This Ukrainian trio manifest a spacey series ofsounds over the course of the half dozen tracks presented here. Guitar,bass and electronics combine to create these hazy soft industrialexcursions. Like a small organic factory, pulsing and spitting out thesefragile mutable sonic textures as it spins lazily in space. The thirdtrack has a fragile folkish aspect that gets phased and shifted though arevolving multifaceted cut crystal, while a frog croaks, other subtlenatural sounds caress the periphery of this mechanical core, and anarrhythmic guitar navigates a narrow trail on a high sheer rockface.Rather than play in unison, the instruments here seem to overlap insubtle moire patterns as the pieces unravel. Navigating the twistedterrain of a discarded foil gum wrapper in microscopic vehicles, andobserving all of the delicate details. They also claim Paul Bowles booksas an influence; and there is a similar detachment in their work; as ifit was all watched as it unfolded from a chilly distance.
George Parsons
Review
The Moglass – Telegraph poles are getting smaller and smaller as the distance grows
First of all there was Ambient, which freed music from the need to impose itself upon the listener – though you can, if you like, pay attention and even sing along to “classics” like Music for Airports -, then Tortoise-era post-rock (since I rediscovered Simon Reynolds’ article on the subject in Audio Culture I can use the term with some confidence) loosened the idea of structure, and nowadays more recent practitioners (post-post-rock? New Weird post-folk? what shall we call them?) from JOMF to Vibracathedral to Sunburned Hand Of The Man have more or less dispensed with material altogether, preferring straggly drones or endlessly unravelling, never-resolving melodies. There’s a little of all the abovementioned bands in the music of The Moglass, plus traces of Fripp, Harold Budd, Richard Pinhas, Tangerine Dream, the Cocteau Twins (without the voice), Mikhail Chekalin (though that might be my imagination) and, standing back in the shadows, Pink Floyd, Angus Maclise and the Grateful Dead – surely the first post-rock band, if eternal spaced out noodling is what post-rock’s all about. Get beyond the bland, watery Orbishness of track one and the spooky noodling of track two and check out the third track. Over a shuffling triple time groove, guitars and keyboards intertwine and drift off into the pale sepia horizon of the album cover (great album name too, by the way), but somehow, magically, the music holds the attention. I say “magically” because there’s no real reason why it should: the melodic shapes, though recurring, never quite stick in the mind, there’s no harmony to speak of, and even the groove seems to disappear after a while. After the fourth track a more conventionally Ambient (i.e. heavy on the reverb) gentle dip into and out of distant echoing pentatonic Cold Blue pools, track five’s rhythmic loop makes the Industrial / industrial connection clearer – though Yuri Kulishenko (guitar), Vladimir Bovtenko (bass) and Oleg Kovalchuk (electronics), were all probably in nappies when Throbbing Gristle set up shop. It’s such variety and openness that makes Telegraph Poles such a fine album, and one worth seeking out – though I suspect copies are already hard to find.
DW
The Moglass – Telegraph poles are getting smaller and smaller as the distance grows
There is something in common with the gaps of time Dr. Who onceexperienced that cavorts with this new recording from this Ukraniantrio. A heightened sense of proper weight carries each measure andstuns the ear with its sweet bass drones. A surrealistic blend ofuntailored improv, with a film noir edge. ‘Telegraph’ is The Moglass’post-rock take on modern sound by these guys who have been around fora handful of years reconstructing guitars into atonal minimalism. Ilike this record because it utilizes guitar in a way that the beefyinstrument doesn’t have to take center stage. The darker lines ofobservation grow and grow on track four where the haunted chamber ofbraided electronics surrounds and envelops you. The mix is ananalytical search and destroy approach to its own past. These gentshave taken fair risks in implementing something this freely informed,but there are moments where the repetition just goes on a bit toolong as on track five where the patters avenge my nerves. The damage,if it were, is made up as the thirteen minute closing track is justan investigative sonic pleasure. The strings bow with taut curiousityand tenuous mediation. Playing with fire could get you burned, ormight make way for a greater elemental magic. This sizzles slowly.
(TJN)
The Moglass – Telegraph poles are getting smaller and smaller as the distance grows
How to describe the music of Moglass? Well, it’s a mixture of glitch electronica and acoustic instruments, mostly guitar and bass, surprisingly often played without much effects. Leaving room for layers of fresh sounding and melodic drones, which they themselves names “personal-folk”. One of the elements who contributes to the freshness of the sound is their love for analogue synths, it’s amazing what they makes these old boards do. As the title suggests the overall themes here are to do with space, travel and transformation. They makes each song a journey and forces you to see things anew. It’s like they describe the very land itself, the vastness and the changes. I’m impressed! I can’t name any favorites from this disc, as the song titles are in Russian, but they’re all good. If this is the quality Moglass stands fore, I’ll have to check out the earlier CD and their split 3 inch CD with Nihil Est Excellence. Both on NexSound.
The Moglass – Telegraph poles are getting smaller and smaller as the distance grows
Cross Ukraine off the list of Countries from which We’ve Never Received a CD. The Moglass are a self-described “guitar/bass/electronics” trio, which essentially means that they create sprawling ambient soundscapes — presumably loosely structured improvisations — peppered with familiar musical elements. The shortest of Telegraph poles…’ six tracks runs a modest five minutes; most are significantly longer. Sonically, they land somewhere in the midst of a triangle defined by the Aphex Twin, Roy Montgomery and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop circa 1982.These nameless tracks are built on foundations of looped samples or atmospheric keyboard effects; repetitive guitar figures, piano sequences and simple guitar progressions (or, in track three’s case, improvisational noodling) fill in the musical meat. Dropped-in samples and processed sounds are layered on as needed — everything from track three’s intermittently modified frog ribit to track six’s bouncy, IDM-friendly compressed vocal bytes.As is typically the case with this sort of material, it’s difficult to say much about the individual pieces without resorting to clumsy descriptions of de facto movements and transitions; suffice it to say that none of these pieces linger excessively on one expanse of sonic real estate. There’s little sense that The Moglass feel obligated to meet any expectations or deliver specific sonic stimuli — they’ve simply devoted themselves to that vaguest of musical holy grails, the Quest for Stuff that Sounds Cool. They’ve done well, too; each track is, in its way, enthralling, though a few of the grinding, clanking, mechanical background textures are creepy enough to lodge Telegraph poles… in horror film territory.The three guys who make up The Moglass reportedly recorded the majority of the disc on Christmas day, 2000. Crowding into a bedroom/basement/garage studio with two friends seems like an odd way to spend a holiday, but who are we to tell these guys when, where or how to make their music? Your time is better spent trying to hunt down a copy of Telegraph poles; only 500 were pressed, and they may already cost a small fortune on Ebay Ukraine…
— George Zahora
The Moglass – Telegraph poles are getting smaller and smaller as the distance grows
When I saw that these folks are from Ukraine and do “improvised drone” experimental music for guitar, bass, and electronics I just had to see what this sounded like. Would it be, y’know, different somehow? Or has the advent of global communication through the internet and such made it such that stuff from the other side of the world is gonna sound exactly the same as anywhere else? Well, I’m not sure that I got that question answered really (probably a bit too much to expect from a single CD!) but this is pretty darn cool nonetheless. For the most part Moglass creates floating, textural instrumentals, although unlike much dronescape stuff while they certainly love their effects pedals the instruments are often clearly discernable, even downright clean sounding at times. These folks are also more than happy to get dissonant and even dark and creepy, as they do on track two where a distorted guitar riff collides with tweaky electronics and drones. There are elements of glitchy electronica in a few tracks, but it never dominates the proceedings and is pretty subtle and creatively incorporated into their thing, and as one who is generally not a fan of that genre I did not find this aspect off-putting at all. Cool stuff!
The Moglass – Telegraph poles are getting smaller and smaller as the distance grows
This is an album of cinematic, sweeping instrumental electronica ala Tangerine Dream. Guitar and bass manipulations suggest a Fred Frith influence. However, the influence the band offers is Paul Bowles books. Just as the desert is itself a character in The Sheltering Sky, the most famous of Bowles’ books, so does this music suggest a haunting impressionism of the yawning emptiness of The Sahara that lied to the south of Bowles’ adopted Tangiers.
The Moglass – Telegraph poles are getting smaller and smaller as the distance grows
These guys were one of the ‘out of nowheres’ for last ish, coming straight outta the Ukraine with a disc that seemed like it was going to be standard drony improvised space-rock, and in fact even sounded like it was, but somehow just sort of refused to be. I called it “space-ug” and it was indeed this lost creepy kind of vibe that almost reminded me of the Conet Project. Here’s a followup that actually is a little less creepy, and maybe even slightly new-agey, but once again I just don’t mind. The Moglass just know what they’re doing. This one, along with the RH Band LP on HP Cycle, get the “Tangerine Dream” award for the issue.
The Moglass – Telegraph poles are getting smaller and smaller as the distance grows
The Moglass is a Ukrainian outfit recording on the Nexsound label who create drone / experimental works of free improv that are both relaxing and thoroughly engaging. The band’s style reminds me of a more abstract Godspeed You Black Emperor!, combining an epic feel with experimental ideas to form strong, emotional pieces that are distinctly avant-garde yet still remarkably melodic. Guitar improvisation is common throughout their debut album, Telegraph poles are getting smaller and smaller as the distance grows, as are long drones and a spacey, airy texture.As song titles are not given with Telegraph poles…, it is clear that The Moglass intended for the album to be taken as a whole. And as one big piece, it is very powerful. Listened to in a dark atmosphere with little extra sensory stimulation, the album is moody and at times a bit frightening. It is at once evil and beautiful; hauntingly resonating ambiances are fueled by guitar, drone, and field recordings.
Be warned, however, this is not a disc that you can toss aside and let fade into the background. Telegraph poles…, criminally limited to a mere 500 copies, is one of the year’s most complexly powerful albums; as long as you aren’t the type who’s bored to bits by avant-garde soundscapes, you’re bound to be moved in some way by this terrific disc.
89%
The Moglass – Telegraph poles are getting smaller and smaller as the distance grows
Discovery! Psychedelic-experimental! Echoes of Floyd, Dome, Heldon, Fripp and Krautrock! Track #2 sounds very lysergic, like a saucered Pink Floyd lost in the visuals of the ‘bad trip party scene’ of “Un Beau Monstre”. Track #3 is the highlight of this cd: it’s a true ‘Dome’ opus, rhythmically, albeit with a guitar which plays some traditional-folky elements. Other tracks are similar but more in experimental psychedelic directions or more droney, e.g. track #5, which may take a bit too long for some. Track #4 gets lost in soundtrack horrorama a bit but has nice Frippertronics-ish moments. I suppose this cd gets recommended to fans of GYBE / Silver Mount Zion and the like, but to me, this Ukranian act is a lot more interesting, at least on record. According to the band, the album “deals with space, motion and transformation; rail; Paul Bowles books.” To me, this cd is less of interest to trainspotters than to anyone with an adventurous ear, including those of you into post-industrial psychedelia or into obscure seventies psychedelia, ranging from Dashiell Hedayat to the Organisation… Or into Otar Ioseliani or Sergei Parajanov, obviously. Do hurry if you want to get hold of this limited 500-copies-only release. (pv)