Steve Roach - The Surface Below - Immersion Six (2026)
I understand what this album is aiming for, but it doesn’t hold me the way I want it to. The Surface Below is smooth, deep, and continuous, but that continuity starts to feel more like stasis than immersion. The textures are pleasant and unobtrusive, yet they rarely give me a reason to stay actively engaged with them.
What pulls it down for me is how little resistance there is. The sound world is stable almost to a fault — nothing threatens to shift, fray, or surprise me. Instead of losing myself in it, I find my attention drifting around it, using it more as background than as something I want to inhabit fully. It feels less like entering a space and more like hovering near one.
I don’t think it’s poorly made at all; it’s careful, controlled, and clearly the product of experience. But that refinement also drains away tension. I respect it as functional ambient, something that can support a mood without interfering, yet it doesn’t challenge my listening or recalibrate my perception. For me, it ends up feeling agreeable rather than compelling — something that passes time smoothly without leaving much of a trace once it’s over.
Genre: Ambient
Country: US
Final Verdict: 58% (Forgettable Album)
Yearly Ranking: 23th / 26
Highlight: The Surface Below
Made me think of:
Mount Shrine
Robert Rich
Thomas Köner
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