Kevin Myers may have a bone to pick with the Scots, but one area in which even the armchair colonel might concede that the nation has excelled over the past 10 years is that of musical output. Certainly, Mogwai and their compatriots Boards Of Canada would be right at the top of the list of bands I would rate as the best in the world during that period.
Mogwai’s live shows, in particular, are truly spectacular affairs, with their masterful mix of incredibly atmospheric, other-worldly melodies and apocalyptically heavy sonic blitzkriegs proving to be a remarkably potent mix. The show they played at the Red Box in April 2001 remains one of the finest I’ve ever seen, while the four or five other performances of theirs I’ve witnessed were never less than compelling and frequently awe-inspiring.
And the Mogwai live experience is a key factor on their fifth album. Capturing the energy of their relentlessly intense gigs was Stuart Braithwaite and Co’s foremost ambition for this album, and the good news is that the band have succeeded in considerable style. The first highlight arrives in the colossal form of ‘Glasgow Mega-Snake’, which is a huge, snarling animal of a tune built around monstrous guitar riffs and pounding drums. They repeat the same trick on ‘Folk Death 95’, a track which – not to put too fine a point on it – made the fucking hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Similarly to revered tunes such as ‘Like Herod’, ‘Xmas Steps’ and ‘Ratts Of The Capital’, it builds from slight beginnings (a spine-tingling guitar figure and repetitive drum rhythm) into a blizzard of overpowering white noise. Much like the aforementioned tracks, it is also likely to become a favourite in Mogwai’s live shows.
Of course, the ’Gwai are far from being a one-trick pony, and the quiet lamentation of ‘Acid Food’, the space age melancholia of ‘Team Handed’ and the mournful strains of ‘I Chose Horses’ (sung in Japanese courtesy of Tetsuya Fukagawa) offer an excellent counterpoint to the album’s more chaotic moments.