jack's soul & rock corner

ROBBI ROBB SPECIAL


Tribe After Tribe
Pearls Before Swine (1997)
224

For those five or ten of you on the planet who know about Robbie Robb, you can skip this and just buy the CD. Its his best yet under the Tribe moniker. For the rest of you, this album stands as an excellent introduction to the African-influenced tribal rhythms and powerful lyrical themes of Tribe After Tribe - its also unfortunately the only one of his albums still in print other than Three Fish. While choosing to express a folkier side of himself on the Three Fish albums, this one comes out like a pulsing cannon blast on "Boy", with powerful guitars and effective electronic touches soaring over the pounding tribal base. "Senor", as Robb affirms in the liner notes, is a bit too close to some moments on Pink Floyd's _Animals_ for comfort, but it has some surprisingly elegant acoustic guitar work from Robb that is ultimately winning. "Fire Dancers" and "Hopeless The Clown" also rock hard, while "Murder on the Lee Shore" is a rich, eerie textural exploration. Helping the cause is the fact that Robb has surrounded himself here with a dream-list of bass rhythm machines, including Doug Pinnick (King's X), Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam) and Joey Vera (Fates Warning, Armored Saint). They surf the astounding percussion gracefully. The only dubious choices made here are 1) Robb's insistence on providing explanations for the songs, instead of lyrics - I guess i'd rather have the lyric; 2) my copy's production notes page uses nearly unreadable fonts on the interior, which makes it frustrating to try and track down who's playing what.

1. Boy
2. Lazarus
3. Senor
4. Fire Dancers
5. Murder On The Lee Shore
6. Ballad Of Winnie
7. Bury Me
8. Pat On The Back
9. Hopeless The Clown
10. I Am Your Heart
11. Uh-Oh


Three Fish
S/T
224

Jeff Ament's fretless bass work is overlooked in Pearl Jam's smooth sound. Here he gets to show off some more with some beautiful songs, complemented well by Stuverud's drumming and over which Robb's scratchy, nasal voice works better than i'd've expected. "Laced" is probably my favorite track. "Build" is a departure from the other tracks, with a stomping racket setting the stage for electronically modified guitar sounds.

1. Solitude
2. Song For A Dead Girl
3. Silence At The Bottom
4. The Intelligent Fish
5. Zagreb
6. All Messed Up
7. Here In The Darkness
8. The Half Intelligent Fish
9. Strangers In My Head
10. A Lovely Meander
11. Build
12. Stupid Fish
13. Secret Place
14. Elusive Ones
15. Laced

links in comments