Tokyo

With Tribal Vision’s first releases, their sound was bold, beautiful, confident and refreshing. And one of the most promising artists on those early releases was this chap – Roman Rai (previously just “Rai”). The label’s release notes say that the album is “a teaser” for the future debut album, and this could be why Tokyo sounds so disparate and searching.

Things start out wonderfully with On The Skyscraper, a moody overtureish with an organic, building groove perched over stylish Orbital breaks. After that, the quality dips: Dancing In The Lights sounds like old house, but in a bad way: the sounds are lazy, the groove sluggish, and the sharpness from his earlier output is nowhere to be found. By and large, Rai’s sounds are rudimentary and this gives his music a sort of endearing childishness.

All Together and Ma Cherie are decent enough electro-pop, but given that this particular sound has been everywhere from Fabric to Burger King for the last twelve months, it’s difficult to get excited by it.

The Minimax remix of Tokyo is the best cut by far, tiny texturing noises pepper all over the top, and the cruisy, unapologetically blippy groove is just enough to make you forgive the naff sample in the middle. Also of interest is the dub of What Do You Keep Inside?, where the track breathes pure Rai goodness without Taini’s straining vocal (a separate track also included).

It all sounds rather half-baked. Which is a pity, because I wanted this to be brilliant. If anything, Tokyo is the best advertisement yet for download services such as Beatport; there are two tracks on here that DJ’s will be playing, and if they’ve forked out for the whole CD they’re going to wish they paid for the wave file instead. Missable.