Baja are a loose collective from Germany led by one Daniel Vujanic. They make a sort of ‘jazztronica’ obviously indebted to both Tortoise and The Books, though perhaps without the sense of playfulness of either band. The follow-up to last year’s double set, Maps/Systemhaleur, Wolfhour is their second album.In the world of largely instrumental, organically-unfurling IDM-type music (whether jazz-inflected or no), there is a very thin line between being evocative, finely textured, and interesting, and being boring, lifeless, and dull, and unfortunately Wolfhour often seems to veer on the wrong side of that line. Bursting with accomplishment and ideas, Vujanic and co. are clearly on to a good thing with this music, but they seem to have ended up without anything really to say. For all the lilting jazz soundscapes this record boasts, for all those wonderful drums and horns and vibraphones and softly plucked acoustic guitars which sound so good at times, over the course of the record they just end up forming a soft, formless mass of pleasantness- Wolfhour impresses but fails to really grab you, with all the emotiveness and passion of your average furniture catalogue.So after listening to this record quite a few times by now, I am left with a lot of respect for Baja, but no affection at all. This record is a piece of very accomplished music in every objective sense you could name, but when I actually ask myself what it says to me personally, or what it could say to anyone else I know, probably, then I am just left blank and cold. Call it the ‘Curse of IDM’, if you want. Either way, subjectivity has to pretty much win. 60%Links Baja [myspace]