Nexsound – experimental, ambient, noise, improv record label

Review

Fakejazz

the Moglass/Tom Carter & Vanessa Arn-Snake – Tongued / Swallow-Tailed

The easiest way for me to explain why Tom Carter’s music clicks for me is that when he’s “on” I don’t think about the fact that his music and style are so absurdly limiting and obscure. The places he goes and the momentum he gains transcends the natural analyst in me, and I close my eyes and float, letting the music carry me. Such is the case with the new collaboration with Vanessa Arm. Evoking the mist and haze from burnt offerings, the first track realigns your brain’s sense of time. The second, with it’s expansive, hushed whispers realigns it’s sense of space.
The Moglass’ contributions are yet another batch of stellar songs from this largely unheralded group. Driting tones, distant hums and gentle sheets of sound gather and collect around your skull, bending your head as you drift out on waves of transmissions from deep in a remote forest.

Fakejazz

The Moglass – Telegraph poles are getting smaller and smaller as the distance grows

Seamlessly incorporating textures from far-reaching extremes (AMM to Tortoise to The Cocteau Twins), The Moglass are an intriguing group from the Ukraine. Though recorded nearly 4 years ago, and released a while ago, I’ve just received a copy through the fakejazz corporate office.
Gurgling synths and pillowy textures introduce the album, giving the impression that The Moglass would have been right at home playing in an Ann Arbor living room in 1996. For the next two tracks however, the band aims straight for the sun with astral clatter, chirping electronics, reverse looping and structureless improvisations that seem to be occasionally subject to an easily distracted mind (which is good, as the parts being played and explored shift and redirect themselves, keeping the songs fresh).
Though, as with most improvisational music, there are a few times where a part is overplayed, and an idea is pounded into the ground. The Moglass are a guitar/bass/electronics trio, so while their instrumentation lends itself to these improvisational pieces, the more straightforward, composed “songs” have a unique twist, as they are all drumless. This gives the band an understated quality that plays to the strengths inherent in the bands’ moody textures. Four of the album’s 6 tracks are at or well beyond the 10-minute mark, which allows these moods to build, contract, and spread themselves heavily. The airy texture of the fourth track plays perfect counterpoint to the jarring loop in the fifth. The album ends with a minimal foray deep into the world of careening electronics and pulsing tones. Not many albums begin sounding like a tribute to Grimble Grumble and end sounding like a tribute to Xenakis. Hopefully The Moglass will keep making more of these.
sean hammond