THE DELICATE FOREVER

In a world of make believe this is the way 'Tangerine Dream' would have sounded in 2014 if they'd stuck to their Berlin Electronics school of music. This sounds like the logical outcome, forty years later.

'The Delicate Forever' is a slowly sweeping drone album full of slowly changing quiet keyboard chords. It's all very plaintive and melancholic and sounds like the kind of album you'd want to play at the top of a mountain in mid-summer. The title track has stark resemblances to 'Stars of the Lid' with their excellent release 'The Tired Sounds of...'

Subtle electronic sequences surprisingly come to the fore on 'The Well Spring' which, while not being uplifting, certainly pumps a bit of life into proceedings.

Steve Roach, as usual, has a particular sound and vibe all of his own - where despite the minimalist approach the listener will instantly recognise his trademark ethereal stamp. Considering the bloke's been recording for so long, it's great to see that he refuses to play by anyone else's rules and that he's still so single minded in execution and technique. There are no external influences at all.

There's a definite purity in his recordings which I find highly commendable in this day and age. I used to prefer the music of stable-mate 'Robert Rich' but of late Steve Roach has become more consistent in the quality of his releases.

'The Delicate Forever' has a feel, that if you took a hammer and chisel and tapped at it lightly, the whole thing would fall to pieces like shattered glass.