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Steve Roach — Light Fantastic
(Hearts of Space 2-HOS-11084, 1999, CD)

by Mike McLatchey, Published 2000-05-01

Light Fantastic Cover art

Steve Roach has been fairly quiet in his output this year after a prolific 1998. Light Fantastic seems both a culmination of and an evolution on some of Roach’s recent collaborations. The first track, “Trip the Light,” sounds very much like it could have been from Body Electric. (Vir Unis is a guest on Light Fantastic). The second track, “Breathing the Pulse,” is also in this vein, but already we’re starting to see the music move to more unfamiliar realms. While Body Electric was pretty groove-centered, the sonics of Light Fantastic are more to the forefront, lots of rich, modulated chords adding layers of texturing, yet still inclusive of the “fractal groove creations.” “The Reflecting Chamber” adds an alluring tamboura drone to the waves of synthesizers. More electronic music in this vein is sorely needed, the resonance of this piece phenomenal. Steve takes a major step forward with “Touch the Pearl.” It is almost as if he’s merged two sides of his music, a yin / yang of rhythmic and textural music. It is a very hypnotic piece, a spectral whirlpool of fleeting images and imaginative suggestion. By this point we’ve moved well beyond the familiar into the mystical, and the last two long pieces explore this fine balance between a futuristic tribal groove and a deep trance backdrop. As with “Touch the Pearl,” these reveal Roach’s magnetism to the incorporeal and a preoccupation with even more ancient and subconscious images. As far as subtlety goes, this may be Roach’s widest spectrum to date.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 19, 1999 releases

Related artist(s): Steve Roach, Vir Unis (John Strate-Hootman)

More info
http://heartsofspacerecords.bandcamp.com/album/light-fantastic

 

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