Jazzeast

Things not usually found on Mogwai records are lyrics, or choruses and verses. They are inclined to be concealed in the blend when there are words and the lyrics are only another instrument.

Lots of Mogwai’s music is abstract, testing with texture and contrast and tones. Rock Action, their third record, starts with “Sine Wave”. Percussion creeps in and so deformed that you think your amplifier had blown their speakers. Guitars fill out the close sound, growing increasingly louder, and after four minutes it all sweeps away. It’s played on rock devices, but it’s closer to the works of twentieth century writers like Arnold Schoenberg and Steve Reich. This is one of the most thrilling music today.

Mogwai see themselves as a rock band. Once, they played in a concert with seated viewers and it made them feel uneasy. Their love of roll and rock sweat is so good that when they came into a dressing room used formerly by Iggy Pop, they inhaled the remaining Iggish perfume on the sofa. The band is comprised of five Scottish young men, aged twenty-three to twenty-seven, with thick brogues that mainly Americans audiences can appreciate. The five-foot-five Braithwaite is the frontman of Mogwai. He loves doing interviews, winning arguments, and talking to the audience. The best cook in the group is Martin Bullock the drummer, an expert of a Scotchman Chinese restaurant. The group’s king on video games is the bassist Dominic Aitchison. John Cummings, the guitarist, is the thinker, prone to creating essays on the sound’s nature. Barry Burns, the utility infielder, serves as the assistant stand-up comedian.