A SKY FULL OF STARS FOR A ROOF

DJAM KARET have been together since 1984 and released 20 studio albums over their careers. The awkwardly titled "A Sky Full Of Stars For A Roof" is from 2019 and is their 19th studio album. Interesting that their next album from 2022 called "Island In The Red Night Sky" is a companion to this record, sort of a ying/yang thing like back in 1991 with their "Burning The Hard City" and "Suspension & Displacement" releases. This is the mellow one while that 2022 release is dark and electric and way more to my liking just like "Burning The Hard City" blew away "Suspension & Displacement".

The first thing I noticed listening to this album is the abundance of ethnic instruments and looking at the liner notes there are a ton of them and half of them I don't even know what they are. It's not like DJAM KARET haven't used ethnic instruments before, they have often but this comes across as a World Music album. The other thing is it's very acoustic and there's lots of electronics. This is a mellow album and a new direction for this band and not to my tastes unfortunately. I do get how some would be drawn to the warm sounds, and everything this band does they do very well but I just don't like this new direction. Not since the back to back albums of '01/'03 have I given them anything lower than 4 stars.

I am on the hunt for "Island In The Red Night Sky" with that awesome cover art but I have ten other DJAM KARET album to enjoy until then.