Head like I/O
June 17, 2012 12:02 PM   Subscribe

Pretty Eight Machine - an 8-Bit rendition of the Nine Inch Nails album.
posted by Artw (29 comments total) 66 users marked this as a favorite
 
LOVE. Bought. "Atariable Lie" is CRANKING in my home office right now.
posted by mrbill at 12:10 PM on June 17, 2012


Yeah, this is fantastic.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 12:20 PM on June 17, 2012


This completely destroys.
posted by resurrexit at 12:23 PM on June 17, 2012


This makes me think of Mario in a long trenchcoat.
posted by mrzarquon at 12:28 PM on June 17, 2012 [3 favorites]


An instant purchase from me. I do love all these chiptune reinterpretations of albums
posted by Z303 at 12:55 PM on June 17, 2012


Rob Sheridan digs it.
posted by Decimask at 1:16 PM on June 17, 2012


Sometimes awesomeness is as simple as algebra. "Why yes that would be amazing, and I would like it, and lo it is and I do."
posted by Alex404 at 1:21 PM on June 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Fan-fucking-tastic. Thanks!
posted by dbiedny at 1:26 PM on June 17, 2012


Oh this is great.

Meanwhile, it still blows my mind that Reznor made the (original) album at age 25. I mean, right up until I hear the lyrics.
posted by griphus at 1:42 PM on June 17, 2012 [11 favorites]


I'm sort of glad he stopped having lyrics, as he pretty much kept them that way and it was getting undignified. That said How To Destroy Angels is pretty much the same thing with a different singer and that still works.
posted by Artw at 1:50 PM on June 17, 2012 [2 favorites]


Ahhhh, excellent! I wanted so badly to post this, but Mr. Phase is a close friend of mine (this album premiered on my wife's chiptune radio show, Noise Channel, last Thursday).. So much good stuff I could be showing you early, if not for the whole ban on buddy promotion. :( I've been struggling for a while to find chip-related things to post without a conflict of interest. Good thing you guys usually catch the important ones.

If anyone remembers the recent Radiohead 8-bit thing where I was like "bleh he's sort of pandering with Mario sound effects and doing inauthentic chip-soundalike MIDI covers" and pontificated semi-seriously on how it should be done "properly", THIS is what I'm talking about, making actual data that plays on the hardware itself, within the real limitations. And in his liner notes he talks at length (too much length) about the technical details, for anyone who wants to learn a bit more.

Also, of note, this same guy is responsible for MAGfest growing from a little motel-sized gaming convention to a major regional 10k+ con over the past decade, which anyone interested in chip music should seriously consider attending.
posted by jake at 1:59 PM on June 17, 2012 [8 favorites]


Very faithful, good work.
posted by jeffamaphone at 2:37 PM on June 17, 2012


Awe. Some.
posted by hot_monster at 4:21 PM on June 17, 2012


Normally I don't feel old despite hitting 41 next month. But this.

This just makes me feel old. Real old.

I dunno if actually listening to the tracks will change this feeling. (I'm on a bus, really not the environment for that.)

Old.
posted by egypturnash at 5:01 PM on June 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Meanwhile, it still blows my mind that Reznor made the (original) album at age 25. I mean, right up until I hear the lyrics.

The important thing to remember is that Pretty Hate Machine and it's related singles were mixed, engineered and produced by major studio rock stars like Adrian Sherwood and Flood. Flood is the same guy who worked on U2's Joshua Tree with Brian Eno, or Renegade Soundwave's Soundclash. Adrian Sherwood is a dub producer/engineer who later worked on stuff like Primal Scream and Pop Will Eat Itself among other things from the same era as PHM.

So, Reznor had major firepower in the studio for PHM. Flood helped do a lot of the programming for PHM, and if you look at their combined production histories it's like a list of the greatest some of the greatest hits of the 80s and 90s. Smashing Pumpkins. Nick Cave. Ministry. Marc Almond. New Order and more.

It would actually be more shocking if Pretty Hate Machine didn't eventually succeed as it did and become one of the best albums of the era despite those atrocious lyrics that only an angsty teenager going through their first breakup could love.
posted by loquacious at 5:35 PM on June 17, 2012 [4 favorites]


I'm sort of glad he stopped having lyrics, as he pretty much kept them that way and it was getting undignified.

Right, except for his last three albums, in which he got well beyond the teenage angst thing and was exploring overcoming addiction, a parallel future universe in which the fundamentalist conservatives had won (and reality was coming apart), and his own struggles with fame and need for both fame and privacy.

But other than all of his post-Fragile, post-1999 output, you're exactly right.
posted by hippybear at 8:53 PM on June 17, 2012 [3 favorites]


Anyway, great post. Made the purchase, downloading now, CD will be arriving later this month.

Very cool. I was struck by how the rhythm track in Head Like I/O reminded me of the theme from M.U.L.E.
posted by hippybear at 9:19 PM on June 17, 2012


With Teeth still seemed pretty self indulgent to me and he was defiantly a grown ass man by then.
posted by Artw at 10:37 PM on June 17, 2012


With Teeth is a document of Trent's exit from addiction. Aside from the blatantly political tracks like The Hand That Feeds, it's worthwhile to listen to the album through the ears of a cocaine (or other powder drug) addict who is simultaneously noting the power of the drug over them and declaring their independence from it.

It's a much more mature work than I suspect you're giving it credit for, and one which I come back to repeatedly, much more than I do PHM or TDS.

Anyway, Beside You In Time is one of the most psychedelic things ever recorded, even more so in surround, where the overlapping rhythm patterns are even more confusing and awesome because there is a third dimension.

(I still come back to The Fragile regularly, as it embodies a brilliant use of multiple leitmotifs and is connected with a time of personal self-realization and continues to fascinate and confound me. I await with baited breath the promised release of a 5.1 version, as I'm hoping it will shed light on the layers of musical construction that I have as of yet been unable to tease apart. I suspect, unless there is a score or something similar published, I will ultimately be completely unable to fully grok what Trent is doing musically with this project, but I try, and hope, and listen again and again.)
posted by hippybear at 11:20 PM on June 17, 2012 [2 favorites]


And Dave Grohl plays drums on With Teeth!
posted by XhaustedProphet at 12:35 AM on June 18, 2012


As much as I want to like it, being a huge fan of the original, by the third track I was tuning out and by the fifth it was just so much staccato noise. I listened through but it was barely registering on my consciousness at the end. And I really like chiptune. My best guess as to what happened is that it's just too similar to the original, which I've listened to probably two or three hundred times, and so it just didn't register to my brain as something new and exciting to listen to.

I am disappointed, not in P8M, but in myself.
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:20 AM on June 18, 2012


Right, except for his last three albums, in which he got well beyond the teenage angst thing and was exploring overcoming addiction, a parallel future universe in which the fundamentalist conservatives had won (and reality was coming apart), and his own struggles with fame and need for both fame and privacy.

When The Slip came out, I was fascinated by the album's themes. I was dying to hear from Trent himself about them. I read practically every interview during that era, and all of them ignored the album's lyrics and cryptic artwork. Instead, they focused entirely on the fact that he released it for free. While that was a very bold move, I have still never gotten over this. I'm tired of people underestimating the man.
posted by JimBennett at 11:18 AM on June 18, 2012


An interesting thing about The Slip is it's basically the only album he recorded with a band rather than doing nearly all the music himself. And it was written and released within the space of 3 weeks. It's a fascinating project in basically instant music making, and it was quite well received by critics and fans alike.

I wish more bands would do things like that.
posted by hippybear at 6:41 PM on June 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


I've been listening to Ghosts a lot lately - its good work music.

Weirdly as he drops the lyrics and goes a little downtempo, and Brian Eno goes a little uptempo and aggressive, their respective sounds seem to be converging.
posted by Artw at 6:47 PM on June 19, 2012


Yeah, Ghosts is a lot better, especially with repeat listens. I like how each of the albums has its own character, and the experiments in instrumentation and such were really sucessful, IMO.

The Ghosts numbers he did live on the Lights In The Sky tour came out really well, too. I guess across the total of the tour, they ended up doing 1 Ghosts I, 5 Ghosts I, 6 Ghosts I, 10 Ghosts II, 14 Ghosts II, 17 Ghosts II, 19 Ghosts III, 21 Ghosts III, 25 Ghosts III, 28 Ghosts IV, and 32 Ghosts IV at various points. From what I've heard, it was a real bitch to learn these for live performance, with band members having to learn to play instruments they had never touched before.

There's a 5.1 mix of Ghosts out there, done with real love and care by a fan from the multi-tracks Trent released. It's worth a listen if you have a system that will play it.
posted by hippybear at 7:20 PM on June 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


Ah, I left out 8 Ghosts I and 31 Ghosts IV, which they also played.
posted by hippybear at 7:21 PM on June 19, 2012


(All of these are documented on the A Million Miles Away release, which is an interesting listen-through in its own right, even if it is over 3.5 hours long.)
posted by hippybear at 7:23 PM on June 19, 2012


This is sexy sex.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:35 PM on June 20, 2012


Oh, is here a good spot for this?:

I got Pretty Hate Machine when it came out, on cassette, for my 14th birthday. From the boy I liked. I said "thank you, yes I am."
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:38 PM on June 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


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