Max Corbacho’s Moontribe is a heady collection of ethno-cyber-ambient rhythmic soundscapes that makes my blood race even while its darker elements cause the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up!

Hauntingly beautiful yet also shadowy and foreboding, the propulsive combination of ethnic beats with fractal and skitch rhythms on the opening “Suntribe” are buoyed by flowing washes of synthesizers. Obviously, comparisons can be made to either tribal or groove-oriented Roach recordings, but one could just as easily compare parts of this to psychetropic’s china radio sunshine. However, this is neither imitative nor derivative. The echoed booming effects that open “Out of Nothing” yield to kinetic fractal beats wedded to sensual primal rhythms (faint rainstick and rattle sounds surface now and then) along with a slurping sense of viscosity later in the track.

On the song “Distant Dwellings” the pulsing rhythms are unique, as least to my ears, consisting of bassy pulses and metallic skritches, which when mixed with ethereal high-pitched synths and low dronish chorales results in an imaginative propulsive trip across an alien landscape, teeming with a cybernetic lifestream coursing underneath you as you glide overhead. By the song’s end, though, the rhythms are gone, replaced by nocturnal sound effects and a flowing series of drones and washes. “Unknown Radiance” is a relatively rhythmless song, consisting of echoed animalistic sounds, heard as if from within a cave, along with deep slow washes of EM/spacemusic analog keyboards. “Across the Spectrum” returns the album to frenetic fractal/skitch beats as these are folded in slowly over the patient spacemusic textures. The beats eventually become pronounced and even oppressive (purposely), intermixed by what sounds like exhalations from an exhausted runner. The album concludes with the opus-length (nearly twenty minutes) title song, a slow excursion into dark soundscapes, a la Robert Rich from A Troubled Resting Place, although with a heavy dose of primal rhythms at its start, courtesy of more processed percussion on stone, stick, and hand drums. Percussion is deeply echoed and panned, so this song (if not the whole CD) would benefit from being played in a quiet dark room on a superb sound system. Most of this last track contains drifting mixtures of tones, drones, sounds, and alien effects in a miasma that both comforts the listener (somehow, Corbacho has instilled a sense of warmth in the music) and also creates a vague feeling of uneasiness. It all winds down slowly (maybe too slowly, as your patience may start to wear thin, although to the artist’s credit, he keeps things interesting even as the assorted elements evaporate one by one).

I’m sure people who have digested all of Steve Roach’s, vidnaObmana’s, and Robert Rich’s recordings could hear more similarities than I did on Moontribe, but I found the CD to be more than individualistic enough to keep me interested and entertained. I especially liked the blend of different percussion, beats, and rhythms that Corbacho used throughout the recording. Engineering is excellent, as mentioned above. For my money, while not as compelling as Terra Ambient’s The Gate, this album certainly deserves a spot on the same shelf. If darkly tinted ethno-tribal ambient, with some deep cosmos spacemusic thrown in for good measure, is your thing, Moontribe should prove to be a good purchase.

Bill Binkelman

WIND and WIRE

http://www.windandwire.com

Paul Rijkens, Dutch progressive rockmagazine iO Pages

On his records, Spaniard Max Corbacho follows the footsteps of the groundbreaking American ambientcomposer Steve Roach. He does this solo and in collaboration with somebody like Bruno Sanfilippo on the CD Indalo (look in iO Pages 54 for a review). The on CDR released Moontribe contains four tracks from the period 2000-2001 that not have seen the light earlier and two new pieces from 2003. Corbacho’s music is high-grade, intense and very relaxing. The tribal rhythms that know so well from Roach are present regularly, just as the most fantastic ambientsounds that are created with much care. These sounds form a warm bed as cover for the special rhythms. Unknown Radiance is a great example of this. Corbacho’s music is really of the biggest quality. Actually he goes further there where the music of Roach has become a little less good the last years. The unbelievable great and intriguing atmosphere of tracks like Across The Spectrum and the titletrack are of an unprecedented beauty that I consider masterpieces. In the genre this is the absolute top.

© 2004 – Paul Rijkens, Dutch progressive rockmagazine iO Pages.

Paul Rijkens, Dutch progressive rockmagazine iO Pages

The Argentine Bruno Sanfilippo who lives and works in Spain is a versatile musician. This versatility can also strongly be heard in the album Indalo that he created in collaboration with the Spanish ambient specialst Corbacho. Corbacho already has made a number of special albums with rather intense music. In the summer of 2001 Corbacho en Sanfilippo made a trip to Almeria in Spain. The spectacular nature as well as the historic symbol Indalo inspired them in making this music.

It contains a range of naturesounds from Almeria that are added with the ambientsounds and the nearly ancient rhythms of the duo. This is music where artists like Steve Roach, Robert Rich and VidnaObmana are masters in but in where these gentlemen are also very well at home. The sounds are widely spun, almost like a wave, above the organic rhythms and intriguing atmospheres. The titletrack of almost 22 minutes, with which the CD opens, immediately takes the cake. Quietness is an important element in the music on this CD. In tracks like The Agave Emerges On The Dry Earth and Lava Atmospheres this quietness as a matter of speaking blows around the listener. This is a very special experience. Cabo De Gata and Petrified Wisdom are rather dark. The dreamy A Lucid Dream Of Strange Landscapes takes together the concept of the CD very well.

Highlight of the album in my opinion is Signs Of Former Experiences that almost has a heavenly atmosphere.

2004 – Paul Rijkens, Dutch progressive rockmagazine iO Pages.

Rhys Philip Buckingaham from Nelson, New Zeland

«I discovered Max Corbacho’s rich atmospheric music by chance just as I had found Robert Scott Thompson’s masterpieces of computer generated ambience a year or so ago. Max is a Spaniard whose musical directions certainly are strongly influenced by RST, and also Steve Roach and Michael Stearns. But there is magic lurking in the textured landscapes of sound that Max Corbacho can deliver. There is a depth in his hypnotic layers of ambience that is rarely found anywhere in the world of new age music.And also a challenging variety of sounds as this exciting display of music moves though space and time. In the first three tracks Corbacho delivers a rhythm layed with soothing rich textures that simply fill one with calm and delight. The track ‘Night Caravan’ is one of the most magnificent pieces of ambient music I have ever heard.
Then the aural topography changes to almost tribal rhythms on ‘erosion’ that one can imagine in a remote and desolate desert.From which one then returns to more familiar slopes of ‘Quietness’ or succumb in Corbacho’s ‘Death Valley’. The work ends in triumph or despair in the climax of ‘Vestiges’ where silence becomes buried forever in a
catastrophic thundering finale. All up I rate the work with five stars but probably it should get a fraction less.
The first few tracks get 6 out of 5, but some of the later tracks sound a bit ordinary in comparison.
Buy it if you’re into this kind of music. Then I don’t think you will be disappointed!»