Die Noodle continued the stream of ideas started with Overcooked Tyroleans. There are some more vocal tracks on this album, for example “Notiknotok,” which manages to sound suprisingly mainstream, but is not at all dull. The songs are as masterfully shaped out as usual, and there is some more melancholy in them as on the preceding albums (see “Chinese Lanterns,” “Soap Bubbles in the Moonlight,” “Once Upon a Time in Strawberryland,” or “Muischka”), but this does not harm the musical quality. Watch out for the moments in “Junglesong” when the instruments imitate animal sounds. – Frank Eisenhuth