NAMNAMBULU EXPANSION ALBUM INFACTED RELEASE: MAY 10, 2004 REVIEW: JUNE 16, 2004

From nowhere to moderate stardom. An easy way to describe the progression of Swiss/Danish duo NamNamBulu. Vocalist Henrik Iversen and songwriter Vasi Vallis released their debut EP "Blind?" on their own a few years back and got picked up pretty quickly by newly founded German label Infacted Recordings. A full length, "Distances", was released last year to great acclaim within the more dance oriented synthpop community.
Now, "Expansion" serves us rather bland remixes of tracks from that album, adding nothing but heavier beats and more repetition. The real treat of the album is the packet of new songs, some of which are intelligently built synthetic pop, while some seem to struggle with an unnecessary futurepop complex, pulling focus away from the initial song strength and replacing it with long instrumental club parts. Clichéd lyrics are pretty common within the genre and, sadly, "Expansion" can not be excluded. Iversen's voice is pretty powerful overall, though.
So, NamNamBulu can deliver. The question is if they choose to do so.

NIKLAS FORSBERG