Often dead-written, as well as often on returning – Bryan Erickson still polarizes the fans of Electro/Industrial music. Now back with a new album, he has again hired his long-year partner Todd Loomis to help out with the producing procedure. But what several announcements about the content of this album have reported in advance, has become reality, "The Art Of Breaking Apart" is a quite different sounding VAC-album, which only on a very few moments reanimates Bryan glorious deeds of his "Fun With Knives/Twisted Thought Generator" – days. I still think, that his teaser track on the last years’ "Septic"- compilation ("Black Rainbows") has been a shock for his fans and wasn’t that clever chosen. Good to know and to hear, that not everything has completely changed. The addition of acoustic guitar sounds is surely the biggest and most striking improvement in the sound outfit of VAC. If this all got completely live played and recorded, or if newer PlugIn – technique has helped out here, is one of the unsolved questions, but who cares? The result is globally edgy and very emotional sounding – VAC may have never been sounded that Goth-related on their newer Electronic-driven era until now. Not a bad addition and it may needs 2 – 3 spins more for the die-hard fans to accept this new stylistically direction. But is it really a new direction? I don’t think so, just check out Bryan’s early rather demo-like self-produced albums like "Fate" for instance. Even if those early recordings lack of a well done studio recording procedure, his signature into this rather Goth-like style is already recognizable. This all ends into the same consequence, to integrate clear and undistorted vocals into some of the rather acoustic-driven tracks – just check "Killing A Stranger" for example. I hear already those "pure heresy" screams of the die-hard Electronica-fans, but be assured, that VAC have also understood, not to break completely with them. "Caustic Disco" is one of those straight-forward arranged tunes with a steady 4/4-on-the-floor beat work, quite comparable to classics like "Wound", "Pretty Toy", "Dial8" or "Fun With Drugs". "Tripped Out", as well as both instrumental tunes "Vaporized" and "Killed In Space" should help the Electronica-minded fan to find this album attractive enough. "The Art Of Breaking Apart" convinces in both styles, the already known Electronica-driven, as well as the not-that-new-discovered acoustic-driven one. This mixture even adds more emotion into the music – and approves once again the great talent of the both responsible protagonists.