Magnificent Void

Departing from the tribal themes that occupied him through most of the 1990s, Roach takes a philosophical leap into Void, directing his endless reverbs and glowering synth programs toward the speck at the center of the universe. Eschewing the indigenous drums and didgeridoos of his Dreamtime Return-era work, pieces like "Between the Gray and the Purple" could as easily be the soundtrack to a psychological thriller as a rumination on infinity. "Void Memory One" refracts sheets of pure frequency across a pitch-black galaxy; "Cloud of Unknowing" taps the elements in a maelstrom of cosmic wind and solar fire. What--too much imagistic hyperbole for you? Roach invites such musings, if only because he carries you down those dark corridors so convincingly. Sequenced as one continuous piece, Void is an astral-gothic collage of fear, transcendence, and weightlessness; a high-water mark of space music; and one of Roach's finest hours