Still pumping out records and seeking fruitful collaborations, ambience master Steve Roach returns with a spellbinding record conjuring echos of his classic Dreamtime Return with a devilish twist. Absolutely suggested by its plunderous album art, one senses a Caribbean flavor of pirate mysticism and a tropical occult. These are worshiped gods of death, a darkly vein heard best in its curious voices that whisper in cryptic chants throughout the record. Curandero starts strong, Analog Cave, Citla & Shadow Current brew entrancing rhythms within dense nightly atmospheres. These are welcoming numbers, strapped with a strange sense of safety and tribal spirituality, despite dancing with estranged dangers. Perhaps its trippy psychedelic nature suggests its all in the minds imagination.
Stars Of Darkness takes a turn, a duller affair of droning ambience to bridge into the back half of this hour long record. Steppe Traveler goes hard on a shivering 70s synth arpeggio. Its abrasive, maddened by its own jolty nature, too much for indulgence with a now familiar sound design constructed around it. Shard Tribe showed promise with a striking Ethereal, shimmering synth, woven between cryptic chants, a power emerges but then sadly collapses into another dull drone. After a handful of spins, this sense of two halves is confirmed. A fantastic trio to start with but a swift drop off after.
Rating: 6/10