Steve Roach -- the endlessly meditative thread

Roach contains multitudes! Ned's piece made me curious about Dust To Dust, with Roger King. I own about 15 Steve Roach albums and I'd estimate that I've heard about double that number, but I've never heard him do anything like this, parts of which sound like what The Hired Hand soundtrack might have sounded like if it was released by Kranky in the 90s, or if Labradford had taken their ambient spaghetti western-isms to their logical conclusion. OK, some of it is that good, some of it isn't, but it's still a side of Roach I've never heard (harmonicas!) and I'm really enjoying it.

It's a treat, and holds a special place for me since it's the first thing I ever heard from Roach that I can recall. He told me himself that it was a bit of a unique one-off!

I'm hot and cold with Roach, with my favorite period being the 1998-1994 tribal ambient of Dreamtime Return, Origins, Artifacts and the collaborations with Robert Rich and Jorge Reyes (who got there first). However Dust to Dust is off his map, and I file it with Ry Cooder soundtracks, A Small Good Thing, Long Desert Cowboy, and similar artists, rather than Roach proper.

Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces weirdly not on the Bandcamp but I consider that one indispensible

yeah that one's my fav

That's one of the ones over on Projekt's site:

https://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mystic-chords-sacred-spaces-complete-edition

And agreed, it's stellar.

Holy crap, I hadn't run across Dust To Dust before!

Ha, really? Yeah if any album is absolutely you, it's that one.

Currently enjoying Dust to Dust very much. Great interview, too.

I want a recommendation engine for 'wide open desert' music - stuff like Dust to Dust, the Hired Hand soundtrack, any Scott Tuma, Eyvind Kang's Live Low to the Ground...

Thank ya!

I want a recommendation engine for 'wide open desert' music - stuff like Dust to Dust, the Hired Hand soundtrack, any Scott Tuma, Eyvind Kang's Live Low to the Ground...

― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Saturday, March 18, 2017 3:39 PM (nineteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Those last three are the biggies, imo, assuming you probably already know the Paris, Texas soundtrack. Do you know a band called Padang Food Tigers? They definitely hit on this vibe quite a bit, despite being about as far from the desert landscape as you can get (UK, iirc). Also, there are a lot of people working this angle from a dronier / noisier angle, like pedal steel guitarist Chas Smith (not to be confused with drummer Ches Smith), William Fowler Collins, and probably a few others.

There are probably people who can direct you to the "right" Calexico records, too (there are instrumental albums that definitely touch on this style) but I'm not really well-versed enough to say

Yes - love the Food Tigers! And, aye, definitely uk based. Paris, Texas is all-time. I'd forgotten Chas Smith. Santa Fe is a hell of a thing. Will check William Fowler Collins, for sure. Cheers.

Calexico pals Friends of Dean Martinez, their discography is all wide open sounds, the album "Atardecer" is my personal favorite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94CI1uLVl64

Try Marco beltrami's film score for tommy lee jones' The Homesman. Actually his other scores for Jones kind of fit too.

Seconding William Fowler Collins. Great live, too.

I want a recommendation engine for 'wide open desert' music

See also:

Susan Alcorn - And i await the Resurrection (maybe not her best, but its what I have)
Barn Owl - any
Ry Cooder - Paris, Texas of course, also look for Trespass, Last Man Standing OSTs
Dead Texan - eponymous debut
Bruce Kaphan - Slider: Ambient Excursions for Pedal Steel Guitar
Long Desert Cowboy - any
Rainer (Ptacek) - Nocturnes

if Live Low To The Earth In The Iron Age is part of this genre, I'm starting a thread

"wide open desert music" S/D

Light Fantastic is one of my favorites by Steve Roach. That one has sections of meditations but then breaks into the big trancy Berlin like sequences.

regarding Mystic Chords, is it important for me to get the 3CD 'complete version' or am I fine with the still huge but less so editions? I have some emusic credits to burn.

I personally think the more Roach the better but some is better than none. And I can't remember if the complete edition has extra tracks or not on top of the original releases.

i recently learned that roach did a record with michael shrieve in 1988, the leaving time. it is on youtube and is just as fucking awesome as one might hope. transfer station blue vibes.

>regarding Mystic Chords, is it important for me to get the 3CD 'complete version' or am I fine with the still huge but less so editions? I have some emusic credits to burn.

I thought Mystic Chords was 4 CDs. At any rate, if you're at all interested, you're gonna want all of it eventually.

oh wait, haha... I have 17.00 emusic credits left this month and the mystic chords 4CD is 17.20 so maybe next month.

Mystic Chords is two 2-CD sets. The box set is literally just an outer box that holds both the sets. No extra tracks. I like discs 2 and 4 the best... Labyrinth and Piece of Infinity.

I wish he'd release a box set of the Immersion discs! Those are great if you favor the meditative/drone stuff. But I guess it would be, what... an 8-disc set?

I'd largely avoided Roach up until now - mainly because I think I'd misread him as gimmicky or new age* (in the pejorative sense). What with Ned's interview and various bits on here and the wide open space thread, I am happy to say I was horribly, gloriously wrong. I'm now frantically(so to speak) trying to navigate his discography trying to work out where to go next.

*this is within the bounds of fairness, right? See a man with a mullet holding a didgeridoo and I tend to wander the other way...

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.

thanks! what other early years highlights have you got?

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

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

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.

I think it was an MP3-for-sale service?

tsk get outta here

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!

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.

Thanks!

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/

Laying back quite a bit on the front half of this set. It's definitely a space track so far.

90 minutes inn...'oh yes, there are the drums'....

Dreamtime Return reissued:

https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/dreamtime-return-2018-high-resolution-remaster

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.

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.

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!

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

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

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

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

reallly loving mercurius today https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/mercurius

So many good releases this year, and now this news!

https://steveroachexclusive.bandcamp.com/subscribe