Guys..I dont see any problems with recording in Nandhala..yeah it is synth..but other modern MDs :-) are all using the same kind of sound..Also, just acoustic instruments does not automatically make it great. I have close to 1500 songs of IR, losslessly compressed (FLAC) on my server and played over WiFI through full-range speakers+subwoofers. Recording acoustic instruments is pretty tricky and many times synth/samples sounds used for song making might be cost-effective and almost satisfactory. I do know the best engineered albums/songs of IR (which are few but not rare) and I derive much more pleasure from them than through the 'consistently best sound-engineered albums of a top MD'.
Anyways, NL is not trendy music or probably not innovative even by IR's own style of music..but trend be damned..the music is good, really rocking. It is classic IR in style of melody and orchestration..including different kinds of percussion instruments playing together. If IR keeps up this performance in 5 or 6 albums..then next one will come out totally innovative and mind-blowing..We have to note that he is not assembling sounds from around the world and styling the tunes or rhythms ike a BillBoards top hit or wants singers to sing like Lisa Gerrard or some such l singers in popular albums coming out of the US or Europe..It takes time for IR to keep trying, to get a good one.. This is absolutely normal and natural and this is the way it has been in the past. He has to keep doing and suddenly a spark comes there is a born a fresh new kind of music to which you will find no similarities elsewhere.
