MIDNIGHT MOON

If you're familiar with Steve Roach you'll know what I mean. For those who don't, Steve Roach uses no drums, bass or vocals. What you're gifted with here are droning time-tunnel swathes of sound and slowly evolving electronic chords of melancholia. The kind of music you'd expect to hear after dying as your hand reaches out to God, like that Michelangelo painting depicting the creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel.

It's all very quiet and subdued with an eerie, atmospheric sound. Similarities may be found with parts of Brian Eno's 1982 "On Land - Ambient 4" recording.

Some listeners may find this miserable. I find it life affirming and colourful.

You get the usual Steve Roach massive reverb and decay, from each note played on his unworldly guitar and seemingly vast array of keyboard effects.

'Midnight Moon' becomes increasingly darkly hypnotic the longer it progresses, with huge filters and electronic gadgets being utilised . This is so much better than the spacial Aboriginal percussive recordings he made during the previous years. Beat-less is better in this case.

A semblance of tune rears its head in "Broken Town". This sounds like the remaining tracks, a Post-Apocalyptic nightmare where all human civilisation has suddenly ground to a standstill. The total and utter silence of human intervention. Yes folks... it really is that grim, but in a beautiful way.

"Midnight Moon" is either funereal or meditational, depending on your state of mind and is yet another excellent huge slab of Ambient Prog from Mr Roach.