Voice reviewed by The Wire

The Wire, Janury 2003 Issue 227: “(…)None of that, however, can serve as preparation for the furious babbling and squalling insanity that at times rages tornado-like through this album. All the training, discipline and precision that you might expect from her CV are here enlisted in the service, or possession, of forces that leave behind them a trail of finely crafted destruction that has you by turns stumped and stupefied, or laughing out loud and seriously concerned for her sanity. Anyone familiar with them might have partially anticipated what occurs on Voice from Ratkje’s recordings with SPUNK. (…)Appropriately enough, on Voice her extraordinary vocals become the sole focus of the proceedings, (…)they explode into a vivid technicolour stream of jabbering, insane laughter and a clamour of schizoid ramblings, screeching and speaking in tongues that will leave more than a few synapses misfiring. (…)For all its extremes there are still moments that are direct and unmediated and curiously revelatory, and the more so given that they are set within a context moved by a vitality, a force of life, that makes the album by turns both startling and affecting, warm and yet deeply warped. When singling out any of these 11 tracks, you’re left with the overwhelming sense that Ratkje’s voice is gloriously possessed by the tongues of more split personalities than there are angels on the head of a pin.” (Stephen Robinson)

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