Rockable

Bit of a departure for Tribal Visions here. Just as Inner Circle seemed a bit of a dazzling change from the likes of Lime Light, Rockable is another step in a different direction. The deal is, five new tracks from Meller (Marco Scherer and DJ Mel) which also get remixed, by a varied smattering of psy and prog artists from around the globe. The result is… well, it’s a little awkward. Rockable is a clattering, not-quite-fullon stompfest that just begs to be played outdoors on a big rig. The vibe is baggy, lean-back-and-shuffle stuff, very bass chakra. About half way through it picks up a cracking low/mid riff that pans around your head nicely, a really nice touch that gives the track grounding. All that bugs me about this is the “welcome to the future” sample that’s just too overused – I say it a lot lately, but I’d pay double to hear a version without the vox. Fatboy is nondescript deep fullon, with another daft male vox. Its saving grace is a low, swelling bass and a couple of vaguely threatening noises in the middle, but it’s largely unfulfilled. The vox issue comes back with My Favourite Man, which is a great track ruined by an over-used sample. Trying to get past that, we’ve got a terrific sound going on, half prog and half fullon, with a solid “slowly waking up” sort of vibe going through it. Phase Nacht sees it all come together, mainly because these vocals are nowhere to be heard. The vibe is wonderfully strong, the progressive elements work well up against a squelchy, dubby backdrop and you’re hard pressed to stay still while this one works its magic. Aurora is your number one money shot. It’s incredibly smooth and dreamy progressive, feet floating several inches off the floor, with an effortlessly smooth feeling of love gliding along through it. Fuckin top class lads: everything about this track is simply perfect. Thinking of these five tracks as a sort of mini-album, it kinda works – it sounds like it’s the “best five from nine” on a normal album, which can only be a good thing. For the second half, they get remixed: NASA’s remix of Rockable is intensely better than the original, less reliance on the vocal and with more motion in the sounds. Rinkadink sends Fatboy boiling over the edges of taste: it becomes a bastard crossover between a demonic Daft Punk having a eurotrance moment. Skip. Tegma’s take on My Favourite Man is an improvement on the original, again with less vocal hook, and two ginormous breakdowns that fit better in a thundering killa fullon set than anywhere else (although the breaks in the second one work wonders.) Etnoscope turn Phase Nacht into a more brooding, moody little bastard of a track, with more emphasis on cyclic percussion and movement that’s clever but sort of does my head in. Finally, Vibrasphere take on Aurora and what a nice little number they’ve come up with. Perhaps not quite as emotive as the original, but a lot more subtle – just as you’d expect from the masters of their genre. All in all this is an interesting release, but not one I can see many people going back to time and time again. The progressive bar is currently a tad higher than this.