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Negative Format
Moving Past the Boundaries

Metropolis Records

Posted: Friday, March 31, 2006
By: Matthew Johnson
Assistant Editor

When Ronan Harris first came up with the concept of “futurepop,” he was thinking of a genre that incorporated elements of both old school EBM and modern techno in all its various genres. Though Negative Format’s newest album lacks the melodramatic singing associated with VNV Nation, Moving Past the Boundaries fits Harris’ original definition to a tee; in fact, were it not for the mechanized vocal monotone, it’d be easy to mistake this for just another trance album. Programmer Alex Matheu has all the formulae down pat, from the hypnotic four-on-the-floor beats and builds of hard trance on “Echochamber” and “Particle Shift” to the moodier synth progressions of “Translucent” and “Focus.” It’s all slickly put together of course, but this album is well over an hour long, so the occasional diversions are a welcome change. “Sustain,” for example, features guest vocalist Rashree Matson of Tristessa De La Lune on a downtempo track reminiscent of Conjure One, while the more abstract album outro “Out of Phase” incorporates some interesting rhythmic progressions and warm electronic tones in the vein of Underworld. However, the bulk of Moving Past the Boundaries is straightforward trance with a hint of EBM aggression, and though it plays well on the dance floor, there just isn’t enough variety for it to hold up to repeated listening.