Mogwai Compile Rave Tapes

Mogwai are a band I want to hate. Simply put I can't stand the personalities of the people who make up this band; their pretentious dispositions and hatred of fellow musicians are annoying. And yet despite all that it never gets in the way of just how awesome a band Mogwai are. Ego's aside, these guys can play the heck out of a song and their latest album Rave Tapes is proof enough of that.

Rave Tapes is not a seventy minute album of bangers as the name might suggest, but rather an expansive tripped out voyage into a Nagel painting floating in space. Vocoders, keys, droned out riffs, driving beats all mesh together in a web of atmospheric sound collages that could rival anything by a 20th century abstract artist. The songs that make up Rave Tapes could seemingly go on forever in an endless repetition of amazingness and that would be ok. Hypnotic, potentially infinite, and ridiculously beautiful Mogwai in a single album proves that post-rock is as strong as ever. Mogwai have built a record so ensconced in expansiveness and ambiance that even Brian Eno would have to stop and shake his head at.

Rave Tapes is digital. Rave Tapes is analog. Rave Tapes is the future and it sounds amazing. Mogwai have swung for the fences and knocked it out of the yard with this record. It's not often you want to listen to an instrumental record over and over but this one of those occasions. Easily the finest droney album you will come across this year and it's only February; everyone else should just go home now.

Mogwai's Top Of The Earth Division

Mogwai's latest opus is a short four song single by the name of Earth Division and is rather interesting in the fact that there's singing in it and the first song sounds like, "Bruce Banner's Theme," from the Incredible Hulk TV show. Outside of that, the other two songs are the usual instrumental post rock brilliance that this gang of Merry Scottsmen creates with each record they release. Expansive and powerful as the lion the cover would suggest, the record isn't necessarily vicious except perhaps in a dramatic and creative sense. However, there's no denying that Earth Division is a sweeping and dramatic little record that shows these veterans on top of their game.

As much as I dislike Mogwai for insulting Blur 15 years ago, I respect them enough to know that they are amazing musicians and can create atmospheres better than Mother Nature herself. That being said, Earth Division is a pretty essential EP for Mogwai junkies and post rock fans everywhere.

Mogwai Will Die

When it comes to pretentious bands no on the planet is more pretentious than Mogwai. No other band has had a bigger ego and sold so few records in the history of the recording industry. Famously knocking bands like blur for being popular, it now seems ironic that they have endorsements. So with their feet firmly planted in their proverbial mouths, they've got to really do something to impress me with their records. Thankfully, with the ironically hip play on words, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will they've at least managed to peak my interest.

This predominantly instrumental album sees Mogwai grinding post rock into dust and then recycling it into something that at times sounds like Stereolab without vocals. With massive soundscapes careening out of their guitars and drums that sound like mini earthquakes Mogwai plod their way through this record as if their lives depended on it. They really do need to learn to relax a bit. Lucky for them, after a gazillion albums these guys are very good at what they do, can kind of coast and allow their smugness and intensity to be overshadowed by the fact that as a band they are an imaginative bunch.

Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will is an expansive landscape of distorted but controlled chaos that's not the best post rock record in the world...but it's darn near close. Needless to say...I’m impressed...I still hate them...but I’m impressed with what they've been able to do. So congrats to you Mogwai.