Red Mosquito

are they demos?

They’re mostly very close to what was released, in some cases identical, in others some differences. The mixes are different on some; they sound somewhat more live in parts. It plays like a nearly complete album that got one final push of revisions.

Listen to the YT video, VG.

Been reading the Lollapalloza Book that it came out i think last year? and it features a lot of stuff from that very first tour with NIN, great stories about it which made me go back to Pretty Hate Machine, and boy i was surprised on how much i loved it. I always liked it but i consider it maybe a bit less that DS and Fragile and now i can see its up there for sure.

Ringfinger is how you finish a debut album.

PHM is a classic. I'm not a huge fan of the remaster though, feels kind of sterile.

While we're on the topic, the Steven Wilson remix of Tears for Fears' Songs from the Big Chair suffered a lot of the same problems. Those 80s synths and drum machines sounded great when tracked to tape, everything kind of glued together. This need to carve every instrument out and define it individually in the mix doesn't seem to work for this style of music.

yeah, i can see that. Its pretty interesting to read in the book how they dealt with all the electronic parts live in that tour.