They are part of the crossover between the rave scene and the "crusty" subculture (sqaut dwelling nouveau hippies, anarcho-punks, and slackers who got the name "crusty" from their matted dreadlocks and hobo garb.)

Hoping to interview the Tribe, I find myself in a dilapidated squat in northeast London. Ten Years ago a sqaut party would have been dub reggae or hippie rock, but tonight it's thick techno-voodoo rhythm's. Downstairs assorted figures huddle, rolling joints or snorting ketamine, a brain deadening anaesthetic that is suddenly back in favour. Currently slang terms for the drug are "baby food" (users sink into a blissful inertia) and "God" (some are convinced they have met their maker). The Tribe's spokesman is Mark, who expounds their anarcho-mystical creed
with the gleam of a prophet in his eyes. "We keep everything illegal because it's only outside the law that there is any real life to be had. Last summer we did a party that went on for fourteen days. It's a myth that you need to sleep. Stay awake and you discover the real edges of reality.   You stop believing all the false reality that was hammered into you from birth." 

In the week I've been chasing them for an interview, Spiral Tribe have been lying low. After a rave in rural Wiltshire, thirty-four members were arrested, their vehicles trashed by the cops and their phone-line they use to publicize their events cut off. However the Tribe are gearing up to launch a non-stop conflagration of illegal raves, and most likely more altercations with the police. Kicking it off will be SOUND SYSTEM CITY on June 21, a massive rave near Stonehenge - traditionally the summer celebration place for hippies and pagan worshippers until police placed a 4 mile exclusion zone around it a few years ago. Like a lot of  Apocalyptic sects, Spiral Tribe combine paranoid conspiracy theories with fantasies of returning to a lost golden age. They call their philosophy "terra-technic" and hope to use technology to unleash the primordial power of the earth. "Like music from non-western cultures, techno's based on harmony and rhythm, not melody," says Seb, one Tribalist, "We're not trying to get into the future. We're trying to get back to where we were before western civilization fucked it all up." Detail Magazine July 1992

Quote:

‘As the day progressed, the busier it became and the beats hardened up. The night returned and out came the fire eaters and jugglers. Whistles, horns and shouts from the overwhelming crowd could be heard echoing out over the moors, merging into the musical mayhem of hectic rhythms and wailing synths coming from the Spiral sound system. From that day forward I was hooked’ 

Aztec (Spiral Tribe DJ) on Camelford free festival.

Interview with Spiral Tribe part 1