Early Man

Steve Roach | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 13, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Projekt Records
• ASIN: B00005A8J4
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,486 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN AMBIENT MASTERPIECE, September 5, 2002

By 

Larry L. Looney (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Early Man (Audio CD)

Steve Roach is a master of ambient music constructions - a review of his catalogue will attest to the consistent quality of his work. EARLY MAN (here presented in a double-disc, extended format) is a great example of Roach at his most creative. Many artists and composers have ventured into this genre, with varying results - successful forays include many works by Brian Eno (considered by many to be the `father' of the form), Cluster, Holger Czukay, and modern practitioners such as Alio Die, Templegarden, and vidnaObmana. Roach stands easily with the most successful of his contemporaries and predecessors - his work is intelligent, forceful and gentle at the same time. The tracks here are multi-layered without being too `thick' - they invite and encourage the listener to different levels of absorption. This disc can be made the subject of rapt attention, or utilized as a background for other activities - relaxation, reading, writing, or even sleep - all to equally positive effect.

Roach's sound constructions on these discs are extremely effective in evoking the earth itself - the history it has seen, ages past, watching as Man evolves, learning to cope with the world around him. One review likened the music here as the song of the rock itself - and that's a very apt description. This is the sort of `electronic' music that I can really enjoy - it's not jarring, it won't peel the paint off the walls (and yes, there's a place for that sort of composition as well), neither is it a saccharine-sweet roll of wallpaper compelling the listener to descend into mindless head-rocking (you definitely won't feel like you're riding on a 2 ½ hour elevator journey here). It's both thought provoking and meditative - it holds within it the possibilities of opening doors within the mind that have been closed for a long time.

There's a lot of music here. The first disc contains EARLY MAN in its originally-released form, nearly 75 minutes worth of music. The second disc is entitled EARLY MAN DECOMPOSED - and is comprised of material from the original sessions that has been re-constructed by Roach in his studio. This second disc, over 70 minutes of material, does not come across as merely a set of `remixes' - it stands very well on its own. The price of the 2-disc set makes this quite a bargain. Roach has a lot of quality work available (as a matter of fact, I have yet to hear anything by him that I don't like) - this is a nice place for the uninitiated to begin, and it's a nice addition to the collection of someone who's already a fan.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW, what a superb great recording....., October 1, 2001

By 

mythtrip (Watertown, MA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Early Man (Audio CD)

First of all, anyone with a system better than a boombox will be amazed at the great quality of this recording. It really comes alive. Ambient? You will know what this term means after hearing this CD. I am auditioning some hi fi components, and this is my reference recording for ambient music. Buy it, it will take you away and put you away.......

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Pleistocene alternative to Brian Eno's "On Land", March 20, 2001

By 

dronecaster (Baton Rouge, LA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Early Man (Audio CD)

It should come as no surprise that Steve Roach stated in a recent interview that "On Land", a 1982 recording by Brian Eno, would be one of the discs he would take with him to a desert island. It should therefore come as no surprise that he would eventually pay homage to that landmark album by creating a similiar series of environments rooted in the "sounds of the Earth." True, Roach's own "Australia: Sound of the Earth", a 1990 collaboration with Sarah Hopkins and David Hudson, may have already embraced that notion, but it was rooted more in the traditional musical forms and structures of Australia's aborigines rather than a full-blown sonic portrait of terrestrial environments.

Roach's music has almost always had a geological sense to it anyway. His highly mutated synthesizer chords and acoustic percussion loops have tended to bring to mind the movement of tectonic plates as well as expressing the infinite depths of interstellar space which have been so widely hailed throughout his two decade-long career.

Eno's opus "On Land" was perhaps the first (if not at least one of the first) recordings by a relatively popular electronic artist to document an impression of a terrestrial environment. But whereas Eno was interested in presenting an aural equivalent to Fellini's celebrated film "Amarcord" as well as childhood memories of the marshy areas near his former home in East Anglia, England, Roach was more concerned with evoking the deep prehistoric past of humanity's childhood. Simultaneously spooky and evocative, "Early Man" also employs the brilliant "mandala-groove" rhythms of Vir Unis, best realized on tracks like "Walking Upright" and "Hunting & Gathering." The second disc, "Early Man Decomposed", presents the same music as heard on the first disc (which was originally released as a limited edition item with an attractive slate case) but approached from a somewhat different angle, even though many of the same themes recur. With this re-release by Projekt, the mystery of "Early Man" can now be heard by all who are interested.