quixoticGot the new VNV Nation bright and early this morning. Truly, Spooky was at Criminal Records just after the doors opened. I've listened three times through, and I like it a great deal, but I'm still considering more specific comments. It's a different album for them. To quote the band's website:
This time Ronan worked alongside German producer Humate who co-produced, engineered and mixed the album. Getting the sound right on this album involved going back to using lots of vintage synthesizer equipment to achieve a warmer more organic sound. The album features many varieties of tone and sound, from the punch of tracks like "Chrome" and "Entropy" to more ethereal soulful sounds of "Endless Skies" and "Homeward" . It is certainly an evolution but still retains, and in some ways accentuates, the emotive soulful and humanist elements that people recognise in VNV Nation's music. Conceptually and lyrically the album deals with transformation from potential into ability or action. Ronan feels this is the best and most comprehensive VNV Nation release to date.
I think, if you can read between the press-release copyspeak, this is a moderately accurate assessment of Matter and Form, — especially the part about a warmer, more organic sound. I'm not sure what the crunchy music bois are gonna think of this, but I like it (though I doubt it will prove to be my favorite VNV Nation disc). I think I'm gonna go watch more Farscape...
