HANGRY & ANGRY
Kill Me Kiss Me
(Gothuall [Japan]/JapanFiles.com [North America])
Available on CD, iTunes US and Japan, and through JapanFiles.com

Ooof.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when this EP came out, but since this album has pretty much been my regular car music for the past two months, apparently the formula didn’t miss: Take two 4th-gen MoMusu’s, give them some great rock/goth/punk  hybrid tunes, wrap them in a bizarre image inspired by a Japanese boutique’s mascots, issue on CD and mp3, and knock thousands of MoMusu/H!P fans on their asses. “GIZA GIZA” recalls Evanescence somewhat (not as closely as that album track on 1st Goodsal, though), but the rest of the five-song EP has a style all of its own. A bigger independent label like Matador or Merge could give this album a better shot at American success, but JapanFiles.com put their nuts on the line to make sure this album came out simutaneously with its Japanese counterpart and did a better job in that department than The End did with Dir en grey’s new album.

NINE INCH NAILS
Ghosts I-IV
(The Null Corporation/RED)
Available on CD, quadruple-LP, and through NIN.com and AmazonMP3.com

NINE INCH NAILS
The Slip
(The Null Corporation/RED)
Available on CD, 180-gram LP, iTunes, AmazonMP3, eMusic, and NIN.com 

Vee can wax rhapsodic about these two surprise releases from Trent Reznor and company more than I can (she’s been to see the group at least three times on their most recent tour, including the closing show in Las Vegas last month), but the sudden prolific nature of Trent Reznor’s post-Interscope period has been nothing short of interesting and satisfying. Ghosts I-IV would have been more than enough NIN goodness for anyone,  even if an all-instrumental digital album, double-CD or quadruple-LP would seem daunting to casual listeners – but Trent, in the process of letting loose during the 10-week period that led to this project, proceeded to unconsiously reveal many of his childhood and adolsecent influences (Brian Eno, Tuxedomoon,  Kraftwerk, Devo)  in Ghosts’ 36 numbered, almost-eponymously titled tracks. But then, after a surprise digital single in “Discipline” (probably Trent’s best pop number since “Closer”), Trent drops The Slip on us – for free (and then several weeks later on CD and LP for those that want to thank Trent for his generosity by buying a tactile copy). Together, both albums prove to display an immense level of freedom within Reznor that could not have  been possible under TVT or Interscope. How Trent follows these two  albums up in 2009 is anyone’s guess, but he’s on a roll.