Review Summary: Mogwai still fear Satan..
It’s difficult to describe Mogwai to someone who is unfamiliar with their work without making them sound uninteresting or inaccessible. The vast majority of their songs are devoid of any vocals, the average song length is around 8 minutes and, above anything else, atmosphere is key. However it is within these drawn out compositions that an emotional core can be found- this music is indeed made by real human beings with real instruments. Without any vocals for the listener it can be difficult to immediately connect with a song, but Mogwai have always been experts when it comes to conveying emotion simply through the use of instrumentals. They found their audience in 1997 with the now classic
Young Team, and further expanded upon the foundations they laid for themselves with
Come On Die Young in 1999. Since then Mogwai have released a string of successful post rock albums, each one slightly different from the last to warrant fans returning and giving it a listen.
Rave Tapes fits very nicely into the Mogwai canon and keeps in line with their tradition of forward motion and trying something new without doing something so left field that fans would cry foul. Opener “Heard About You Last Night” is a drowsy and yet blissful number, perfectly encapsulating the feeling of waking up on a Saturday morning and slowly piecing together all of the events that transpired the night before. This is one of the many moments on
Rave Tapes where Mogwai’s foray into electronics yields excellent results. If the main goal of a post-rock band is to create a heavy atmosphere for the listener to lose themselves in, Mogwai have succeeded with flying colours. The slowly building synths create the feeling of memories slowly returning to someone in a moment of revelation or sheer horror depending on your interpretation of the song. Where bands such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor have received criticism for being overly pretentious and serious, Mogwai can make music that has a more relatable and human touch while still being ethereal and dream-like. Hearing the climax of the song makes me think back to the Club Silencio scene in Mulholland Drive where Betty/Dianne suddenly realises that the events leading up to that moment were all an illusion and she subsequently breaks down as the reality of her situation comes flooding back to her.
Credit also has to be given to producer Paul Savage for making the album sound crisp and full whilst avoiding the minefield that is brick walling and compression. On “Remurdered” the analogue synths create an oppressive sci-fi atmosphere which on the surface is deceptively light-hearted but as the song progresses the distorted guitars and impactful drums create the impression that something is in fact very wrong. The song is essentially one long crescendo, which shouldn't be anything unfamiliar to long time Mogwai listeners, but it’s gripping nonetheless and definitely requires multiple listens before it can be fully digested. It’s very clear that Mogwai have taken inspiration from bands such as Goblin and the musical works of John Carpenter, with the analogue synths invoking visions of the future as it was imagined in films such as Blade Runner.
Stuart Braithwaite on horror movie scores inspiring the sound of Rave Tapes:
“Yeah, we like a lot of that music, and I think we were listening to more of it because we did the Les Revenants soundtrack”
One of the only regrettable moments on
Rave Tapes comes in the form of “Repelish”. Whilst instrumentally it fits in perfectly with the sound of the album, as distortionless guitars play in synchronisation with spacey synths, the sample feels extremely out of place and unnecessary. This is an idea Mogwai have used before on “Punk Rock” from
Come On Die Young, but whereas on that song the Iggy Pop sample was used as a mission statement for Mogwai and a way of establishing that they didn't want to do what everyone else was doing at the time (and also that they’re extremely passionate about their music), the sample on “Repelish” sounds like it’s trying to make a statement without actually saying anything of value. That would imply that it is a pretentious song, which would be an unfair way of undermining it because the instrumental is definitely one of the strongest found on
Rave Tapes, but hearing a man coldly explaining how Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven” contains hidden satanic messages adds absolutely nothing to the song and in the end it leaves you wishing they has just left it as an instrumental piece. Just because you have something in your song that sounds profound, that doesn’t make it so.
As with most Mogwai albums (
The Hawk Is Howling being the only exception), there is one song with actual vocals, provided this time by Braithwaite. The fittingly titled “Blues Hour” is one of the more genuinely sombre moments on the album, with Braithwaite’s whispered vocals being almost completely overpowered by a mournful piano and the distant sound of a lone snare. It’s an extremely sparse sounding song, which perfectly accompanies lyrics such as “train lines, going nowhere, no destination found”. It is in fact very reminiscent of Mogwai’s earlier sound, reminding the listener that even though years have passed and changes have been made to the core sound, the band they’re hearing is still the same one they fell in love with on albums such as
Young Team.
With
Rave Tapes, it’s very unlikely Mogwai set out with the goal of reinventing the wheel or completely altering the post-rock landscape. Instead they chose to do what they do best; make an album that is characteristically
Mogwai whilst still trying some new things, which in this case is adding more electronics into the mix. These electronics give the album a very retro and yet very futuristic feel, certainly a new direction for Mogwai which they will most likely pursue in the future.
