Wading into the worship mix, with a sound all its own, is Australia's Rivertribe. The band's Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble is an 11-song CD that ditches the lyrics of such popular worship songs as I Could Sing of Your Love Forever and Open the Eyes of My Heart in favor of didgeridoo, Native American flutes and Uilleann pipes, to name a few of the instruments heard on Tremble.
The concept is a good one: fresh instrumental spins on familiar tunes, with an unusually mellow ambiance. But the album's effectiveness is questionable. The peaceful arrangements are more soporific than praise-inducing, providing nice background music but not much with which to engage. Without the participatory aspects of a church service or sing-along choruses, the dreadful repetitiveness of most praise songs, including those on Tremble, is only magnified.
But the more holistic, open-ended sound of the several Rivertribe originals on Tremble allow room for reflection and imagination.
If your theology frowns upon such practices, steer clear of Tremble, which bears a closer resemblance to the recordings on the Windham Hill label than to those on Maranatha! Music or other praise-centric labels. Tremble will only give you the shivers. But those of you looking for a fresh worship sound just might find Rivertribe appealing.
Rivertribe's label, inpop, deserves credit for adding a standout recording to the plethora of worship CDs currently flooding the market. Whether those intentions have resulted in a CD that's worth 18-or-so of your hard-earned dollars is a question only you can answer.
