With the risk of sounding like a person who woke up on the wrong side, but the first thought that ran through my head when I read about this library was ... “tribal – what is that supposed to mean?”. In the evolving post-rave scene in the nineties – sure. But today, I'm sort of clueless. With the risk of sounding like Rama Kandra in Matrix Revolutions – it all boils down to what the word implies for its makers.

In my book, if I would set out to release a sample pack with “Tribal” and “Tech” in the title, you would do right to expect something very synthetic. Something that would be based on the original tribal techno scene but from a modern perspective. I would go deep down with Reaktor and wreak havoc with any kind of synthesized toms and congas. I could squeeze any old drum machine or modular synthesizer I could get hold of. Then I would compress the hell out of it with Sonalksis TBK 3, spice it up with Ohmicide, burn the hard drive, mince it to pieces with a grinder and use whatever unfortunate data that is left.

But that's me.

The approach of Push Button Bang is (fortunately) more traditional, and with traditional I mean material that you normally associate with normal percussion elements: real congas, bongos, shakers, whistles and cowbells have been recorded and then programmed into modern percussion loops.

I'm not saying either is better than the other. I'm just saying that titles can be misleading. Let's get down to the numbers.

Wav loops: 330 (331 megabyte)
Rex loops: 303 (189 megabyte)
Total number of files: 633

Tempo: 128 bpm.

Total size: 520 megabyte

That Tribal Tech have its roots in traditional percussion elements doesn't mean that the library consists of 300+ uptempo 'put your hands in the air' loops. Oh, there are a bunch of them, and they do make you want to clap your hands shake your booty and all – but there is a wider selection of material on offer here. For example are there some quite minimalistic percussion loops that would make Creamer & K feel right at home. Moody, dark and sometimes even disturbing.

By the very nature of percussion loops there these loops are kick-less, and browsing through them without a kick is a total no-no. These loops come to life when there is something for the loops to relate to. If you don't, the loops can sound boring or downright feeble. For people who are genuinely stuck with the classic four-four kick – Tribal Tech is almost like a godsend. It transforms any monotone kick into something way more interesting. When using a clean hard quantized kick you also realize how much off-beat the rhythms actually are. Swing have been used extensively.

Cut away some bass up to 200-300 hertz, maybe add a touch of reverb and you'll have a solid groove going.

On the low side of the library is the organization of the actual loops which makes little sense. What kind of sounds would you expect to find in a folder called 'Baked shakes'? Shakers. Ok. That one was easy. But 'Bounce grooves'? Uptempo. 'Future percussion'? Hm. 'Klacks and scrapes'? Eh. 'Multi drummer'? 'Tribal Schnaps'? Oh well.
But in all honesty I'm not judging them too hard. I am aware of how devilishly difficult it is to give descriptive names to material that lives in the grey zone between well-defined and explored styles. Maybe it would be a better approach to sort sounds like this after the mood and the feeling of the loop.

Conclusion
Tribal Tech is a very useful library of percussion loops if you want to move away from static hihat loops and move into the territory of uptempo swing or minimalistic darkness. From this perspective Tribal Tech is a pack that is instantly gratifying. Many of the loops are inspiring and can most of the time render a bourgeois-boring 4/4 kick into something interesting. I don't miss any mad scientist experimental processing. What Tribal Tech does, it does well – except in one area. I totally miss variations of themes. The biggest problem with using loops is that they are either on or off. Now the loops here are usually not packed with sounds so creating your own variations aren't too difficult. But I still would have appreciated a few variations either on the theme and/or with some of the sounds muted.

Push Button Bang Tribal Tech
Web: www.loopmasters.com
Price: 20 UK Pounds.
Good: Many inspirational percussion loops, very good price.
Bad: A few more variations wouldn't have hurt.

Review copy: thanks to Loopmasters for NFR review copy.