Reviewed by Tony Cummings

The road to get this available in the shops has been a long and tortuous one. First, two geniuses from Manchester, Mark Pennells and Zarc Porter, recorded these tracks as the backbone to an ongoing outreach to Manchester schools kids using house, rap and rave as the musical point of connection. The Worldwide Message Tribe, as they are called, recorded these numbers in Zarc's Perfect Music Studios and a review tape was sent, almost as an afterthought, to Cross Rhythms CR's Cummings and Allison went ga-ga about the privately produced tape, then known as 'Take A Long Hike' (With The Chosen Few)', waxed lyrical about its uncanny ability to make the dead dance and did everything they could to alert CR readers to the fact that in Manchester at least the church had indeed woken up to Today's rhythms. American producer/remixer Scott Blackwall, who has pioneered America's burgeoning sanctified dance scene, being an avid Cross Rhythms reader, contacted the Tribe asking them to send him a copy; saw its potential and offered the band a deal with his new N-Soul Records in California. Some tracks were remixed by Zarc and the album, now called 'The Worldwide Message Tribe' was released to critical acclaim in the States. British executive Ian Hamilton, hearing the buzz about Blackwall and N-Soul, went to the States and signed the label, and this release, to his new Alliance Music company for release in the UK. And so here, at long last, is a dancing delight available at a Christian bookstore or maybe even a record shop near you. It's been worth the wait. Amazing galloping rhythms, witty inventiveness (The classical 'The Queen Of Persia' sounds great as a dance track), straight-for-jugular-lyrics ('What Do We Want'?.REVIVAL!') make this a BRILLIANT, Spirit filling dance album. We hope that in future other young pioneers from Britain's grassroots won't to have to wait so long for Britain's sleepy CCM industry to wake up.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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