Fixed (also known as Halo 6) is a remix EP by Nine Inch Nails released in 1992. Fixed is the sixth official Nine Inch Nails release and is the companion remix disc to Broken. This remix album is the only NIN remix record to be packaged within a standard 4 panel (small) Digipak without an accompanying booklet. It has gone Platinum in the UK.

Guest remixers include Butch Vig, J. G. Thirlwell of Foetus, Peter Christopherson of Coil, and members of the live band at the time, which included Chris Vrenna and James Woolley.

The official release had one contribution by Butch Vig, which was the end portion of "Throw This Away". Vig had originally remixed the song "Last," but it was cut from the final version of the EP. Trent said that Vig basically did what he always does with any song: he made it rock. However, Vig has stated in interviews that his remix of "Last" was not included simply because "Trent didn't like it". Therefore only part of Vig's mix appears at the end of "Throw This Away". The original mix appeared on the Internet as an 8-bit mono 11 kHz file, NIN_LAST.AIFF, available by FTP from cyberden.com in 1993. It disappeared from the site quite some time ago, but can still be found on p2p networks. Recently, it became available in high quality (256kbit/s mp3) at remix.nin.com.

This remix EP employs some rather unorthodox mixing techniques such as backmasking, layering, flangers, noise and sudden time signature changes to give the listener an intentional sense of confusion on initial (and sometimes subsequent) listenings. On the opening "Gave Up" remix, the song picks up with a frantic rhythmic jumbling of Trent's vocals directly referencing the lyrics ("it took you to make me realize"). This would seem to involve basically chopping up each syllable of the chorus vocals running forward and reverse (normally as PCM files) and using a sampler to re-sequence them together in manic fashion. John Balance (of Coil) expressed his dislike of choruses in the song and decided to take it in another direction.

"Throw This Away" is a remix of both "Suck" with the whispers of 'I am so dirty... on the inside' and "Last" with the lyrics 'I want you to make me, I want you to take me, I want you to break me, and I want you to throw me away'. The "Suck" lyrics are in the larger, quieter portion of the song. The "Last" segment is heard more predominately within the louder end section (created by Butch Vig).

The second Wish remix entitled "Fist Fuck" has odd samples such as moaning and film dialogue ('I want to feel that way too... I bet you will someday') that also contribute greatly to the claustrophobic mood of the song.

The final track "Screaming Slave" holds a generally mixed opinion among alternative rock and industrial fans as the latter group consider it to be the closest thing to industrial music that Trent Reznor has ever done. This particular song contains various samples from the "Happiness in Slavery" video of Bob Flanagan being tortured.

Like many avant garde industrial music acts before, this release helped pioneer the notion of the remix as an artform, far removed from just commercial "milking" of an existing product.

Releases

• TVT Records/Interscope Records/Atlantic Records 96093-2 - CD
• TVT Records/Interscope Records 694960932 - CD reissue

Track listing

External links

• Official Nine Inch Nails site
• Fixed at the NinWiki
• Halo 6 at NINCollector.com
• Fixed (US CD5") at discogs.com
• Fixed (FR CD5") at discogs.com
• Fixed (UK 12") at discogs.com
• Halo 6 Lyrics