Mogwai and post-rock

[Fulham Road Lights]

I've been really getting into Mogwai recently after my mate got tickets for the February tour and, having always known the name of the band but never really listening to them, I decided to give them a go. I've always liked Sigur Ros and Mogwai came across as a much more interesting, cleverer version (although this is an over-generalisation based on the fact that it's the same genre, Sigur Ros are great in their own way). Nearly every song from their five (I think) albums has a real achey, beautiful feel, largely eschewing vocals in favour of these very grand soundscapes. It's music to relax to and it's music to have a very artistic experience to, there is just so many layers to the sound. I think this is true of a lot of post-rock bands and it's going to sound amazing live IMO. Any other fans of the genre out there? Who are your favourite bands?

 

[Qvist]

I've been a huge Mogwai fan for more than ten years, and I can understand why you got into them after going to a gig - it all seems to come together and make sense when you see them live. And they've never put out a weak album. They are all of them very, very good.

Frankly I haven't found anything else within Post-rock that I like even nearly as good as them (unless you'd consider Stereolab Postrock). I find Tortoise frankly unlistenable. Godspeed you Black Emperor have their moments, but it's all so...heavy, and edgy. Like Prune Porridge with salt on it. Two bands I've enjoyed a bit more recently are Do, Make, Say, Think and an offshoot from GYBA, A Silver Mt. Zion. Sigur Ros aren't bad, but like many other Postrock bands, I find they tend to display a sort of dredging and messy heaviness whenever they try to go big and intense. But Mogwai has a certain harmonic quality and organic flow and even grace, where the others tend to bombastically force things with mixed results.

I wonder if that doesn't come from their influences. When you listen to certain tracks on Brian Eno/Harmonia's Tracks and Traces from 1976, there are songs there that you could've stuck on any Mogwai album, although quieter of sound of course. But they have the same harmonics, the same looping structure and the same organic feel to them.

Mogwai's "essence" album by the way is in my opinion perhaps their least well known - the soundtrack to Zidane - a 21st century legend. Just really stripped down and long and repetetive and absolutely lovely. And it shows what they are about, with no attractive beats or flashy licks to speed you along.