Customer Reviews

Light Fantastic

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

And I have quite a few space music CDs in my collection. How could somebody not give this CD five stars? I've got a few of Steve Roach's CDs and I've heard his others on his web page, and this has got to be by far his best work! I've even purchased this as a gift for others and they were impressed! Normally I don't ever review CDs that I've purchased from Amazon, but I thought so highly of this one that I had to write about it. "Touch the Pearl" is my favorite on this one, as it's got a very ethereal and mesmerizing sound to it. I also like the tribal rhythms that are included in "Trip the Light." But all of the songs are very relaxing and will leave one in a state of peacefulness and serenity after listening to them. I could listen to this CD thousands of times and would never tire of hearing it. I highly recommend this CD to anyone!

The latest and next chapter due out this fall. Tribal trance and ambient excursions leave the mind and body in awe. The artist that brought you "On This Planet and The Magnificent Void" resumes his musical excursion with Light Fantastic. Very highly recommended.

Like many of Steve's releases of recent years, "Light Fantastic" is mostly devoid of melody, however it is a pure, otherworldly sonic environment to immerse yourself in. This album is full flittering and frenzied "fractal groove" percussion (alliteration unintended!). The occasional trance-drone of the tamboura is another welcome addition. This album may not break a lot of new ground for Steve, but it is definitely one of his strongest releases of the past 5 years and one of his most percussive.

The sonic analogies to the mechanics (reflection, refraction, etc.) of light is very accurate. One can almost visualize shimmering mirrors, prismatic rainbows, lasers and ghostly photons dancing to this music. Try "Tripping the Light", "Touch the Pearl" or "Realm of Refraction" for some serious persussive grooves. All in all, very mesmerizing.

One of Roach's strongest gifts is his ability to work with the title of the given cd, invoking a masterful sense to create a theme based work. I have known blind people who have heard this and this truly gave them a better understaning of the beauty of textures of visible light.

Upon it's release I was already a massive Roach fan and once again this one shattered any notion I ever held of Roach being bound to any form of convential creative direction. He knows how to forge ahead with a ceaseless prolific nature, yet no matter how many titles he releases, each one sounds fresh and adventurous, taking us in new directions with his skill to bend time and space. In this case, he is bending and refracting the visible light spectrum through his trademark long, gorgeous synth washes and otherworldly sounding beats and grooves.

This is not one of his more meditative releases in the strictess senses; this instead will appeal to any fan of pulsing electro hybrid grooves and searing, almost dissonant but never overbearing or messy clusters of synth textures.

Another bold musical statement from the massive palate of sound colors that Roach 'paints' with. He often states in interviews that he feels more like a sculpture or painter than a convential musician and this disc is a perfect example of his philosophy.

I reviewed this cd about two months ago, giving it three stars (now I give it 3.5 stars). It has grown on me a bit. I like that a cd can do that. Although I still feel this cd is just a bit flat, I have discovered the subtle energy that "Light Fantastic" exudes. Track #5 saves the cd for me. It takes a couple of minutes for this 11 minute tune to get kicking, but this rhythmically charged tune is energizing, and is good for doing things like painting or house chores. Too bad it's only 11 minutes long. Actually, the rhythm to this tune fades well before the song is over, and runs (without a break in between, as with most of this cd) into the final 16 minute and 48 second piece "The Luminous Return", a very mellowing soundscape of suspended chords. I can see why some would consider this their favorite ambient cd with it's beautiful chords and techno rhythms, especially if you are new to this type of music. But this is not my favorite Steve Roach release.

Although there are some good moments on this c.d., I don't consider this one of his better releases. This is contemplative ambient techno, but is somewhat reserved, and gives the c.d. an overall flat feel. Steve's usual texture and soundscape is a backdrop for a slightly trip hop sound, but otherwise there isn't much new, if you are a Steve Roach fan. The opening track is the most trip hop, mechanical sounding piece of the c.d. The final, at almost 17 minutes, is an extremely calming soundscape piece, and you're mind will probaly be in alpha state after listening to this entire last track.

If you don't have Steve's last five recordings, this is a good one to start with. I wish he would start going in other musical directions that this primal drum thing he's been doing for most of the 90's. Get Strata or Halcyon Days before you buy this CD.

Here is another of the rare perfect recordings. Composed right before Steve set up his own Timeroom label, "Light Fantastic" delivers another phenomenal impact of sound and reverberations that create a great sense of vastness without ever using your vision. My favorite track is number four, 'Touch the Pearl' with its glowing, shimmering waveforms that are, intentionally or not, attuned directly to the core of consciousness. It flows for an awesome nine minutes seamlessly into Track 5, 'Realm of Refraction.' Here we have the genius of pure ambience at work, flowing, deliberate and seemingly without beginning or end.

Mr. Roach has no equal in this realm. He is truly a master of his instrumentation that does for the mind what a good diet and exercise program do for the body.

Although I cannot prove it, since I have been listening to Steve Roach's compositions (the first was 'Dreamtime Return,' 1987), my memory and concentration have improved ten fold, as well as my ability to stay focused on one thing. I am more relaxed, rested and attuned to my task at hand, whatever that may be. In other words, whether such positive benefits were intended or not, Steve Roach's music is a therapeutic remedy for mood swings, obsessive/compulsive disorder, insomnia, various forms of stress disorders and who knows what else. If it were not true, I would have told you. After nearly 20 years of being hooked on Roach, I can tell you with all certainty that nearly all of his compositions are not to be missed--essential to deal with and dissipate the petty cares of this world. No way I'm going to let someone with a lesser mind tell me that this is only a mundane, banal recording lacking nothing new. While I'm listening to 'Light Fantastic' the earth seems as small as a dot, and I feel like I have escaped the troubles of this world. I only hate to come back to reality. Some of his other fantastic trips are 'Quiet Music' (1988), 'Solitaire: on Ritual Ground,' 'Western Spaces,' 'Origins' and 'Mystic Chords and Sacred Spaces' (disc two). I am really looking forward to my next trek on Steve's upcoming composition, the Immersion series, where there is only one track each disc over 70 minutes long.

Funny, sure doesn't seem like it. Roach's music make an hour seem like a split second. That's what they say when you really enjoy something. A good pair of headphones with bass boost and repeat on sets the stage for the next voyage of consciousness exploration for which there is no other equal to date. A little less I talk, a lot more I listen.

I am very pleased with this album. It sure is something special. I don't like all of Steve Roach's work, but Light Fantastic is fantastic! Great for mind journeys and relaxation.

Think splendor, radiant gloss, flames of blues, green galaxies, shimmering lightning, if possible, and northern lights, the aurora of tempered hypnogogia. Sheen, dim luster, cracks of ice, scintillating nimbostratus enshrouding the dazzle of white sparks from within, skies that emicate, fires that fly, meteors and sprites and fluoro-luminescent vapors glorifying a spectrum of sheer, colored phosphors, energies that refract, glare, twinkle, glitter and sparkle. This could be space, this could be water, this could be air, but it is a medium veiled in light. Black with light. Bright with light...

(Submersion -CL)

T r i p t h e L i g h t ∂n≈An aural alembic, refining, purifying atoms vibrating, wavelengths shifting, pulsing, expanding. Play this track in fast-forward and one can hear the twisting of sound...

B r e a t h i n g t h e P u l s eƒ(x)≈Mist quickly dissipates into Steve Roach's trademark pitch-dropped, time-expanded instruments of bubbles. More pulses of photons, compressed, scattered, and ebullient with velocity. This is not tribal, this is scientific...

T h e R e f l e c t i o n C h a m b e r hn/µ≈The zing, the rise of crescents over slow effervescence, where rainbows converge, crossmix, coalesce, and melt into the rays of shine, reflecting off atmospheres, spheres, fears...

T o u c h t h e P e a r l ∑(Ω)≈ Here there is no incidence, only the circumvenital, travelling a long arc of brilliance, iridescence, but it is not calming. There is disturbance here, the most difficult track to relax or think to. But there is silence, a separation of the next two tracks, a pair...

(Ascension -CL)

R e a l m o f R e f r a c t i o n sin∆/sinß≈Above all planes, parallel to consciousness, a principle of suspension, flotation. Emotion becomes foam, fizzling and churning, recrudescing into a motif, repeated in these two tracks. This is where we see the atmosphere, the green flash, the haunted glories, pillars, and cool retrorefractions...

T h e L u m i n o u s R e t u r n∞≈Darkest, where one sees the fires of the empyrean, a celestial drift and obvious descension from heights attained. Slower, with less emphasis on tempo, but beaming, defining smooth curves, light strikes, gradiations. Below you, the albedo of your Blue, the cloud of your Silver, diaphanous and glassy. Epic in scope, a virtual tour of optics and air...

Like looking down onto the smooth plane of water, Light Fantastic mirrors what we see looking up.

For physical manifestations, I recommend: http://www.lightspace.org/installations.htm