Well I am now on a Steve Roach kick.
Listening mostly to the earliest stuff, when he still sounds a lot like Tangerine Dream. And actually, I kind of like it better than TD -- shorter songs, not as much cheese. Actually, one of the best things I've heard is an epic track called "Harmonia Mundi" that was a bonus on the reissue of Empetus. 45-minutes of immaculate Berlin school patterns, and sounds like it could be the soundtrack for an entire season of Stranger Things by itself.
― Dominique, Monday, 22 May 2017 17:26 (seven years ago) link
thanks! what other early years highlights have you got?
― twink peas it is happening again (Jon not Jon), Monday, 22 May 2017 17:45 (seven years ago) link
I would say Now, Traveler and Empetus are all strong Berlin school styled records, with scattered floaty ambient that you would expect from Roach. Traveler & Empetus (with the bonus track) are particularly strong
― Dominique, Monday, 22 May 2017 17:48 (seven years ago) link
As Traveler was mentioned by Dominique there, worth noting that it's now available on Bandcamp as a name-your-price
https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/traveler
He also put up this one from 2001 as well
https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/core-legacy-edition
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 21 June 2017 14:05 (six years ago) link
So what the hell is "e-music" supposed to have been? I've been reading AMG reviews, and it keeps being mentioned. Is it music along the lines of New Age but with electronics?
Also, this was just released as pay-what-you-want, and it sounds promising: https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/eclipse-mix.
― Pataphysician, Thursday, 17 August 2017 19:49 (six years ago) link
I think it was an MP3-for-sale service?
― sleeve, Thursday, 17 August 2017 21:18 (six years ago) link
tsk get outta here
― harbinger of failure (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 17 August 2017 21:19 (six years ago) link
I meant the "genre" that is alluded to in several reviews. Because of the mp3 service, I can't really google any other references to the genre. It's used in a lot of reviews on AMG by Jim Brenholts, e.g.,
"This CD is destined to be a classic. It will appeal to all e-music fans."
"There have been some dynamic collaborations in the e-music community."
"Stalker, by Robert Rich and B. Lustmord, is one of the darkest e-music CDs ever."
Also, I need to put a plug in for a Steve Roach album that isn't mentioned above: Spiral Revelation from 2016. Back to more Berlin-style synths sort of. Not nearly as frenetic as his earlier stuff in that vein. Much more akin to the recent albums by Steve Hauschildt, but naturally much more atmospheric than Hauschildt. Really good stuff!
― Pataphysician, Friday, 18 August 2017 17:39 (six years ago) link
I believe it's just an abbreviation of "electronic music", but favoured in the late 80s/90s by artists working in that field of spacey, ambient, Berlin-school, trad electronica (when "synth music" was a genre, rather than a description of most things). You'd hear it used all the time on the Jean Michel Jarre email discussion list I was on in the 90s, which probably puts it in context.
― bamboohouses, Monday, 21 August 2017 09:26 (six years ago) link
Thanks!
― Pataphysician, Monday, 21 August 2017 12:28 (six years ago) link
Playing three nights in a row in Tucson starting tonight, live stream via soma.fm, and he's about to start for tonight, so listen in
https://somafm.com/live/
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 10 February 2018 03:03 (six years ago) link
Laying back quite a bit on the front half of this set. It's definitely a space track so far.
― earlnash, Saturday, 10 February 2018 03:30 (six years ago) link
90 minutes inn...'oh yes, there are the drums'....
― earlnash, Saturday, 10 February 2018 03:47 (six years ago) link
Dreamtime Return reissued:
https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/dreamtime-return-2018-high-resolution-remaster
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 9 March 2018 06:21 (six years ago) link
There's an expanded version of Dreamtime Returns on the way apparently, with new tracks in the same style (as with the deluxe version of Structures From Silence a few years back). Plus a vinyl reissue too.
― bamboohouses, Friday, 9 March 2018 09:40 (six years ago) link
i recently found 2cd edition of 'quiet music' in a charity shop for £1.that was a very good day.had only heard the deep rich sonics of 'ritual ground'by steve roach and elmar schulte before.
― mark e, Friday, 9 March 2018 11:35 (six years ago) link
I just discovered the album "Invisible", one of his long drone tracks. It stands out because it has some interesting percussion and textures that other works of his like this lack. Similar to that is the last track on "World's Edge". Both are worth checking out!
― Pataphysician, Monday, 26 March 2018 03:57 (six years ago) link
A fun bit of history
Steve Roach found the mock up of the Structures From Silence cover. This was the first cassette edition he self-released. Quickly it found its way to Stephen Hill @drSpace Hearts of Space @hearts_of_space and then to Ethan Edgecomb at Fortuna Records and the rest is history. pic.twitter.com/QKTIgfNKLR— Projekt Records (@ProjektRecords) April 9, 2018
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 April 2018 19:05 (six years ago) link
i put his new one on while i was writing something and there's almost too much going on for it to function as writing music lol
it's really great too i think https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/molecules-of-motion
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Tuesday, 31 July 2018 20:33 (five years ago) link
i get very overwhelmed by his discography so i've just been going through chronologically lately. structures from silence is incredible, all the 80s stuff is imo
― marcos, Tuesday, 31 July 2018 20:53 (five years ago) link
Skeleton Keys, one of his modular records, is available for free with name-your-price today for Halloween:
http://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/skeleton-keys-name-your-price?from=fanpub_nfnb_merch
― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 1 November 2018 01:40 (five years ago) link
reallly loving mercurius today https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/mercurius
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 16:03 (five years ago) link
So many good releases this year, and now this news!https://steveroachexclusive.bandcamp.com/subscribe
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 31 December 2019 15:36 (four years ago) link
So excited about this. Subscribed!
― bamboohouses, Wednesday, 1 January 2020 17:05 (four years ago) link
All three of these initial ones in the service are really quite good, even (or especially) for two of them being outtakes or early/alternate versions of later albums.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 1 January 2020 17:43 (four years ago) link
a timely revive. one of his tracks is on the Cherry Red box set Third Noise Principle, which I was listening to last week, looks like it's from the Traveler LP, and was one of the tracks that stood out to me so I was going to look into his other stuff. although I think I did initially confuse him with Steve Reich like the first response here
― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 1 January 2020 18:27 (four years ago) link
I kinda wonder what the electric bill is at the Timeroom, as it seems the soundworld never stops there? I kinda want to hope he has some type of scifi artisanal solar/geothermal setup getting the 'electricity' from the source Gaia. In this I picture Steve having rolling sequences going all the time in the timeroom and just wandering through while doing laundry, folding towels and every so often going over and twisting a knob or dropping a lever changing the gurgling mood.
― earlnash, Wednesday, 1 January 2020 23:03 (four years ago) link
Out of the dozens of releases on Spotify with "tacked to the wall of the coffeeshop" level naming/artwork, picked out "Etheric Imprints" to listen to and it is awesome.
― lukas, Friday, 10 January 2020 00:42 (four years ago) link
Wisdom.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 10 January 2020 00:44 (four years ago) link
Anyone heard his latest, A Soul Ascends?
― pomenitul, Friday, 17 July 2020 23:32 (three years ago) link
I have! It is of course lovely, though I'll need a second listen to lock into what makes it distinctive (which just about all his albums have as a matter of course -- there's always a particular angle or theme he concentrates on release for release).
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 17 July 2020 23:36 (three years ago) link
Just listened to it now, it is indeed lovely. I'm perfectly fine with him plying his subliminal trade ad infinitum.
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 21 July 2020 23:52 (three years ago) link
Yeah I posted "abundance mindset" in the Patricia Taxxon thread, and I meant it, and it applies here too - artificial scarcity is a tactic of capitalism.
― lukas, Wednesday, 22 July 2020 01:47 (three years ago) link
His latest released yesterday via the subscription service, Immerse is way, way immersive even for him. (Wonderful of course.). I had some thoughts:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/covid-coping-1-39885119
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 30 July 2020 15:51 (three years ago) link
His new one, Tomorrow, finds him in warm, glowing sequencer mode. It's really making my Friday morninghttps://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/tomorrow
― J. Sam, Friday, 23 October 2020 13:59 (three years ago) link
slaying on livestream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePCsPMjFVJo&feature=youtu.be
― lukas, Sunday, 25 October 2020 03:39 (three years ago) link
https://youtu.be/ePCsPMjFVJo
― lukas, Sunday, 25 October 2020 03:40 (three years ago) link
track he just played from the new album Tomorrow is sick, and the cover art for the new one is his first good cover art since Structures From Silence imo
― lukas, Sunday, 25 October 2020 03:45 (three years ago) link
Yeah it's a lovely album and I admit I did a double-take at the cover, just because I thought it might have been some lost 80s reissue. Who knew! Had to miss the livestream but he's going to be putting it on his Bandcamp soon so all good.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 25 October 2020 15:35 (three years ago) link
immediately bought tomorrow on the strength of the first track, wow
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Sunday, 25 October 2020 16:42 (three years ago) link
the livestreams are so, so good
― thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel), Sunday, 25 October 2020 16:58 (three years ago) link
he's just the best
― trapped out the barndo (crüt), Sunday, 25 October 2020 19:00 (three years ago) link
"elegant futurism," indeed! I always have time for Steve Roach but he sounds reinvigorated here. Absolutely buying this one. I usually buy his albums on CD, which seems a better format for this music, but I'll admit to being tempted by the vinyl edition this time.
― Paul Ponzi, Monday, 26 October 2020 14:57 (three years ago) link
have to get up and flip the record is antithetical to my notion of listening to Steve Roach
― thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel), Monday, 26 October 2020 14:59 (three years ago) link
they practically invented the five-disc changer in anticipation of his Blood Moon Rising set.
― thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel), Monday, 26 October 2020 15:00 (three years ago) link
Inclined to agree. Just pre-ordered the CD
this album is great. "HeartBreath" is just perfect
― Paul Ponzi, Monday, 26 October 2020 15:06 (three years ago) link
Trance Archaeology was pretty solid as well, in the same vein
― thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel), Monday, 26 October 2020 15:09 (three years ago) link
Put on some Steve Roach to sooth the election brain, and wow 'Tomorrow' is dope. It avoids the signature things I associate with a lot of his music (shapeless pads, quiet plodding drums) and sounds much fresher for it.
― change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, 4 November 2020 19:08 (three years ago) link
ordered the vinyl, shipping January 11 ;_;
― lukas, Wednesday, 4 November 2020 20:05 (three years ago) link
and even though i ordered it from Bandcamp, I have to wait for the download card insert, so my options are Spotify / pirate / nothing in the interim ;_;
― lukas, Wednesday, 4 November 2020 20:06 (three years ago) link