VNV Nation certainly have made a good career out of being unpredictable; while the voice of Ronan Harris is unmistakable, every album VNV Nation has produced has been its own unique identity: Praise the Fallen was a beat-heavy floorfiller, Empires brought layers of orchestral synths and baroque lyrics to dance floor prominence, and Futureperfect married those orchestral movements to futurepop with middling success. In the face of this ever-changing legacy, Matter+Form is a bit of a mixed bag. The album starts off with the aggressive synths of “Chrome” and the surprisingly warm drum sounds of “Arena”, but the album looses focus in the middle. Too much ambient meandering and too many straightforward techno tracks bog down the proceedings; by the time the closer “Perpetual” kicks into high gear, it’s too late to to rescue the album from an overall sense of malaise. This is a record with great singles potential that is marred by the filler padding out its midsection.

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