A student of Scratch Orchestra member Philip Dadson, Roberts approaches composed sound-sculpture via the Orchestra's meta-musical intercourse of exploratory improvisation. Roberts takes a performance-based approach to the presentation of sound, relying on unconventional "prepared" and "table-top" guitar treatments and a free-flowing phraseology of texture and timbre. The three long pieces that comprise 1998's ALL CRACKED MEDIAS, Roberts' first recording for Mille Plateaux, employ guitars, piano, and various percussive devices in an effective, one-man emulation of the directive that drives revered British improv ensemble AMM.
Roberts embraces AMM's sedimentary process, producing laminate strata of tones, bowed-metal sonorities, percussive treatments, and discontinuous string scraping, noise, and piano-pounding interjections. That said, MEDIAS possesses a post-digital character quite removed from AMM's ultra-organic trademark. Roberts' apparent use of the computer in arranging, assembling, and relating sounds-particularly on the 26-minute "Kompakt Arcade"-emerges as an intriguing progression and introduces an exciting new wrinkle into a vital but somewhat under-explored dynamic.
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