Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Steve Roach & Byron Metcalf - Tales From the Ultra Tribe [Projekt - 2013]

“Tales From the Ultra Tribe” teams up American ambient legend Steve Roach with ethic percussionist Byron Metcalf for an entrancing & hypnotic journey into electronic/ organic shamanic sound-scaping that’s lined by moody ambience.

The Cd offers up eight mainly lengthy journeys into trance inducing electro tribal sound-making that has moody ambient undercurrents.  With Roach utilizing a mixture of synthesizers, drum machines, Didgeridoo & electronics to create his more moody side of the sound. And Metcalf useing all manner of percussive matter such as frame drums, rattles, shakers, clay pots, ceremonial drums, hybrid toms to create his percussive based side of the sound. Together the pair create a dense & detailed sound that is both hypnotic & mind expanding, yet earthy & moody too.

All eight tracks here are well made, detailed & often creative examples of tribal bound ambience, but there are also a few moments here that see the pair step away from the set boundaries of the form.  Moments like “The Magma Clan” which find the pair create this droning & sort slurred groove with a mixture of sustained Didgeridoo, what sounds like clay drums percussion & rhythmic electronic elements. Or the sort of tribal electro funk styling’s of “Road From Here”, which finds snaking & taut funk electronic bass lines mixed with detailed tribal percussion & moody ambient drift.


All told “Tales From the Ultra Tribe” is another fine example of Roach's collaborative work, with both artists bringing out the best in each other. So if your after detailed, dense & entrancing ritual bound ambience, that has a few unexpected edges to it this is well worth tracking down

Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5

Roger Batty
Latest Reviews

Steve Roach & Byron Metcalf - Tal...
“Tales From the Ultra Tribe” teams up American ambient legend Steve Roach with ethic percussionist Byron Metcalf for an entrancing & hypnotic journey...
250326   Wicked Games: Three Films by ...
250326   Confessions of a Police Capta...
250326   Owls Over Oaks - O.O.O.
240326   Creepy Images Volumes 4-6 - C...
210326   Pit Of Despair/Woods Mattress...
210326   RDKPL - Color Noise Wall
210326   Simon Berz - Tectonic
190326   Fallen Sun - Parallel Disalig...
190326   Kleistwahr - The Battlefield ...
190326   Opaque - Qakes
Latest Articles

Cliff Twemlow On Severin - Mancun...
One of last year’s real big surprises in the world of Blu-ray box sets was Bloody Legend: The Complete Twemlow Collection, as it was a wholly entertain...
030326   Cliff Twemlow On Severin - Ma...
260226   The Fall - Repetitious Histor...
290126   Crude ‘n’ Hope-corroding ...
231225   Creepy Images Books - Killer Art
221225   Best Of 2025 - Music, Sound &...
041225   The Spectral Sounds of The Pr...
281025   Michael Hurst Interview - Unb...
071025   Xiphos - The Rise And Fall Of...
030925   Third Window Films - A Label ...
130825   HNW fest- Barcelona- 12th Apr...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2025. Twenty four years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom