
Bob Flanagan being pleasured, tortured, and killed on a device led to
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
banning it outright. This stunted the single's growth, but the track "Wish" was much more successful with an aggressive live performance on the music video, then later winning a Grammy for Best Metal Performance. Reznor later quipped that he wanted his gravestone to read "Reznor: Died. Said 'Fist Fuck', Won a Grammy."
Music videos
Not long after the EP's release, a short
horror musical film
Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks ...
also named ''
Broken'' was created during and after the production of the EP. It was rumored to be a
snuff film
A snuff film, or snuff movie, or snuff video, is a type of film that shows, or purports to show, scenes of actual homicide. The concept of snuff films became known to the general public during the 1970s, when an urban legend alleged that a cland ...
with all of its songs with the exception of "Last", "Physical", and "Suck" playing to a scene. This film was directed by
Peter Christopherson of
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in 1975 in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson, and Chris Carter (British musician), Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pi ...
and
Coil fame. A
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
for "Gave Up" would prove to be part of the film, as well as the videos for "Happiness in Slavery" and "Wish". Portions of ''Broken'' would, however, be released as part of the ''
Closure'' VHS, which was released after ''
The Downward Spiral
''The Downward Spiral'' is the second studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on March 8, 1994 by Nothing Records in the United States and Island Records in Europe. It is a concept album detailing the self-destru ...
''. Due to the graphic substance of "Gave Up", an alternative version of the music video consisting of the song being performed at Le Pig studios by Reznor, a young
Marilyn Manson
Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician. He came to prominence as the lead singer of the band which shares his name, of which he remains the only constant member since it ...
,
Richard Patrick
Richard Michael Patrick (born May 10, 1968) is an American musician, singer and songwriter. He is the frontman for the rock band Filter and a founding member of the supergroups Army of Anyone and The Damning Well, and has served as a touring g ...
and
Chris Vrenna
Chris Vrenna (born February 23, 1967 in Erie, Pennsylvania) is an American musician, producer, engineer, remixer, songwriter, programmer, and founder of the electronic band Tweaker. Vrenna played drums for the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails ...
was released to
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
. Much of the cast, aside from
Bob Flanagan in "Happiness in Slavery", and the band itself in "Wish", is unknown. The film is generally credited to be directed by Christopherson, although the music videos themselves were directed by various other people: "Pinion" and "Help Me I Am in Hell" is credited to
Eric Goode and
Serge Becker, while "Happiness in Slavery" is credited to
Jon Reiss
Jon Reiss is a film producer and director, and an author. He has made the feature film ''Cleopatra's Second Husband'' (1998) and the documentaries '' Better Living Through Circuitry'' (1999) and '' Bomb It'' (2007). He has directed music vi ...
.
A music video for "Happiness in Slavery" was universally banned, though a few attempts to air it were successful. An episode of ''Raw Time'' aired "Happiness in Slavery" at 3:00 AM to unanimously positive response from viewers. Another program, ''Music Link'', broadcast the video at midnight.
''Broken'' has not been given an official commercial release (according to Reznor, because they wanted to avoid the film overshadowing the prominence of the music),
thus adding to its mythological status in
alternative culture. The original hand-dubbed tapes were distributed by Reznor to various friends with dropouts at certain points
so he could know who distributed any copies that might surface. Reznor, commenting in the "Access" section of the NIN website, implied that
Gibby Haynes
Gibson Jerome Haynes (born September 30, 1957) is an American musician, radio personality, painter, author and the lead singer of the band Butthole Surfers.
Early life and career
Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Gibby Haynes is the son of actor ...
was responsible for the most prominent leak.
This copy was traded on VHS tapes for years (resulting in many poor-quality, high-generation copies), and was later encoded in
MPEG
The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is an alliance of working groups established jointly by International Organization for Standardization, ISO and International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC that sets standards for media coding, includ ...
and
AVI formats and distributed extensively through
peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer n ...
networks and Nine Inch Nails fan websites. These are generally not of the highest quality, as they are not first-generation copies.
On December 30, 2006, an unofficial version of the film was released on a DVD
disc image
A disk image, in computing, is a computer file containing the contents and structure of a disk volume or of an entire data storage device, such as a hard disk drive, tape drive, floppy disk, optical disc, or USB flash drive. A disk image is usua ...
and distributed via BitTorrent at
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay (sometimes abbreviated as TPB) is an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software. Founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, The Pirate Bay allows visitors to search, download, and contribute ma ...
by the same anonymous user called "seed0" who uploaded the leaked DVD version of ''Closure''. The DVD image represents a significant upgrade in visual and audio quality from "Broken 2.0.", and includes the oft-missing video for "Help Me I Am in Hell". Fans have speculated that this version of the film has been sourced directly from the master tapes, and that Reznor himself may have been the source of this leak along with the ''Closure'' DVD leak, as implied by a post on his official blog: ''"12/21/06 : Happy Holidays! This one is a guilt-free download. (shhhh - I didn't say that out loud). If you know what I'm talking about, cool."''
Track listing
All tracks are written by
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, wh ...
, except where noted.
;Notes
A few variations of ''Broken'' exist, mostly due to different track listing arrangements:
* The very first US CD pressings of the album had "Physical" and "Suck" included on a second disc, a three-inch mini CD. Many pressings outside the US had no second disc and these songs were tracks 7 and 8 on the main disc. Later American pressings eliminated the second disc as well and included the songs on the main disc as tracks 98 and 99. On this version tracks 7–97 consist of 4 seconds of silence each resulting in a slightly longer total playtime (33:09 vs. 31:35).
* On most pressings, US and otherwise, tracks 7/98 and 8/99 are not listed in the track listing on the back of the case. Some pressings also omit track 6, "Gave Up" from the rear listing as well.
* The only US 12-inch vinyl pressings released prior to the 2017 Definitive Edition ("promotional" only) omit the two instrumental tracks, "Pinion" and "Help Me I Am in Hell".
* Unlike the relatively large number of various CD versions, almost all cassette pressings across all regions include tracks 1–6 on side A and tracks 7–8 on side B.
* All vinyl pressings include "Physical" and "Suck" on a separate seven-inch disc.
Personnel
*
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, wh ...
– writing, performance, production
*
Flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
– production
*
Martin Atkins – drums (2, 8)
*
Chris Vrenna
Chris Vrenna (born February 23, 1967 in Erie, Pennsylvania) is an American musician, producer, engineer, remixer, songwriter, programmer, and founder of the electronic band Tweaker. Vrenna played drums for the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails ...
– drums (6)
* Tom Baker – mastering
Charts
Certifications
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
Album Reviewat
The Daily Collegian (Penn State)
The ''Daily Collegian'' is a student-produced news outlet, with a newspaper and website, that is published independently at the Pennsylvania State University. The newspaper is printed twice a week during the fall and spring semesters, and once ...
Album Reviewat Entertainmentopia
Multi-Track zip of ''Last''from the ''Broken'' EP, the separated channels of the song used for remixing
Multi-Track zip of ''Wish''from the ''Broken'' EP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Broken (Ep)
1992 debut EPs
Albums produced by Flood (producer)
Albums produced by Trent Reznor
Albums recorded in a home studio
Alternative metal EPs
Industrial metal EPs
Interscope Records EPs
Nine Inch Nails EPs
Nothing Records EPs
TVT Records EPs