12 Girls Band
2005 Journey to Silk Road Concert Live
(EMI Classics)
Without being overly cynical about this ensemble, the whole point of 12 Girls Band (there are actually 13 of them) has little to do with music and everything to do with marketing and packaging. Their mission is to make Chinese instrumental music look sexy.
The key word here is, of course, 'look', not sound. So when you strip away the mesmerising visuals - a bevy of young female musicians in cheongsams moving their bodies dreamily and sexily to the rhythm - as does this double CD, what's left is something that you might want to pop into the machine while, say, surfing the internet - on low volume.
The band's latest offering, 2005 Journey to Silk Road Concert Live - 3rd Anniversary Deluxe Edition, celebrates their third year in showbiz.