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With a wailing voice Tribal Globe starts with Edge Of The Earth. Monolith's second album having more of an ethnic feel than the previous Compressed Form. Edge Of Earth builds in a tight beat structure. Clean pulsing sounds reminding in some ways of Compressed Form, an album I enjoyed a lot. Upbeat and increasingly so, most likely perfect for the dance floor, if it weren't over 8 minutes long. Regardless Edge Of The Earth is one of the best tracks on Tribal Globe, followed by Dreams Of A Journey, Pulse, Matrix B and the title track Tribal Globe.

Dreams Of A Journey also starts with a vocal sample, more of a sighing easy voice. The music features bass pulses, which form a rhythm, for smooth melody, which is added. A more technoey layer is added - in itself a minimal electro - plink melody - with the already present layers it adds to the depth. Wonderfully engaging and mellow, maintaining the tribal context in an "up" manner. Moving to Pulse we have an instant beat-form, flat striking motions. Bass layers grow into this and there is a more pronounced dance feeling. Upbeat, but with a darker edge - focusing on a sensation of night vision in a rain forest. Other sounds mix through Pulse accentuating sensations and giving depth. The beats are progressively pounding and a hardness is clearly evident. Mixing in with the hard-driving tempo are fluid vocal samples, joined by some of the stick-beats to give that tribal sensation.

The first I heard Monolith was a track called Compressed Form on a compilation, the track then appeared as a different version on the album Compressed Form. A preview for Tribal Globe was the track Matrix A, which appeared on the Teknoir compilation, and appears here as Matrix B. In some ways Matrix B is fairly straight forward, reminding of a harder Compressed Form. Though, there are little swirls and sweeps of sound, which place it within the context of Tribal Globe. A solid track, mid-paced and dynamic with that. As with several of the tracks mentioned, Tribal Globe starts with a distinctive world voice sample. Like a voice in prayer, this voice wavers with the percussion exhibiting a Middle-Eastern influence. Piano like notes are thrown in as punctuation to lighten the chugging percussion layer, the voice a constant through all that

sphere, Radio Interference and Nomad are also enjoyable tracks. With Sphere starting in a slow swell of melody, a flutter of beats and we raise a notch. The pacing of Sphere is different from the body of Tribal Globe, constructing more of an atmosphere with its growth. Radio Interference is a short random snatch of world radio - tones, tunes, voices. While Nomad starts with a looping pulse, quickly expanding into a forceful and dynamic track.

The only track I am not overly convinced by is Genetic Simulation, Tribal Globe at its weakest. Monolith has moved on from Compressed Form, in the process of which he has become half of Sonar. Seemingly resulting in a greater/harder beat emphasis on this material. At times this seems at odds with what Monolith is about (to my perception), adding a duller edge in this context of pulsing scapes. This is most evident in Genetic Simulation and sums up the initial doubts I had about Tribal Globe. While the track seems decent enough it doesn't sit comfortably in place here for me.

This leaves one track uncovered - Asynchrone Counter - which starts as track 10 but loops through to 44 on the index. Each of the parts is about 7 seconds and fits into the slowly mutating loop form of Asynchrone Counter. Rumbling bass, snapping percussion, noise elements, rhythm scapes. Nice, but likely to dissolve if you were to attempt to use the random function - though I'm sure when I tried this it became part of the flow.

Monolith is Eric Van Wonterghem, probably better known in recent years for his Prodam Studios, where many albums in this genre are mastered and engineered. Van Wonterghem has also been integral in the history of Belgian cold/hard EBM, with his involvement in the likes of Absolute Body Control, The Klinik, and Insekt. With Compressed Form Van Wonterghem started his solo project Monolith in good strength - one of the best albums in the year it came out. After the release of Compressed Form he rejoined long time collaborator Dirk Ivens to record the Sonar EPs versus Muslimgauze and Cosmic Rays. Leading to Tribal Globe, an evolution from the pulse scapes of Compressed Form mixing heavily with tribal elements and a smidgen of Sonar beat influence.

RVWR: PTR
March 2000

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