Review: Moloch (Ukr)

"In einer Umarmung von tiefen kalten Wäldern" (2010)

(In the Embrace of the Deep Cold Woods)

"Apathisches Licht von einem rotschwarzen Horizont" (2010)

(Apathetic Light from a Red-Black Horizon)

Prolific Ukrainian BM artist Moloch has many ambient-only releases within his extensive discography, but this pair of short EPs (both released in May 2010) greatly appeal to my diminutive attention span; I find myself these days preferring shorter releases like EPs and mini-albums over long full-length albums. Both EPs feature 3 tracks, totalling 15 and 10 minutes respectively.

The music on offer here is Winter Synth of the highest order; crepuscular meditations on the natural world, windswept and moody synth vignettes that are perfectly complemented by the cover photography. There are occasions (more so on "Apathisches Licht...") where the music treads the grey area between the twin realms of Winter Synth and Dungeon Synth (or "mine" and "Andrew's", as I've come to think of them!) - albeit a fairly gentle, relaxed form of DS. As a whole, however, it definitely falls more on my side of the fence, especially given the thematic nature of the artwork and titles (should this be a factor in defining music? A point for future discussion, perhaps).

Both of these (and the rest of Moloch's discography) can be downloaded from the artist's BandCamp page, at a price of your choosing.


Apologies for these short reviews, but my time (and ability to focus...) is severely limited these days. In order for this blog to thrive, I think I may need to resort to shorter posts like these.