Album title: Mogul Thrash
Artist: Mogul Thrash
Nationality: English
Label: RCA
Chronology: Debut and only
Grade: C
Tracklisting: Something Sad/ Elegy/ Dreams of Glass & Sand/ Going North, Going West/ St. Peter/ What’s This I Hear
Comments: The only album ever recorded by this band, it did feature one of the first, maybe the first, appearance of John Wetton, as well as a member of Colosseum and, um, the Average White Band? The band name was based on a sketch by legendary comedian Spike Milligan, apparently. Blasting guitar opening which actually reminds me of the previous album, the Uriah Heep one, then lots of brass, not surprisingly given there are two of the hornmen from AWB here. Quite jazzy, upbeat and uptempo, nice bass line. Wetton’s voice is a little low in the mix I feel, but clear enough. For a song so titled though it’s curiously uptempo but I have fears it may be too long at seven and a half minutes. Slowing down now on I guess tenor sax then a whining guitar solo. Interestingly, for a band said to be a prog rock one (at least partially; mostly I think they’re more jazz) there are no keyboards here, except where Brian Auger guests on “St. Peter”, and then it’s only piano.
Again, I would have expected a song called “Elegy” to be a ballad, but not a bit of it. More hard guitar and a tight rhythm section as the song barrels along with a sense of psych meets hard rock, edges of Santana maybe, certainly a good workout for the guitar from James Litherland. This one though is two minutes longer than the opener, and that felt stretched as it was. Is it likely this could be an instrumental? At nine minutes? Well it’s halfway through now and oh there’s the vocal. Quite soulful really, worth the buildup. I reckon that’s Litherland though, as he’s shown as handling vocals too, and being the founder it’s likely Wetton would have been relegated to either singing on one or two tracks or maybe he just does backing or harmony vocals. This almost certainly is not him though; it’s a much stronger, more confident, powerful voice, the voice of a man who has already been in a band and knows his way around a mike.
Not quite so much brass in this; they really tail it back and allow the guitar to take over the song, but overall I must admit I find it a little boring. The horns are back in force for “Dreams of Glass & Sand”, which is at least a more manageable five minutes, sense of mariachi trumpet in here too, sort of not bad, but I haven’t heard anything to really change my mind as to the impression I had when I listened to this originally some years ago. I must admit I’m not looking forward to the twelve-minute “Going North, Going West”, starts off rocky enough with a sense of Van der Graaf Generator maybe, vocal pretty strident with an interesting idea of psychedelia thrown in, a good workout on the alto (?) sax, then a slow, sultry passage on I guess baritone sax (I’m not at all familiar with the different types of this instrument so I’m guessing and going from the liner notes too) which is quite nice, almost Mancini-esque.
Builds up into a nice instrumental which puts me in mind of seventies Supertramp, particularly the midsection in “Rudy” from
Crime of the Century - I suppose Roger and Rick could have heard this album and it might have influenced them when writing that song. Or maybe it’s just coincidence. Guitar taking over now, and I’m sorry but I’m never going to get away from comparing it to Carlos Santana; it just sounds so much like him, which I guess Litherland should take as a compliment. You know, I just notice now that there’s a pyramid on the cover and Asia’s logo features one. I wonder if Wetton… yeah, I’m that interested in the music that my attention is wandering in those directions. It’s a thought though.
There’s that piano now on “St. Peter”. It does change the focus of the music somewhat, though the horns can’t wait to push their way in can they. That sounds like Wetton now on the vocals. It’s the shortest and probably the least annoying track on the album so far, but now we’re back to a seven-minute one with the closer, “What’s This I Hear”, which seems to come in very slowly and quietly on alto(?) sax then a full brass chorus. This is very harsh with a kind of Gary Moore blues vibe and I think it might be the one I like least, which is saying something. Oh wait there’s a lovely laid back smoky sax part here which might go some way towards saving the track. Yeah that’s really nice, I have to say. It’s quickly blasted away by heavy rock guitar though and if I had to compare this to anyone it would be I think Hendrix. Doesn’t really come across to me as any real sort of prog.
Favourite track(s): St. Peter (barely)
Least favourite track(s):
Overall impression: No change from when I originally listened to this. I didn’t like it then and I don't like it now. As a curiosity, it’s interesting to hear John Wetton so young, but other than that, no. Too much brass, too much hard rock, and I can’t really hear anything here that even comes close to what I would describe as progressive rock.
Personal Rating: 2.0
Legacy Rating: 2.0
Final Rating: 2.0