Tribe is the result of an unusual collaboration between Irish singer-songwriter Luka Bloom and County Clare musician-producer Simon O’Reilly. Intrigued by O’Reilly’s instrumental album, Tidelines, Bloom visited O’Reilly’s studio where the two worked out the game plan. O’Reilly would send music to Bloom, who then wrote lyrics and vocal melodies. The two never sat and played together in the same room. Bloom did add his guitar to three tracks with O’Reilly supplying guitars, keyboards, programming and adding and subtracting guest musicians throughout. The resulting album is unlike any other in the Bloom catalog. There’s always been a meditative quality to Bloom’s finest lyrical works, however, for this effort the sound is equally trance-like. The spoken word piece “Homeless” offers a touching story to follow, but most tracks feature moody, spare verse that Bloom nearly mumbles as if not to disrupt the hypnotic web of sound and maintain the songs in a dream state. In fact, three songs are kept instrumental, as if Bloom was simply too in awe to step into the frame.