Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Sorry, guys. Not much in the way of an entry today. Just not in the mood. Which means I'll probably make up for it in the morning. Yesterday evening, after Spooky and I sat on the front porch drinking beer and taunting squirrels, we watched the first episode of Farscape, and then we watched the second episode of Farscape. By eleven I was exhausted, inexplicably so, and crawled away to bed, where I managed to read two William Hope Hodgson short stories, "The Mystery of the Derelict" and "The Habitants of Middle Islet," before falling asleep. The latter I found particularly effective in its wonderfully elusive threats. Lovecraft once said of Hodgson, "Few can equal him in adumbrating the nearness of nameless forces and monstrous beseiging entities through casual hints and insignificant details." Indeed. Spooky was up until about two, I think, doing gods know what online.
Got 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...
9:15 PM
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