In 2012, Trent Reznor is most comparable to Beck and Jack White: they're all well-established big-tent artists who split their time between musical and entrepreneurial endeavors. While Beck and White look backwards and, er, upwards for novel distribution models-- releasing new tunes as sheet music and launching a single via helium balloon-- Reznor, as always, looks toward the future. Last month he dropped a mysterious announcement about hooking up with Jimmy Iovine and Beats by Dre (itself the product of another 1990s musical genius-gone-boardroom) for some sort of collaboration that sounds like it will dominate more than a few news cycles for tech and industry wonks. After recently dropping tantalizing hints about what his fans really want: the first new Nine Inch Nails material since 2008's (still very good) The Slip, he's releasing another EP from his How to destroy angels_ project that sounded so promising almost two and a half years ago. Remember that?
On their six-track An omen_ EP, Htda-- still comprising Reznor, singer Mariqueen Maandig, musical collaborator Atticus Ross, and graphic designer Rob Sheridan-- show a different side of themselves. Unlike the (easily superior) self-titled EP, there aren't any out-and-out industrial bangers like "Parasite", nor any pop-leaning single material like "Fur Lined" and "A Drowning." Instead, there are tracks like the brooding "Keep It Together", where Reznor joins (his wife) Maandig on a vocal that scarcely rises above a whisper. If the group's 2010 EP sounded more like Reznor was still influenced by The Slip, omen_ is driven by atmosphere and texture, feeling at times like an offshoot of Reznor and Ross' soundtrack work, and at others a bit like Reznor's Ghost project. On "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" (titled after Goya's etching of the artist being dream-tortured by his worst impulses), Maandig simply murmurs melismatic vocables over a minimal electronic track that gradually progresses from the somnolent stupor of early slumber into the unpredictable menace of dreams.
The tracks themselves are, per Reznor and Ross's pedigrees, immaculately pieced together, richly detailed and suitably moody. Maandig, however, continues to stick out of this mix. As Matthew Perpetua politely noted in his review of the prior EP, the L.A. based singer (formerly of the group West Indian Girl) is "somewhat lacking in character." Two years later, not much has changed: she still hits all the right notes, but brings a generic prettiness to her delivery that doesn't gel with the moody futurism going on around her. When she's showcased, then, the album's most striking and unique track-- the 7 minute "Ice Age"-- becomes omen_'s least successful execution. Reznor's close-miked steampunk banjo track easily overpowers Maandig's wispy "take me away"-style vocal. Apart from this (very long) moment, however, the omen_ tracks could combine with the first EP into a fairly awesome hour-long album, which we're perhaps going to see next year (the band has a yet untitled LP due in 2013). But when presented on their own-- particularly in a year with very good albums in a similar vein from acts like Purity Ring, Liars, and Bat for Lashes-- they feel a bit slight.
