Tribal Maker – Tribal Records

A bit tricky this one: for a start, the promo copy that reached its way here only contains about 4’30 of each track, so talking about the whole flow of the music becomes a bit of a challenge… but anyway, hey I’m a professional so let’s see what I can do. Z-Machine’s Try 2 Fly is a quirky one, with a sort of shuffled groove that stutters in and out of fullon 4-4,and has some interesting noises across the top. Zion & Insert-Silence’s Nano Tech is definitely interesting, with more of these electro-ey stabs and touches that are all over the place at the moment. It heads recklessly into a massive breakdown, including what sounds like a sample saying “killaa!!” then it’s off into the sunset with a very intense, lysergic mashup. TUL’s Peperoni Machine has a nice metallic, edgy feel to it, with nice playful melodies coming in around the top but… it’s difficult to tell whether it goes anywhere, not being able to hear the whole thing, as pretty much every point on this 4’28 sample sounds just like the last. Hujaboy is definitely on form at the moment, and The Real U is awash with his trademark production tricks and twists. It’s a hefty, edgy one alright, with a massive meccha-megaman breakdown that’s sure to do the business on the dancefloors. Black & White’s Electricity further puts these guys on the map as some of the tastiest producers working in 2005, it’s a manic and busy piece of thunder this one, with a monster of a breakdown giving way to a sturdy groove. Hope to see these guys live at some point this summer! Goblin’s Bad Trip will definitely have a lot of dancefloor appeal, it’s made by its distinctive barking 303 reminiscent of “proper job” acid techno, or ancient Green Nuns stuff. E-Jekt’s Good Old Days straddles between fullon and scary-dark-stuff, and has a mammoth breakdown that has to be heard to be believed, and an intense mad drop to go with it – utterly class, and this is without hearing the whole track! ESP’s Shtakumblator continues in the maniac-manic-brainyhack vein, going pretty crazy then dropping to a shuffled groove for a deliriously squelchy midsection, before going kaleidoscopic and… well, again, I don’t know what happens next, but I imagine it’s good. Finally Nitro and Dima close the album with Shua, which is the only one here to really sound like normal, characteristic fullon music – still adequate of course, but lacking in the pace and impact of the other tunes here. So, if this is as good as I think it might be, and it might be, then it’s looking like a very very good compilation – definitely worth a poke if you want to add some gnarly individuality into your sets.