MOLECULES OF MOTION

With Molecules of Motion master of electronic music Steve Roach has produced one of his most delightful and surprisingly refreshing albums in some time.

1. "Molecules of Motion" (24:22) If some of Stefano Musso's or Laraaji's zither tracks were sped up and set within some Berlin School electronic sequences, this is what you might get. Definitely a modern computer take on the Berlin School art of sequencing. (8.5/10)

2. "Grace Meditation" (23:40) my favorite song on the album and the one that got me to buy it. The multiple octave lower register synth sequence is just awesome--especially for the genius fact that it's mixed in the foreground while the spacey synths are in the background. There are also several awesome "key changes" throughout the song that keep it interesting, make you think and observe different elements of the sequence. Absolutely brilliant! Even the excessively long fade is okay by me. This is what Progressive Electronic and modern Berlin School music should be sounding like. (10/10)

3. "Phase Reverie" (10:11) bouncy, quirky, yet still hypnotic and beautiful. (9/10)

4. "Empath Current" (15:03) fro the first nine and a half minutes there is a constant flow of nice spacey slow-attack and slow-decaying synth wash notes and chords lilting gently in the middle while beneath it plays a multi-track sequence of rhythmic staccato computerblipping, with the the tracks purposely out of synch with one another. Interesting. I'm not sure it works for me. During the final five minutes, the rhythm track has been faded out and is absent allowing the spacey synth to float us around until it, too, eventually fades away. (8.5/10)

4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of progressive electronic music with one certifiable masterpiece of a prog epic!