Jason BakerThis is the second Null Device album, following 2002's “Sublimation”. In the band's own words, they set out to really diversify their sound in this album, seeing the previous album as their “pure” synthpop album, and wanting to stretch themselves for this second album. I think the band was highly successful in this goal, as the sounds of guitars, bass guitars, violins, Duduk (?), Dumbek (?), and strings can clearly be heard in several songs. There's a Middle Eastern Influence in a lot of the sound this time out, not in the manner of KAJ (where they used synths to produce that sound), but this time with the native instruments. It's a attention-grabbing feature of the music, that's for sure.
The two songs I had heard previously on the “Footfalls” EP, “Easier” and “Walk In London”, show a lot more polish and poise here on the album than on the EP, which was a relief to me. Especially “Walk In London”, I really like this version of the song as compared to the remix on the EP.
The newer songs are really impressive, I particularly enjoyed “Electrified”, with it's sharp hook and punchy percussion line. “Sevgilim” is a excellent track, though it's mostly non-English lyrics might turn off some listeners, I really liked the contrast of the sung non-English parts with the spoken English parts. “Travelogue” is another excellent track, lots of vivid word pictures in this track. The Versiyon Turk of “Travelogue” is a (mostly) acoustic version, with a wide variety of less-known cultural instruments carrying the melody of the track.
An album such as this isn't necessarily one that you will immediately fall in love with. Probably, you'll hear it, find it intriguing, but go on to listen to something else.. only to find you can't drive the ideas and melodies of the cd out of your mind, and feel driven to listen to again… and again, and again. It's a really wonderful cd, and a excellent follow-up to “Sublimation”. Highly Recommended!!!
**** 1/2