Album Review: Mogwai – “Rave Tapes”

By: Calum Slingerland –

The opportunity to provide some wonderful background sonics to a film project such as Les Revenants and touring their score for Zidane is directly where Scottish post-rockers Mogwai draw from on their latest release, Rave Tapes. It’s an album which carries itself on cinematic feel from start to finish while still treading a line between the raucousness and restraint dynamics they are so often cited for wielding. A slight shift from 2011’s guitar-fueled Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will,  it stands as rather a mature, refined step in their storied career.

The opportunity to provide some wonderful background sonics to a film project such as Les Revenants and touring their score for Zidane is directly where Scottish post-rockers Mogwai draw from on their latest release, Rave Tapes. It’s an album which carries itself on cinematic feel from start to finish while still treading a line between the raucousness and restraint dynamics they are so often cited for wielding. A slight shift from 2011’s guitar-fueled Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will,  it stands as rather a mature, refined step in their storied career.

Dialing back the louder six-string moments has made way for more of an electronic presence with Rave Tapes, evidenced in the Krautrock calculations of “Remurdered” or the steadiness of “Simon Ferocious”. That isn’t to say all guitar work has been cast aside. “Hexon Bogon” and “Mastercard” still provide some, yet it just doesn’t seem to drive as hard as it did three years ago. The unnerving nature of “Repelish” sees the band take a sample from an evangelist condemning the alleged satanic backmasking of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”.

As much as Mogwai can seemingly blow things wide open with crashing drums and guitars they bring at any point, a lot of the record’s beauty lies in its softer moments. Instrumental ballad “Heard About You Last Night” opens things in a wonderful fashion, akin to wandering slowly through a dream. Later cut “Blues Hour” functions in a similar fashion, though making sure to include grander guitar crescendos and the softest of vocals. Vocoder waltz “The Lord Is Out of Control” provides a heady exit. All three of these tracks give an excellent tip of the hat to the fragility they’ve been expert at creating since their inception.

There doesn’t seem to be any real rush towards reinvention by Mogwai with Rave Tapes, and that’s perfectly alright. It’s a well-conducted sonic journey brought to life by a well-oiled post-rock machine.

Essential Tracks: “Blues Hour”, “Heard About You Last Night” and “Repelish”.