Things Left Unsaid – Kirt Debique (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

We often focus on the desired affect of a record on the listener at large, the man in the street, the record buyer. Things Left Unsaid shows the music making process from a more personal point of view as Kirt Debique’s debut album reveals itself to be a series of letters to friends and family seeking answers, questioning decisions or explaining actions that have brought him to this current point in his life. It therefore raises questions regarding how much can you let the general listener in on such personal thoughts, does it matter that much of the meaning will be closed to them or how people may find their own meanings and be able to relate to the ideas only from the perspective of their own personal journey through life.

Musically Debique explores dark electronic landscapes similar to those traversed by later Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails, pulsing, sonorous synthetic twilights which act as the perfect backdrop to the soul-searching subject matter and yet never providing a distraction from the heartfelt expression of the narrative.

Somehow it manages to link the rhythms of his Trinidadian upbringing with the industrial pulse of 80’s Sheffield and the dark experimentations of an alternative American underbelly that only existed sporadically in hidden corners and basement clubs. It is an album of universal exploration, music that asks many more questions both musically and lyrical than it answers but isn’t that the whole point of life? The question is the journey, perhaps.