Rave Tapes
Nearing two decades of musical exploration, Scotland’s Mogwai could remix their catalog and create new albums that would blow away any competition. But they\'re musicians foremost; writing, jamming, crafting, and modifying their music is what they do. *Rave Tapes* is a gorgeous, if surprisingly sedate, look at what time in their Castle of Doom recording studios yielded in 2013, at a time when they’d completed their delicious score for the French TV show *Les Revenants* and were performing their music for *Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait*. This emphasis on incidental music led their own album into cathartic yet sweetly mild tracks such as “Deesh” and “Remurdered,” where the sense of danger is matched with a symmetry and harmony that keeps the music beautiful from end to end. “Repelish” humorously dovetails modest power chords with some square narration regarding the once-perceived “satanism” of Led Zeppelin’s music. On “Master Card,” Mogwai raise the tempo and the guitar riffs for a track unlike much else on *Rave Tapes*.
Mogwai's eighth album outside their soundtrack and remix work has been framed in terms of its increased use of electronics. The instrumentation has indeed shifted, but Rave Tapes digs hard into a place they've consistently circled back to throughout their career.
Nothing can mellow a band quite like time. Nearly two decades into pushing various iterations of intensely sprawling post-rock instrumentals, Mogwai has both flirted with and rebelled against the measured calm of experience and age—increasingly exploring quieter, reflective tones in numerous soundtrack scores since…
The post-rock veterans continue to evolve with a moody, understated eighth record
Since their inception, Mogwai have managed to exist as both a gold standard for instrumetal aficionados as well as a…
If Mogwai were a movie, they’d probably be a horror movie. A sense of dread has long stalked the band’s discography, from The Exorcist-referencing artwork of CODY to the werewolves, vampires and skeletons that lurk amidst their irreverent song titles. Last year the connection tightened with their inspired score for zombie drama Les Revenants; now, the band’s appreciation of John Carpenter manifests again in prominent, unsettling synths, making Rave Tapes one of their most haunting albums to date.
Sadly, post-rock heroes Mogwai continue to plod along by either replicating their former triumphs in a less effective, less effecting, and generally sheeny-shinier manner or by loafing around with the cack-handed utilization of "progressive" electronic el
Album review: Clash assesses 'Rave Tapes', album eight from Scottish post-rock band Mogwai
Mogwai still mix shards of noise with more contemplative moments to good effect, writes <strong>Ally Carnwath</strong>
Review Of Mogwai's New LP "Rave Tapes". The album comes out on January 20th through Subpop/Rock Action. The first single from the LP is "Remurdered".
Mogwai's terrific new album is a powerful musical tale of late-night hedonism and morning-after regret, writes <strong>Harriet Gibsone</strong>
New sounds but no radical changes in direction for Scottish post-rockers. By Guy Oddy