|
TRANSIT TRIBE - NEW ALBUM OUT on VINYL w/ CD and DL!
Reviews:
#2 in Top 10 Rewind 2024 Dub & Reggae Charts
Steve Barker, The Wire Magazine (UK)
"If the Anthropocene had a dancefloor, "Transit Tribe" might just be its soundtrack - a richly textured, sonically kaleidoscopic journey where dub aesthetics meet global grooves and Alpine echoes. Ulrich Troyer, Vienna’s polymath of sound, delivers an album that feels like a musical passport, stamped with the traditions and innovations of collaborators from Burkina Faso to Tokyo, South Tyrol to Istanbul. [...] If you’ve ever wondered what the Alps might sound like if they danced to a dub rhythm or how a saz and a zither might harmonize over analog synths, "Transit Tribe" is a possible answer. It’s an album that dares to imagine a sonic utopia - and almost convinces us it exists."
Vito Camarretta, Chain D.L.K. (US/IT)
“Une réussite éclatante qui confirme l’autrichien comme l’une des voix les plus audacieuses et visionnaires de la scène dub contemporaine. Écouter Transit Tribe, c’est accepter de se perdre dans un labyrinthe d’échos, de rythmes et de mélodies. Un labyrinthe où l’on aimerait ne jamais trouver la sortie.”
Olivier Lehoux, Solénopole (FR)
★★★★ 4 stars MOJO review: “Top drawer future dub explorations from Viennese avant-garde-electronicist / DJ Troyer. A collab-heavy set, with British poet Roger Robinson emoting over undulating bass synths (Lago di Garda) and balafon master Mamadou Diabaté providing melodic bounce to Latzfonser Kreuz.”
Simon McEwen, MOJO Magazine (UK)
“UN PONTE PER L'EUROPA.”
Roberto Mandolini, Rockerilla Magazine (IT)
“Transit Tribe stands as a testament to Troyer's artistry and the collaborative spirit of modern music, evoking the essence of African Head Charge and other pioneering dub influences.”
Juno (UK)
And last but not least: TRANSIT TRIBE - EXTENDED VERSION on CASSETTE TAPE!
Ulrich Troyer has been producing music now solidly for over twenty years within a largely genre free framework, but whilst navigating forms such as avant-garde, techno, leftfield, field recording, electronica, glitch and ambient it is the aesthetics of dub that guide his creative direction. Not really recognisable in an orthodox form as remixed versions of roots reggae songs but in the way sonics are manipulated with space, the application and layering of delay, reverb and echo that fixes his output well within the scope of what might be called futurist dub.
The nearest comparisons to his new album TRANSIT TRIBE can only be established by a synthesis of some of the more adventurous explorations in modern music such as African Head Charge, Jon Hassell, Pole (Stefan Betke), Bill Laswell or even Miles Davis; featuring a diverse selection of artists and friends not only from Vienna and environs but also from around the world, sounds are not so much fused but allowed to float along the continuous flowing tide of warm waves of bass.
Rather than to allow the names of Ulrich Troyer’s collaborators be merely listed in the album credits, what they bring to this joyful affair needs to be outlined, albeit briefly: Co-producer credits go to Osman Murat Ertel from Istanbul, who employed a variation on the old foolproof Nick Lowe method for checking out the impact quality of his own sound productions by playing tracks through his car sound system speakers!
Murat is a member of the electro-psych-folk group Baba Zula where he plays electric saz, oscillators and theremin and played a key part in the creative development of the album. Mamadou Diabate, the balafon master originally from Burkina Faso and now resident in Vienna, has developed his own unique technique of playing solos that replicate the sound of three instruments playing in unison; however the multi-talented Mamadou is engaged here on singing and playing the talking drum. From South Tyrol Reinhilde Gamper is a member of the experimental trio Greifer who are bringing the sound of the zither into the twenty-first century using new playing techniques and electronic gadgets. Susanna Gartmayer is an Austrian composer and bass clarinetist specialising in improv and multimedia sound research. Diggory Kenrick has been engaged with creating new dub fusions and also re-energising classic rocksteady and roots reggae classics, renowned for his interventions on flute. Didi Kern is an electronic dance musician and drummer from Vienna with a focus on free improvised music. Hamidou Koita, a singer and multi-instrumentalist, is from a traditional Griot family in Burkina Faso but now resident in Vienna and a regular musical partner of Mamadou Diabate playing drums and calabash. Austrian Lukas Lauermann is both a studio and live musician playing cello, also working on electronic sound design and writing string arrangements. He has recorded extensively and appeared on stage with both Mark Lanegan and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Martin Mallaun is a Tyrol-born specialist in both the development of the zither in modern music and also as a researcher in the effects of climate change on the vegetation of Alpine ecosystems. Mystica Tribe is the musical alias of Tokyo-based dub/techno producer Taka (Takafumi) Noda. He collaborated with Vienna’s own Vegetable Orchestra on 2020’s „Transplants (Mystica Tribe Version)“. After studying classical percussion Flip Philipp is now a jazz vibraphone player and member of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Wolfgang Pfistermüller is a member of the Vienna Trombone Quartet and the developer of the incredible bass-trombone Aurora with its uniquely warm and resonant sound. Roger Robinson is a renowned British poet, winner of many contemporary poetry prizes and member of the experimental music group King Midas Sound. Kwame Yeboah is a Ghanaian born UK based keyboard wizard who tours regularly with Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Ms. Dynamite and Pat Thomas.
So contained on the album is an astonishing mix of musicians and instruments: sounds of cowbells recorded in the South Tyrolean alps processed by modular synthesizers and heavy analogue bass synths combined with instruments such as zither, bass-zither, electro saz, flute, talking drum, trombone, cello, vibraphone, marimba, djembe, contra-alto clarinet, melodica, Farfisa - all bound together by organic live-drums and dub effects.
Liner notes by Steve Barker
(DJ, Radio Presenter - On the Wire, BBC 1984 – 2023, now Slack City Radio & reggae/dub columnist and contributor to The Wire)
4Bit Productions is on Bandcamp.
Follow & be the first to hear the new music:
|
|
