Album: Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003
Inevitably, Mogwai started out as being viewed in the same post-rock lineage as Slint, and Like Herod's working title (when it was being recorded for the Mogwai Young Team sessions) was indeed Slint. The song appears here in an even longer and louder version, giving a sense of how powerful the band are as live performers. I've heard Swans and Slint perform live, but nothing matches Like Herod for sheer intensity (it's enough to make the most stoic among us wince). Mogwai have of course evolved a long way from their early Slint-influenced records, and on the first track here, Hunted By A Freak (partly chosen, no doubt, as it has Peel introducing the band), you can hear them experimenting with shimmering synths. The mood of R U Still In 2 It is wonderfully mellow, but this version of the song sadly lacks the vocals of Aidan Moffat that appear in the original. New Paths To Helicon is one of Mogwai's most famous tracks, and here we have parts 1 and 2 (the first part appeared at No.2 in Peel's Festive Fifty in 1997). The dreamy piano melody plus the tension and drama built by the guitars combine to create atmospherics that are distinctively Mogwai. Other highlights for me are Cody, which has the same languid feel as Pink Floyd's Meddle, and Stop Coming To My House, which has the same epic and joyful atmospherics found in Sigur Rós' music. When I came across this article in the Guardian, listing Braithwaite's favourite songs, I wasn't surprised to see sonic innovators like My Bloody Valentine, Can and Aphex Twin listed, but the appearance of Dylan and Townes Van Zandt shows he's a man of expansive taste. Maybe one day the band will release a folk album (seems unlikely), but for now Mogwai are still a force to be reckoned with.
Artist: Mogwai
Born: Strathaven, South Lanarkshire
Released: February 2005
Genre: Post-rock
For me, it's fitting that a blog on Mogwai should follow one on Bloc Party given it was listening to the Scottish band's version of Plans on Silent Alarm Remixed (released in summer 2005) that provided my introduction to the band's work. For almost a decade, I was completely unaware of Mogwai's music. Like several other Scottish and Welsh bands that emerged in the late 90s, including the Super Furry Animals, Gorky's Zygotic Minci, Hefner and Arab Strap, they positioned themselves as anti-Britpop. In fairness, the height of Britpop coincided with the Euro '96 football tournament, which inevitably had a very Anglocentric feel and meant that many people living in the smaller home nations felt the urge to switch off. 1997 saw the release of Mogwai's first LP, Mogwai Young Team, on the Chemikal Underground label and it won critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. Many fans say it's their best album but I struggle to choose between their early records, liking Come On Die Young (1999) and Happy Songs For Happy People (2003) just as much. So that's why I've opted for the slight cop-out of their Peel sessions released in 2005, entitled Government Commissions, which contains some of the best tracks from their early period. Mogwai released the album as a tribute to John Peel, who died in 2004. Decent early YouTube footage of the band is hard to come by, so instead I've added the video of one of my favourite Mogwai tracks of recent times, the glorious I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead from 2008's The Hawk Is Howling.
For me, it's fitting that a blog on Mogwai should follow one on Bloc Party given it was listening to the Scottish band's version of Plans on Silent Alarm Remixed (released in summer 2005) that provided my introduction to the band's work. For almost a decade, I was completely unaware of Mogwai's music. Like several other Scottish and Welsh bands that emerged in the late 90s, including the Super Furry Animals, Gorky's Zygotic Minci, Hefner and Arab Strap, they positioned themselves as anti-Britpop. In fairness, the height of Britpop coincided with the Euro '96 football tournament, which inevitably had a very Anglocentric feel and meant that many people living in the smaller home nations felt the urge to switch off. 1997 saw the release of Mogwai's first LP, Mogwai Young Team, on the Chemikal Underground label and it won critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. Many fans say it's their best album but I struggle to choose between their early records, liking Come On Die Young (1999) and Happy Songs For Happy People (2003) just as much. So that's why I've opted for the slight cop-out of their Peel sessions released in 2005, entitled Government Commissions, which contains some of the best tracks from their early period. Mogwai released the album as a tribute to John Peel, who died in 2004. Decent early YouTube footage of the band is hard to come by, so instead I've added the video of one of my favourite Mogwai tracks of recent times, the glorious I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead from 2008's The Hawk Is Howling.
Inevitably, Mogwai started out as being viewed in the same post-rock lineage as Slint, and Like Herod's working title (when it was being recorded for the Mogwai Young Team sessions) was indeed Slint. The song appears here in an even longer and louder version, giving a sense of how powerful the band are as live performers. I've heard Swans and Slint perform live, but nothing matches Like Herod for sheer intensity (it's enough to make the most stoic among us wince). Mogwai have of course evolved a long way from their early Slint-influenced records, and on the first track here, Hunted By A Freak (partly chosen, no doubt, as it has Peel introducing the band), you can hear them experimenting with shimmering synths. The mood of R U Still In 2 It is wonderfully mellow, but this version of the song sadly lacks the vocals of Aidan Moffat that appear in the original. New Paths To Helicon is one of Mogwai's most famous tracks, and here we have parts 1 and 2 (the first part appeared at No.2 in Peel's Festive Fifty in 1997). The dreamy piano melody plus the tension and drama built by the guitars combine to create atmospherics that are distinctively Mogwai. Other highlights for me are Cody, which has the same languid feel as Pink Floyd's Meddle, and Stop Coming To My House, which has the same epic and joyful atmospherics found in Sigur Rós' music. When I came across this article in the Guardian, listing Braithwaite's favourite songs, I wasn't surprised to see sonic innovators like My Bloody Valentine, Can and Aphex Twin listed, but the appearance of Dylan and Townes Van Zandt shows he's a man of expansive taste. Maybe one day the band will release a folk album (seems unlikely), but for now Mogwai are still a force to be reckoned with.
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