by Darren Bergstein, One Thousand Pulses
June 2011
Bearing witness to Steve Roach live is always a galvanizing experience, but those in attendance last year at the host's own SoundQuest Fest in Tucson beheld an undoubtedly singular event. This is evident upon first listen to LIVE AT SOUNDQUEST FEST, even as the opening groundswell of metallic tonalities, chirping crickets, and surging soundwaves break the twilight of the desert expanse and burst forth with real power. Thankfully, those unable to partake of this performance firsthand can at least bask in the glow of the superb facsimile that is LIVE AT SOUNDQUEST FEST's aural document.
Accompanying Roach as he navigates the desert event horizon is percussive mainstay Byron Metcalf and didgeridoo players Dashmesh Khalsa and Brian Parnham, whose exotic drones and whipcrack rhythmic patterns add grist to the already electrified mill.
Over the course of 73 minutes (tracks are titled and appropriately indexed, but like the actual performance, the entire recording flows uninterrupted), Roach takes us on a virtual travelogue across the neuron-blasted soundscapes of his multi-faceted muse. "Momentum of Desire" oscillates between earth-baked tribal bass pulses and electronic gyrations that circulate into the upper stratosphere like jet-propelled ectoplasm, rhythms both machine and man-made fiercely interlocked as they jostle for dominance. One of Roach's most succinctly-titled pieces, the aptly-coined "Thunderwalkers", all 11 hypnotic minutes of it, harkens back to his Suspended Memories collaborations and the DREAMTIME RETURN environs of yesteryear, rituals made flesh thanks to the curling croaks of massed didgeridoos and urgent drumbeats rippling across a stunning latticework of electronics.
Combining all the best that Roach and his cohorts have to offer, a stylistic culmination taking in mutually-accumulated decades of innovative sound design, these performances were surely highwater marks for all concerned; the physical artifact that is LIVE AT SOUNDQUEST FEST is the next best thing to being there.
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Steve Roach 2011 Timeroom Editions (CD) Reviewed by Hypnagogue, One Thousand Pulses Steve's pinnacle performance from 2010's SoundQuest Fest proved to be a real moment in time, and fortunately it was documented with a high resolution recording that places the listener front and center on that special night. Presented as a single CD, the first 74 minutes of the concert are experienced as it unfolded. Three distinct realms are seamlessly mapped out in this inspired set. The opening starts with a 25-minute piece of perpetual forward motion in the mode of DESTINATION BEYOND, created specially for the concert, carved from pure analog synths and sequencers. From here we experience an amazing interplay between didgeridoo players Dashmesh Khalsa, Brian Parnham, percussionist Byron Metcalf and Steve performing real-time looping, processing and mixing along with soundworlds, ocarina and voice. This passage is an all-out expression of shamanic ecstasy that boils over into the engulfing tribal trance state of "Thunder Walk" from the recent release DREAM TRACKER. The last portion of the set settles into an ultra drifting electro-organic zone. This evocative space, which premiered at the Fest, would soon evolve into the opening of IMMERSION FIVE - CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS.
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