Vital Weekly (NL)

12K is changing, and that’s always a good thing. The shift goes from electronica to acoustic instruments, and maybe there is a tendency, however weak yet, towards pop music. These two new releases contain something that we haven’t heard a lot before on 12K CDs – voices. In two different ways. First we have the highly respected, at least in my book, Steve Peters and Steve Roden. In 1995 they did a tour with singer Anna Homler, and then decided to do a record of voices themselves one day. That day finally arrived in 2010 when they recorded at Jack Straw in Seattle and it sees them avoiding electronics but only using acoustic sounds and their own voices. I am not sure what to think of it. Its especially the singing that I don’t like. Chanting like, of course poetically intended, buddhist like, with those temple bells… its like being invited into a private gathering of monks at a temple in the mountains.  I am sure they mean well, and its made with the best of intentions, but this is surely not my cup of tea at all. – FdW