Title: Naked
Artist: Sensor
Genre: Electronic / Pop / Rock
Release Date: 21st February 2009
Label: Intuition
Album Review
SENSOR started making music in 2005. The idea was to capture the best musical trends of the last 30 years and put them into a cohesive sound costume. The result of their efforts can be heard now in their very first release ‘Naked’.
With the album opener and title track, the Russian four-piece gives us a very melodic introduction; playful piano touches and vibrant drum sections become one and a close listen more details cut to the surface like the spindly, interwoven threads of guitar and synth textures backing Ilya Pavlov’s distanced but not detached vocals in the verses. The next offering ‘Falling Insane’ begins with a sequence of vintage electronic sounds and melodic flourishes while Ilya’s chant’s more akin to spoken word than actual singing in the beginnings. Guitars soon start popping up and with a soft transition the real drums take over the rhythm section from their electronic counterparts. The track eventually becomes an instrumental playground for the band to show a little more of their musical capabilities. Spherical and restful starts the next take ‘Off-White Trash’ with melancholic synth caresses and a little synthetic background rhythm coming in short time later before the focus changes towards organic drum movements. By beginning of the chorus the plaintive mood has to make way for rocking accents combining harsher and cleaner strums.
‘All I Get Is…’ throwing beatless ambience and spherical guitar lines into a blender is the mainly instrumental lead-in for ‘Static’ that’s flexing its Indie Rock muscles and couples it with the band’s awesome ability to create wonderfully dense and eclectic melodic arrangements. ‘Everybody Screams On Halloween’ might be some little weird title for a song but if you ask me it’s the pinnacle of the album. It starts out so plain with a little organ loop they have played over a quite minimalist series of rhythm even if the chant already implies this won’t stay like this the whole song through. More retro synth work is added and all of a sudden it’s all different. The emphatic vocals now fall upon a carpet of cursive melodies underscored with a drum styling bordering on percussion play. That’s a sequence I could listen to the whole day.
Actually one can only congratulate these four Russian musicians to a diversified and exciting first album that is definitely not to be missed if you’re into highly melodic Rock-Pop-Synth stuff.
Tracklist
01. Naked - 3:31
02. Let Me Hold On To This Moment - 3:52
03. Falling Insane - 5:38
04.Off-white Trash - 4:12
05. All I Get Is... - 2:16
06. Static - 6:19
07. The Likes Of Me - 3:24
08. Never Love a DJ - 4:49
09. The Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth - 4:21
10. Everybody Screams On Halloween - 5:56
11. Static [Vintage Dope Mix] - 11:01
Line-up
Ilya Pavlov - Vox & Keyboards
Alexey Bogatkov - Bass
Andrew Smaev - Drums & Laptop
Dmitry Kozlov - Guitar & Synths
Website
www.myspace.com/sensorband
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 8.5 / 10
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