| Artist |
| Action Directe |
| Title |
| Vanguard |
| Format/Cat |
| Downloadable album |
| Label |
| N/A |
| Style |
| Synthpop/Industrial |
| Date of review |
| December 2009 |
| Reviewer |
| Carl Jenkinson |
| Rating |
| 6.5/10 |
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'A more pronounced electronic element' said the accompanying blurb to this latest AD release & they weren't wrong! So electronic is this that it's possible a few of the band's died-in-the-wool punk fans could feel pretty alienated by this new direction although anyone familiar with the UK industrial scene as represented by bands such as Deadboy & Featal should be better able to take this in their stride. In some ways that's not totally a positive step as, in the past, AD have established an intelligent form of punk that harks back to the heyday of the 70s whilst sounding totally modern but here, the mix of guitar & synths that crop up on 'Red Dawn' (which takes its inspiration from Reagan-era film of the same name), 'Break You', where the politically-charged lyrics survive the use of a sample from Rocky III & "Frontline States Of Mind' do sound perilously close to the sort of mediocre techno-industrial bands that Flag Promotions put at the bottom of their bills so often & it's only on the closing 'We Can Rebuild Us' that they come close to a more substantial rock mood. This however, is slightly offset by the film samples that are so widespread they're beginning to sound totally overused, threatening to swamp the music! The reggae of 'Natty Droid' shows them taking a few more chances with some good bass guitar work to boot but where the album really comes into its own is on the more synthpop-like tracks such as the opening 'Storming Heaven where the acoustic drums work well with the melodic synthetics while on 'A Storm In Heaven' & especially during 'Epiphany' I had to keep reminding myself I wasn't actually listening to a new VNV Nation track! Certainly the latter track in particular has a raw, chugging analogue feel to it that resembles VNV's later works to an uncanny degree & that title is surely straight out of Ronan's 'Big Epic Words For Titles Dictionary' too!!
By making this downloadable from their website for free (they've done this with other recent material, too!) Action Directe have either maintained the egalitarian spirit of punk or saved themselves a whole load of money & stress, but, whatever, this 8-tracker is likely to raise a few eyebrows among the faithful & may well gain them a few new fans.
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