Songs are best when they make you feel something. A good album can be played over and over and that riff that made you grin the first time you heard it still sounds good. Keep these in mind when you listen to Light Tribe. By the time you listened to it the third time you’ll have ‘You+Me’ and Lord Inside catching up with you when you lest expect them to. Easy to remember, the hooks have a kind of urgency that makes you pay attention right away. The album has an overall up beat mood.

Now if you’re a rocker, you know who Randolph is. So like you I expect some guitar playing. And you get some serious guitar playing. Only this time around it’s a smoother lush guitar tone and a more simple approach to chord work. The guitars constantly hold their reserve giving the singing all the room it needs, particularly in ‘Her Story’.  This song is also a great example of their simple lyric writing. “There’s a story behind her solemn face, though years tend to hide such brilliance. An epic is hiding in her smile… inspiring is her resilience”. It sits really well with the guitar line and the tone. This song really shows just how strong and comfortable Shaa’ir+Func are with melody.

Another song that starts in and maintains this beautiful easy vibe is ‘Together Again’ (lavender night). This is a really interesting song it starts with an easy acoustic guitar, playing these dreamy chords and then breaks out into a down and dirty electric thump machine! A killer chord progression hold the intense vibe of the lyrics in place and Monica’s voice add all the edge and expression to make it one of my favorite songs on the album. This is also the one song on the album with a killer guitar solo.

Lord Inside. Beautiful song, great hook line. The drums and bass line in this song are really killer. “We all have a god inside…we all have a god inside…..”  It’s the kind of song that makes you smile. Simple and well recorded the vocals are layered to give it a nice chant like feel. An electronic new age prayer.       

‘You + me’ starts off intense and stays that way to the end. The song has a great pace but tends to lose your attention after a while.    ‘Embrace’ starts with a bass drum beating like a heart, breaks out into a great melody and one of my favorite lyrics on this album. It’s a song about taking charge of your life…killer riff. Has a great electronic rock and roll ending! Nice touch.

‘Freedom’ runs along the same lines of ‘Embrace’. Actually both these songs tend to sum up, according to me, the whole thought behind the album. An urgency for change and an awareness of the limitless potential of time well used. “We are like the tide, lapping on silent wars and psychic assault. Our weapon is sound… Our weapons are loud.”  ‘Freedom’ has an awesome intro.

‘Do it again’ and ‘Who Says?’ score on lyrics.  Nice grooves.  Lyrically both these songs for break away from the more philosophical approach of the rest and become more a personal. ‘Pull myself together’ could have used a better set or rather a longer set of lyrics. The melody is good though. ‘All my colors’ has a good sound overall. But nothing special lyrically. In fact it’s a little disconnected from the theme of the record.

‘Across the Universe’ is one of the best examples of that “urgency in their sound” I was talking about. The guitar sounds killer and adds this nice tension that gives the groove an edgy pace. Shaa’ir + Func have an interesting way of transforming simple song ideas into good electronic music. At its core “Across the universe’ is a simple love song.  That’s what’s so good about their writing. The music although heavily electronic still is harmonically beautiful. It’s not just about the groove, each song is well thought of in terms of instrumentation. Nothing seems out of place or contrived.

If anything goes to support that statement I just made about their song writing skills, ‘Place of fascination’ would do the job.  Its melody and the way the vocals have been recorded and processed go to make another wise simple song sound fresh and new. The guitar riff is clean simple and straight rock ballad type. But the other sounds supporting it make it sound dreamy and ambient. 

‘Hard to forget’ has a great melody nice groove but again a little off from the idea that seems to underline the Album. ‘Selling our souls’ reminded me of a Billy Idol song. That straight-out down beat going 1-2-3-4….nice energy. This song again has that simple idea presented in new light. The whole  …‘“sell our souls to rock and roll….”

‘Dummy’ is a straight out electronic song. Effects and a groove.  ‘Ready for my wings’ is a perfect way to close the album. The song is laid back and easy to listen to with simple lyrics that leave a peaceful feeling at the end of the album. 

So, what you get at the end is twenty songs that are well written and produced. There is a strong energy in the music that keeps you listening to the album start to finish. For those of you who are not really open to electronic music, this album is worth a listen to for its message and ideas, production values. The feel and direction of the writing is sensible and end result definitely shatters the myth that- electronic music is just loops put together, it’s noisy. Vocal quality and melodies are superb across all songs. It would have been excellent though, to hear heavier guitar driven songs on this album, considering Randolph’s reputation as a guitar player.  All-in-all a good record from a band that is as much fun to watch live as they are good to hear on a record! Great energy.  

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Aviv Pereira is a musician from Mumbai. He is the lead guitarist of Split--that now has a fan following across cities ! Apart from that, Aviv is now working on his solo career and also looking forward to launching his bands album, 'Pig Society'. His favourite artists include Pink Floyd, Eric Johnson, Eric Clapton, Al Di Meola, Steve Vai etc. Aviv is also a fabulous writer and has worked with the Times Of India in the past as sub-editor. He stopped writing a while back due to other committments, but plans on reviving it right about, now!