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What’s the difference between the first Space Tribe album and the latest Space Tribe album? I’ll tell you: it’s the barcode. That’s a joke, of sorts anyway, but it does sort of make a point.

Space Tribe has never been one for reinvention. He has never released a Chillout album, nor has he released a tune on Tribal Vision. Essentially what you have here is the meshing of Olli’s full-mushroom-powertrance with Boris Blenn’s newfound psychedelic twist. Think a lot of melodies rising and rising some more. Think samples about LSD, The Matrix, and other chai-tent-philosopher stuff. It’s not intelligent, and it’s not from Detroit, but it’s f*ing avin’ it.

Insane Monkey is a standout, with a stretchy lead giving way to a frenzied 303 and a main run that’s as though the scene never once moved out of Goa. Total Disintegration has a darker vibe and sounds like a more sophisticated version of GMS when they were at their peak of twistiness; it’s solid stuff. Harmony From Chaos is quite sublime: seriously good goa. The lines are intricate and unforgiving, the thunk is unmistakeable and with echoes of Kraftwerk in there somewhere, it’s all set off nicely. This is the first point in the album where you’re confronted with the reality that this is a collaboration that actually works: two seasoned producers that can get together and genuinely contribute something tangible to each other’s sound.

Deep Purple Haze is something of a nightmare, with manga-spun krautrock coming at you in several directions too many, and bags of Yngwie-troubling guitarwankage. The Acid Test 2006 is a corker; well it is if, like me, you still love the original. It hasn’t been updated so much as thrust backwards in time – it’s brimming with big midrange leads and decidedly vintage goa. Inner Revolution is mellower despite its 145bpm tempo. There’s some nice discord going on, and the tilted melodies are something I wouldn’t mind hearing more of from these two boys – assuming there’s a followup, which on the strength of this there probably should be.

Finally, Computer Crash is a nice little DJ tool, escalating into a peak then a drop then it all goes wrong, with a little voice telling the crowd “oh no, the computer’s crashed.” Quite.

At a time when the scene is dominated by twentysomething cookiecut Israeli debuts all trying to be Astrix, there is something reassuring about two of the older luminaries getting together to produce something as tight and as loveable as this. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing groundbreaking here. ESP should best be viewed as a reclamation of psychedelic trance, as an updating of a classic sound, as a retreading of old classics, misty-eyed for the good days in goa. Sniff.

8

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