VNV Nation
Matter + Form
(Metropolis)

Every time VNV Nation releases an album, I tend to be disappointed in the first listen, then somehow it lures me in and I become completely in love with it. So I guess you can tell that I am in that disappointment stage. We have been waiting four long years for some new music from these and now in 2005 they give us Matter + Form.

After my initial listen I realized I had to change my listening focus because this album is a bit of a departure for them. VNV (Victory Not Vengeance) is tagged as a future pop band. Future pop is the term for industrial artists such as VNV who aren’t abrasive or hard sounding as say, Wumpscut or Suicide Commando, but still retain enough of an edge to not be labeled a pop band that happens to have electronics such as Erasure or Pet Shop Boys. Well that’s my interpretation anyway. So with Matter + Form, VNV have centered on the pop end of things. The EBM structures are almost completely gone and the tone is more upbeat. The slower elements they experimented on in FuturePerfect have been utilized more as well.

One problem I have with the CD so far is that the tracks four, five and six (Colours of Rain, Strata and Interceptor respectively) are all instrumentals. This hurts the flow of the record because its Ronin Harris’ lyrics and his just-above-monotone voice that are always the highlight of any VNV disc.

But this album has already grown on me, as I knew it would. “Arena” and “Perpetual” are just gorgeous songs. Both songs employ possibly my favorite synth sound, a dream-like waveform that when used properly can elevate a song to near heavenly proportions. I swear real drums are used for “Arena” as well, but none are credited. “Chrome”, the second track and “Lighwave”, track ten, are the closest to sounding like the VNV Nation that I am familiar with. By that I mean the driving beat and heavy synths.

VNV Nation has always been a band that has never shied from attempting new thing. Matter + Form is a departure for them. The more I listen, the more I am enjoying this. It may be a more straightforward popish album, but it still bears VNV’s trademark sound and style. This form matters.

-Thom


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