After last year's masterpiece Classic Erasmus Fusion, one was hoping for an inspired repeat. Although Amidst the Noise & Twigs is no dud, it does at first blush not live up to expectations. Too often the songs remain stuck in arch minstrelsy, exemplified by overbearing flute exercises and clumsy percussion; or worse, the songs are nothing but unhinged vocal/tape experiments that go nowhere, such as on "Cassettes of Berlin". It is as if VTB are intent on playing down the sincerity inherent in their music. Quirkiness has always been their prerogative, but it seems this time the zaniness got the better of them. Nevertheless, on "Splendid Goose" for example, they demonstrate to be still capable of extracting a transcending aural configuration from brass and strings against the backdrop of a propulsive medieval beat. On "She Vang Moon" they come close to what made Classic Erasmus Fusion great. "One Hundred Years of Infamy" (great title that) is positively weird. VTB are prototypically English in their way of sourcing primeval subjectivity that may thwart the inexorable dialectics of today's limited musical palette in pop; that is reason enough to lend one's ear to Amidst the Noise & Twigs.