RELUCTANT HOSTS

3.5 stars. NON CREDO are this male/female duo from LA, who after experiencing what it's like being in bands and dealing with difficult members, decided to just do it themselves. Calling themselves NON CREDO they are Kira Vollman on vocals, clarinet, bass and keys, along with Joe Berardi on drums, keys, accordion and cello. We have a guest adding violin on one track, and another adding synths and bowed bass to another tune. They have not been very prolific releasing three albums between 1988 and 2006.

The track listing shown here is from a different edition than what I have. The one shown here with 24 tracks is double what the original was, as they've added a lot of soundtrack material they had created for other recordings. The main album was recorded and mixed in 1988 at World's Fair in LA. Kira who has a soprano voice wrote the lyrics, and man she has this gift for writing dark humour. That album is called "Reluctant Hosts" but maybe "Reluctant Visitors" should have been the title as we see people in these lyrics who are in terrible situations that they'd rather not be in(understatement), like "Tied To The Mast".

While I think the two albums that follow this one are improvements, this is quite the debut. They really focussed on the vocals here, while on the next two albums they have done a "deep dive" when it comes to those instrumental compositions. In other words, it really came together for this avant band on their 1995's "Happy Wretched Family", as well as their 2006's "Impropera", where the music is much more adventerous and interesting. Lots to like here though, and I especially like "Hair Of Dog", "Thank You Mommy" and "Wild Humans" for some of that haunting music.

A good start for these two, but the best is yet to come.