Steve Roach: Core (CD)

Steve’s 2001 solo release, CORE, is a pure flow journey of electro-organic pieces drawn from the molten core within the Timeroom. CORE evolved into one of the most focused tribal-trance-electronic releases from Steve to date. The summer of 2001 was a vital and renewing time as Roach turned away from all concerts, collaborations and other offers, directing his attention deep into the inner core of where the music emerges. Setting out with the intention to find new sounds, Roach created a dynamic convergence of energies and currents that have been running through his music over the past 20 years. Adding to the vital live feel of the pieces is Steve’s process of melting it all together, working more like a moviemaker, trying dozens of different complete edits of the “film,” shaping the story like never before.

“CORE‘s ebb and flow unites the evolution and search for continuity in life and the sublime in sound and emotion. The language of sound revealed on CORE culminates the passion for acknowledging the hidden past and looking forward with innovation… Subtle and intense as CORE marks a leap into adventure by adding as yet undiscovered elements to an ever-expanding pallet of sounds. Essential.”
— vidnaObmana

“CORE, the album represents a pinnacle of achievement in the tribal-electronic sound of Roach. These sound elements are based on many years of Roach working in the field of electronic music production. The portal has been opened to fuse these elements into a firey mix of mind-bending atmospheres and thundering body rhythms. Feel the sheer dynamics, feel the atmosphere but above all feel the power. It has arrived.”
— Gary Andrews, Sequences Magazine (UK) and Ambient Visions online magazine

A review from soniccuriosity

This 2001 release offers 74 minutes of ambience with considerable substance. Here, Roach produces music that strains at the boundaries of “ambience” with sedentary liveliness and sparkling electronics. Cascades of eerie sounds swim in a pool of sweeping textures and sighing windstorms. There is often a rhythmic quality going on that is achieved with a palate of strange, gurgling electronics instead of the softly-distant tribal percussion that normally features so prominently in Roach’s stylings. The tempos are quirky, intertwining with each other to create even stranger tempos. This use of alien rhythms adds a softly energetic quality to the music, one that pushes the weirdness far beyond the realm of beatless soundscapes, entering a genre more comparable to the Berlin School style of electronics (a mode that Roach has rarely employed). The result is an outstanding achievement, fusing beats into ambience without any loss of the music’s hypnotic nature. Fear not, die-hard Roach followers, for you will not be disappointed by any absence of Roach’s other signature elements. There are passages of ethnic percussives, insectoid rattlings, and the integral use of kilometer-long notes. His talent for evolving riffs behind the audience’s back is just as prevalent, and equally rewarding. Although each track is much shorter than usual, the music flows without disruption into vaster, more substantial duration, leaving the listener dazed by the engaging progression. This release was a modern classic a nanosecond after the CDs were shipped from the pressing factory. – Matt Howarth