Mogwai | Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will

Sub Pop (2011)
By DANIEL BROCKMAN  |  March 17, 2011
3.0 3.0 Stars

 MOG

There's a fine line in the post-punk instrumental world between mind-blowing musical ecstasy and, uh, whatever is playing underneath the guy who says, "Well, there's an app for that." It's a line the Scottish tracksuit wearers in the 'Wai have been toeing since they began, back when Brian Eno had just created the new Windows theme tune and it seemed there was at last a heavy antidote to the crimes of nü-metal. At their best, Mogwai replicate the sound of an advancing army of electric warriors, taking simple made-up-at-rehearsal riffs and drilling them into your cerebellum with staggered replication and ante-upped distorto levels. The cumulative effect can be like listening to a church choir doing canons while simultaneously crushing OCs on your bicuspids, one at a bloody time. On their latest - which sees the band reunited with Paul Savage, knob twiddler on their '97 debut, Young Team - the quieter moments are even quieter than usual, as on the Air-y "Letters to the Metro," and the decibel tests are as gnarly as ever, with the mind-squashing moments of standout "Rano Pano" and closer "You're Lionel Ritchie" duplicating the sound of gladiator shields clashing in your ear.

Related: Cold Cave | Cherish the Light Years, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds | Expanded Collectors Editions | Let Love In | Murder Ballads | The Boatman's Call | No More Shall We Part, Blank Dogs | Collected By Itself 2006-2009, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Brian Eno, Mogwai, post-punk,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY DANIEL BROCKMAN
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   THE STROKES | COMEDOWN MACHINE  |  March 18, 2013
    The Strokes burst out in a post-9/11 musical world with a sound that was compact and airtight, melodies coiled frictionlessly in beats and fuzzed vocals.
  •   KMFDM IS A DRUG AGAINST BORE  |  March 13, 2013
    "In hindsight, honestly, it's almost impossible how it all happened."
  •   PALLBEARER SURVIVE EXTINCTION  |  February 20, 2013
    We all know that there is nothing more metal than a war.
  •   WHAT'S F'N NEXT? CHVRCHES  |  February 01, 2013
    If you are in a band and you've heard of Chvrches, you probably hate them.
  •   GLISS | LANGSOM DANS  |  February 01, 2013
    If rock and roll is three chords and the truth, then the mutant genre offspring shoegaze can be summed up as one chord, three fuzzboxes, and a sullen, muttered bleat.

 See all articles by: DANIEL BROCKMAN