Innsbruck’s MOLLY channel their alpine environs into mountain-gaze epics on this promising full-length debut

As mentioned before on these pages, London’s Sonic Cathedral has an unrepentant early-90s methodology in terms of operational choices. However, its A&R scope has an assuredly globalist early-21st century reach. In just the last twelve or so months the label has put out aural produce beamed-in from Guadalajara (Lorelle Meets the Obsolete), Malmö (Echo Ladies), Buenos Aires (Sobrenadar) and nearer-by Wigan (Mark Peters). That’s before we even talk about the internationalist spread of this year’s currently rolling seven-inch singles club series. Therefore, Sonic Cathedral co-signing-up Austria’s MOLLY (in tandem with Dalliance Recordings), for All That Ever Could Have Been, fits entirely into its niche but insularity-free approach.

Based in Innsbruck, the duo of Lars Andersson (guitars/vocals) and Phillip Dornauer (drums/keyboards) are unashamedly influenced by the Austrian Alps that surround them as much as they are by the heritage of seminal shoegaze, dream-pop and post-rock outfits. Following on from a series of EPs that have emerged since 2016, this stretched-out inaugural full-length doesn’t hold back on its somewhat ostentatious expansiveness and melancholic moods.

Opener “Coming of Age” sets the stall out as an unapologetically grand near-fifteen-minute statement of intent, through waves of spiralling reverb-and-delay-drenched guitars, slow-beaten drums and drowsy clouded-over vocals that join the dots between murky-80s 4AD, Ride’s Nowhere, fledgling-phase Sigur Rós and Piano Magic’s more six-string-centric wares. Intriguingly, it doesn’t drag in the slightest, even though the essential components of its quarter-hour construction shift only sparingly over the drawn-out duration. Thereafter, the twosome twist and turn similar sonic configurations for the remainder of the album, bringing subtle additions and different angles to the core template.

Thus, “The Fountain of Youth”, “As Years Go By” and “Weep, Gently Weep” all share a languid mournful pull that cross-breeds Galaxie 500’s On Fire with the most sprawling segments of Lush’s Spooky and Split. Elsewhere, the ornithological field recordings and Andersson’s more up-front tones on “Vogelnest” bring in greater light and space; the plaintive piano framings and Durutti Column guitar treatments of the ten-minute title-track gradually bleed into a swirling Slowdive-like coda; a pellucid minimal backdrop underpins the affecting balladry of “Slowly”’; and “Coming of Age, Pt.2” closes proceedings with a graceful yet cryptic air by marrying a piano étude to a distorted disembodied spoken-word monologue.

Those who once sold-off their shoegaze records to replace them with grunge and then Britpop albums might have conflicted feelings about All That Ever Could Have Been. To some it will painfully remind them of all the now collectible Creation 12-inch EPs they should have kept over subsequent more ephemeral fare, to others it might evoke bad memories of pale floppy-haired men overly-transfixed by their own effects pedals. Yet, those no longer conditioned by NME and Melody Maker taste-setters in our more open-eared musical times should just be able to appreciate All That Ever Could Have Been as an impressively immersive experience, which goes deep inside itself whilst also looking-out on to timeless vistas.

soniccathedral.co.uk

dalliancerecordings.com

Adrian
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