Urban Tribe

VINYL FORMAT. Not much really needs to be said about a new release on Mahogani Music, especially since it involves contributions from some of Detroit's greats, including Kenny Dixon Jr., Anthony 'Shake' Shakir, Carl Craig, and last but not least, the main man Sherard Ingram aka DJ Stingray. It's a single LP which contains twelve tracks. A couple of shorter skits, but most pretty much full tracks . . . But what about the music? Well fans of deep Detroit electronics will not be disappointed, with the various different producers all having an influence on the album's sound. A nasty mechanical beast kicks things off with a crazy female vocal hook. "Program 2" has Moodymann's vocal beatdown style over rapid 303 bass and live keys - Detroit neo-techno-soul! "Program 3" is a low-slung chugger with an emotive vocal delivery. A proper Detroit sound-bed skit takes us through into "Program 5" which has Stingray's influence written all over it - heavy on the electronics and robo-electro vibes. The B-side kicks of full of mangled electronic goodness before Programs "9" and "10" take us deep inside the wormhole with their scary cavernous textures and alien sounds. Penultimate program "11" just pulls us further and further away from Earth until we're floating in some dark bubble just outside the atmosphere. But it feels good. "Program 12" has seriously funky licks and proper lo-fi percussion for a full on Martian discotheque. All the tracks are sequenced in that Detroit / hip-hop style, working brilliantly as a full album that should be listened to from start to finish. Tracks lead into each other and take you on a proper journey through the ghetto and beyond. Sublime.