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EMOTIONS REVEALED

Steve Roach

Progressive Electronic


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Steve Roach Emotions Revealed album cover
4.00 | 4 ratings | 1 reviews | 0% 5 stars

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Studio Album, released in 2015

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Emotion Revealed (24:46)
2. Firelight (26:23)

Total time: 55:12

Line-up / Musicians

- Steve Roach / all electronics, instruments

Releases information

Digital album Projekt Records (December 31, 2015)
CD Projekt Records (February 5, 2016)

Thanks to Aussie-Byrd-Brother for the addition
and to NotAProghead for the last updates
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STEVE ROACH Emotions Revealed ratings distribution


4.00
(4 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(0%)
0%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(100%)
100%
Good, but non-essential (0%)
0%
Collectors/fans only (0%)
0%
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)
0%

STEVE ROACH Emotions Revealed reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Aussie-Byrd-Brother
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars Released within the final hours of 2015, `Emotions Revealed' is a fifty-one minute collection of two early Eighties pieces by American progressive-electronic/ambient music icon Steve Roach. The artist was to release a landmark title in those genres with the enduring classic `Structures from Silence' in 1984, so these two works pre-date that seminal recording, but the paths towards it are instantly obvious here. One piece represents the initial influence that the defining Seventies European electronic artists such as Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and the other Berlin School sound composers had on Roach in his early days, while the other shows Steve crafting his own personalised, more calming and drifting take on the styles that would fully emerge on his own works of that era.

`Emotion Revealed' was recorded live in California in 1983, soon after the release of Steve's first cassette `NOW', a reliable mix of vintage electronic and soothing New Age elements. That official debut was a reliable work, yet somewhat forgettable and one showing only a fraction of the musical personality and intelligence that Roach would become capable of shortly after (it must be said, however, that the release has plenty of fans, with a recent vinyl reissue very well received by followers of the artist), but the title track here already shows him growing in confidence, delivering a gently unrelenting and dreamy near- twenty-five minute sequencer driven instrumental. Despite sounding instantly like a more obvious and melodic version of the kind of soundscapes Klaus Schulze was delivering in the Seventies, the extended running time makes it a bolder experiment perhaps more interesting than much of the shorter aggressive sequencer-dominated pieces on Roach's 1986 release `Empetus' a few years later. Electric piano chimes calmly loop unceasingly, revolving around slowly introducing sequencer ripples and unfurling deep-space lead synth soloing shimmering into the heavens.

In contrast, `Firelight' journeys inwards, a serene and contemplative soundworld of great unfolding expanse, and just like `Structures from Silence', an album wrongly dismissed by some as being vapid New Age prettiness, there's fleeting moments of melancholy and an eerie edge drifting in the background ready to emerge amongst the softer moments. The first long-form extended piece attempted by Roach, `Firelight' was composed to soundtrack an environmental art installation, playing on a continuous loop. It also turns out to have been a clear move away from his early influences, the first steps towards a distinctive sound of subdued atmosphere and hovering stillness that has maintained in various forms throughout his entire career. Completely devoid of any sequencers or percussive elements, the caressing washes of ebbing and flowing synths and reflective ethereal drones make it perfect companion piece to the above mentioned album, and the crystalline dreamy glistenings in the final minutes may even remind some of Steve Hillage's ambient classic `Rainbow Dome Musick'.

Steve Roach has always been an artist constantly moving forwards, honing and evolving his sounds in subtle directions. With a steady stream of multiple studio and live releases throughout this and most years, usually full of inspiration and often requiring great patience and endless hours of replaying to reveal their secrets, a release like this that is both more compact and often approachable is hugely welcome and a pleasing diversion. `Emotion Revealed' is not merely some thrown together compilation of discarded demos not good enough the first time around, rather it makes for a sublime revealing trip back in time to a period when a creative artist was truly beginning to find his own voice, and a perfectly satisfying album in its own right as well.

Four stars, and a lovely way for progressive-electronic fans to farewell 2015.

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