COMMENTS and REVIEWS for Biff Johnson's "Mirage at the Crossroads."

    Biff Johnson is a musician from Sacramento firmly entrenched in the Steve Roach musical family, creating ambient soundscapes with rainsticks, percussion, synths, and more.  On Johnson's debut CD, Roach produced in the final mix and added some atmospheric touchups on a few of the pieces, and the finished product bears his influence strongly.  There are a of total nine pieces, which range from just over 4 to 12 minutes.  Percussive rhythms setup backdrops for sonic paintings with depth, tributes once again to Roach and Roger King's mastering abilities, and also to Johnson's slightly different angle on this genre.  Where Johnson's inspiration differs is mostly a matter of geographical location.  While Roach's natural influences connect deeply to the Sonoran Desert, Johnson's connect to the redwoods of the Sierra Nevadas.  The images bring to mind the age of these magnificent trees, the clean, crisp air, and the sharp, piny fragrance.  It's a debut that owes a lot to the music of Steve Roach, yet reveals its individual subtleties on further listening.  Johnson's second album progresses on this style, showing development in all areas.  Again, the primary inspiration here seems to be Roach's music circa Origins or Artifacts, yet Johnson's seems to go one step further with his use of "stones, bones and archaics."  Take "Urban Initiation," for example, full of rainsticks and other processed sounds.  The layering of all these sounds with synthesizers creates a fascinating and busy blend of that lends itself to repeated listening.  Even in some of the quieter moments, there are still all kinds of interesting events going on, a pairing of the deeply meditative and the biologically active that is quite successful.  Steve Roach takes a more active role on Mirage, blending in electronics and even harmonica on "A Road from Somewhere."  His influence may even be stronger the second time around, but it's not enough to make in the CD a complete clone.  In days where Roach has moved into more purely electronic areas, it's good to see someone trailblazing on the tribal ambient front.  And there are very few musicians doing it as well as Biff Johnson 

            --Expose Magazine, Issue 19, May 2000

Like his first album, Biff's current CD,"Mirage at the Crossroads" was co-produced by Steve Roach. It contains 9 cuts with 72 minutes of music including a 15 minute epic piece, "A Road from Somewhere," featuring Steve Roach. Biff describes the album as "Somewhat more aggressive and intense than "Reading the Bones," it has the groove factor taking a more active role on some tracks. And, of course, the Broad Vista signature harmonic textures are in full bloom for this release, also."

MIRAGE AT THE CROSSROADS offers subliminally layered textural compositions, lending an exotic, mysterious and truly hypnotic depth to the sound mix. It is a more intense continuation of Biff Johnson's journey into esoteric soundhikes and audio imagery. From deep space minimalism like "Lighthouse in the Firmament", to the extraordinary sonic depth and range of pieces like "Five Sticks Burning", and "Rust on the Blade", to occasional use of subtly ethnic instrumentational accents like those in "Urban Ritual", the music constantly flows and evolves, yet it's so completely mesmerising, with a strange, eerie beauty and inner depths. A late-night listening gem.

Biff turns music into electrical currents that are transformed into softly energized atmospheres, sometimes lighter, sometimes spacier, but always interesting. Highly recommended. 

--Ben Kettlewell, Alternative Music Press

http://www.alternatemusicpress.com/reviews/biff_johnson.html