I like Robert Rich a lot exactly when he’s _not_ trying to sound like Roach. But I haven’t heard that album — will do so, thanks.

There’s a lot of ground between “traditional melodies and new age cliches” — I’m not even sure why you point to such scarecrows — and the unmusical material Roach produces.

Here’s an example of what I mean, just heard on soma.fm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVkc3N4fxQk

Note how the annoying buzzy voice isn’t well-harmonized with the rest. To my ear, that’s unpleasant. And the whole thing is repetitive, but not in a hypnotic way (again, to my ear). It’s more like plodding.

Compare to the ambiance here (picking at random from my bandcamp): https://ostroga.bandcamp.com/album/–13
Or, for something with more overt harmonic content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM2Tm6tK-Ts&list=RDMM2Tm6tK-Ts&start_radio=1

Steve roach is ambient God. It is easy to overlook his work but the more you listen, the greater the reward, especially for his work with drones and deeper side of ambient style., I recommend “structures from silence”, “western spaces”, “Dreamtime return”, “new life dreaming” and “deeper silence”.

He may not have the mainstream prominence of Brian Eno or Aphex Twin but his catalogue of ambient music is far greater.

Not sure who is ‘generally liked’ in the ambient area. It’s a niche within a niche. Maybe ‘Eno’?

Roach is one of the masters of ambient space music – but maybe that’s just not your thing.

He’s brilliant at creating soundscapes and hypnotic sequencers. He definitely avoids traditional melodies and new age cliches, though.