Search - Set Fire to Flames :: Telegraphs in Negative: Mouths Trapped in Static

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Jonathan S. Roberts | Austin, Texas | 09/09/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The title aforementioned is the feeling I got from this album...emptiness. A reviewer on a UK site put it very aptly by saying this album is "all your beautiful memories and loves washed up in front of you only to wash away forever," or something like that. This album will drain you if you let it. On first listen you might not know what to think, because there simply isn't that much "music" on here. No real movements. Some songs are a single movement, some are nothing at all really.



So what is it exactly? Well...I'm not really sure. I kind of wanted to know what this collective group (comprised of members of hangedup, godspeed, fly pan am, and someothers(?)) was thinking while making this, or how they did it exactly. They do play things, but it barely has any form, but it's still cooridinated, which is really almost paradoxical. The tracks are very rarely sweet and are usually the worst/confusing/vacuous parts of your life put into musical form. It's almost like the imagery in a silent hill game but for your ears, which if you know what I'm talking about this is quite a thing to experience.



However, this is actually a very difficult album to listen to. One that you literally HAVE to grow accustomed to, because you probably won't really like it that much. I didn't. But after a second listen I was starting to GET it, and when you finally start to get it everything seems to have a bit more of a place. This is by no means a godspeed record, it's nothing close to that. I've heard comparisons drawn to f#a# but this is much more subtle and ambient. But I do feel like f#a# had much more of a purpose, because it does have movements and crescendos. But at the same time this emptiness is what is so attractive about these apparent telegraphs in negative.



On a side note, this cd has some of the coolest packaging I've ever seen. It's almost worth buying the album for this reason alone, I really mean it. It's damn haunting, and as esoteric as you can get. And naturally the track names put question marks in your head. Oh, and don't buy this from fatcat (record co.) if you're not in UK, it's damn expensive."

Random humans scuffling about.

Brian Lange | Chicago, IL | 06/23/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I purchased "Telegraphs in Negative" and "Sings Reign" together.



Being from the 'post-rock' genre and having members from GYBE, I had very little fear that this would be a bad purchase. And I was right.



As I describe in my review of "Sings Reign", it's haunting, calming and inspiring... and to be perfectly honest I would probably rate these albums higher than most Godspeed albums (as well as Mogwai, ASMZ, etc) This record I don't like QUITE as much as "Sings Reign", but only by a narrow margin. This is a double disc album, providing 90 minutes of nightmarish dreamscapes... it is even MORE experimental than "Sings Reign" (the addition of more random human scuffling about) and you can almost sense how much more the band members are strung out or intoxicated or whatever. (If you read a blurb about these records, it is stated that they isolated themselves in remote locations with very little contact with the outside world and would stay awake for long periods of time)



In any case, I find both of Fire to Flames' records to be amazing bodies of work. Granted it is not the type of music for everyone. But whether listening to it intensely or just playing in the background... I think it will have a lasting effect on you.



A great addition for any ambient/experimental/post-rock collection."

Empty eerie

IRate | 12/01/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"It is a shame I can consciously hear myself rooting out any musical qualities (in other words, the small, actually composed aspects which remind of Godspeed) in these pretentious, depressive drones. Although they do create and sustain some uncomfortably bleak moods, especially on the longer pieces, many of these heavily sampled, anti-musical soundscapes sound like nothing rather then articulate nothingness. A primal metallic screeching and swelling works when locked in its rhythmic death-grip ala related projects Hangedup but comes up vacant when solely making sonic statements."