VORTEX IMMERSION ZONE

Vortex Immersion Zone, 2015, Steve Roach's sonic project, was inspired as his bandcamp page points out, by plans to perform at the Los Angeles Center Studios' Vortex Dome in 2013.

From there on, a series of live performances included portions of this piece as it evolved into different shapes which are also captured in his live recording of this piece by the name of "Alive In the Vortex 2", also available at bandcamp.

A deep, dynamic, unmelodious, obscure, cosmic/drone like, analog raw, single 1 hour 13 minutes composition, which beholds a certain kind of "primitiveness", electronic music wise speaking, which may throw you back in time to some early prog electronic influences.

As interesting, hypnotic and perfectly performed and engineered as it is, somehow it becomes unilineal as it develops and eventually its elements of surprise become quiet repetitive and predictable.

***3 PA stars.

The original inspiration for progressive-electronic/ambient pioneer Steve Roach's `Vortex Immersion Zone' came from rehearsals for a live performance at the Vortex Dome at the Los Angeles Center Studios in 2013 (the results of which can be found on the superb double CD set `Alive in the Vortex' released in December 2015), as well as pieces of music that originated from the concert itself. Over an almost three year period, certain ideas evolved into the seventy-three minute long-form self-titled piece presented here, and in a year full of endlessly inspired releases from the artist, this one might just be one of the very best of them. `Vortex Immersion Zone' is darkly psychedelic, eerie and mysterious with surprising moments of great heaviness, the slyest of subtle grooves and plenty of the expected droning ever-evolving Roach soundscapes.

A churning psychedelic ripple spirals and unfolds in and out of the entire piece and takes on a drowsy hypnotic blurring surrender, while behind it, a building faraway rumble and sustaining washes of electronic veils gradually take hold, growing carefully in presence with a thick enveloping haze. Clipping programmed loops slowly enter, slinking grooves subtly lurch with reverberating cavernous groans rising in consuming power before being swept away by placid serenity, but a last minute twist teases a return to unease and mystery once more.

It's a bit of a shame that this release perhaps got a little lost in the blur of not only the live concert CD performance it was released alongside, but a string of constant releases from last year as well (including over seven studio albums, archive compilations, live performances and multi-disk box- sets!), as well as several previous works with the `Immersion' word in the title. It's therefore probably easy to dismiss this as some sort of mere `bonus disc' to accompany the defining live work it originates from, but to do so would be a big mistake. Perhaps it could have been half its length and still been just as effective, and inexperienced ambient/electronic listeners might find the constant droning elements a challenge, but `Vortex Immersion Zone is bold and confident, completely captivating and powerful one moment, drifting dreamily the next. It's truly a work originating from a master of the related genres, and it just might be one of the most distinctive and addictive studio works Roach released in 2015.

Four stars.

(Note - Also look into to a wildly different interpretation of this piece on another live release "Pinnacle Moments - Live in Tucson" from early 2016 under the title `Going Gone', where it incorporates looping tribal drums, wafting flute and a run of twitchy beats with sly bass murmurs - great stuff!)