Pretty cult machines: NIN and Deerhunter

Nine Inch Nails and Deerhunter are two ensembles operating in the eclipse of their shamanistic frontmen. For NIN, that singular personality is Trent Reznor, who has been dosing his cult's Kool-Aid since 1989. Some seriously heinous fashion has been committed in the name of this goth-industrial lord, but he can be commended for embracing high-resolution music formats and digital distribution. While Reznor is unremitting in his future leanings, Deerhunter's Brandon Cox farms the opposite tract. Cox and Co. — having recently released a sophomore album, Microcastle, to iTunes — sublimate late-'80s dreampop and dub into increasingly blissed-out sessions with only a dash of psychedelic petulance.