Destination Unknown

We

lamented in 2006 that Vibe Tribe’s last album Wise Cracks “takes all of one

minute and fifty seconds before we are submitted to a nasty chord change.”

The

sum total of their sonic evolution is encapsulated by the fact that three years

later, their new album takes all of one minute and forty seven seconds before

we are submitted to a nasty chord change. Quelle sodding domage.

Psyreviews’

chief gripe about Wise Cracks was that it was essentially bubblegum rave,

packaged up in bright colours to be only marginally less disposable than a

Chupa Chup.

Nothing

much has changed. You could have frozen yourself cryogenically in 2006

immediately after listening to Wise Cracks, then thawed yourself out today listening

to Destination Unknown, swear you’d only been under for half an hour.

It’s

difficult to hate this music, and therefore I can’t say it’s bad. One can

easily imagine wide-eyed young ‘uns grinning and glowsticking and loving it,

and who can begrudge them that.

It

would be easier to slate it if Vibe Tribe positioned themselves as some sort of

bona fide psychedelic entity. It’s clear they’re making some sort of rave /

hard candy / uplifting house hybrid, and they follow a formula that works.

It’s

disposable, puerile, juvenile and largely soulless. But as disposable, puerile,

juvenile and largely soulless music goes, it’s fantastic.