The original masters of the loud/quiet/loud, slow build post rock epic, return with a new 4 song ep on Sub Pop, their home for the last few records, and again, the band continue to explore, and push boundaries, having shed the sound they helped define with their seminal classic Young Team, one they found hard to outgrow until recently. But outgrow it they have, and Earth Division might be their most varied, and most UN-Mogwai release yet.
The record opens with the gorgeous piano/string lament "Get To France" (the band haven't lost their knack for inappropriate song titles!), a gorgeous, lush cinematic chunk of chamber music that should have directors worldwide after them to score films, a darkly delicate, haunting bit of loveliness, with a slightly sinister vibe. So perfect. "Hound Of Winter" is up next and is even less Mogwai-y, a n acoustic guitar / harmonica country folk ballad, all minor key and melancholy, with softly crooned vox, the only nod to the loud/soft/loud days of old, is a burst of super dramatic strings, that fades out as quickly as they swooped in, only to return near the song's end, creating yet another fantastic bit of soundtracky string laden dream folk, which most bands would kill for, but we can't help but get the feeling these guys are just dabbling, and somehow dabbling brilliantly.
Our favorite track here though would have to be "Drunk And Crazy", which is a tripped out stretch of noisy, distorted shoegaze soft noise bliss out, buried electronic beats, murky churning riffage, all wreathed in a patina of crumbling buzz and swirling shimmer, only to suddenly dissipate into another gorgeous bit of strings and piano chamber music, only to have the beat and the buzz swoop right back in, this time melded to the chamber music, creating a gorgeous gloriously fuzzy melodic chamber buzz, or something. Whatever it is, it's a shame it only lasts for 5 minutes. The record finishes off with another pretty one, a lovely little melodic guitar figure, drifts beneath lush strings, and over a plaintive piano melody, the only nod to any sort of rock band roots, is when the bass comes in, and add some low end heft, its melody all tangled up with the guitar's, another brief bit of soundtracky prettiness, that again has us thinking these guys are capable of so much more than just writing rock songs. Directors, the line starts here.
You might say that all that you (and we) love about Mogwai is perfectly encapsulated on this disc! The crushing squalls of distortion, the shimmery washes of dreamy ambience, the slow building epics, the tranquil shimmery barely-there pop often complely obliterated by a feroicous onslaught of thick distorted guitars and pounding drums, shoegaze meets metallic crunch meets slowcore meets minimal pop meets ferocious noise rock. The loudest louds, the quietest quiets. Mogwai do their 'thing' (the thing that EVERY post-Slint post-rock band has tried to do for the last decade) better than anybody. For a while there, Mogwai were the next big thing, and then they -were- the big thing, but then, for some reason, interest seemed to wane, and Mogwai were just another band making pretty good records. But that has more to do with fickle indie rockers than the way things were. Mogwai kept putting out amazing records, playing devastating live shows, and perfecting their gorgeously schizophrenic sound. So here's a kick in the pants, a reminder, a trip back to the first time you heard Young Team and thought to yourself, "What the fuck" and then probably moments later thought "This is the greatest thing I have ever heard!". And you know what? It probably was. And listening to these BBC sessions we're tempted to think it just might still be.
I haven't really been all that moved by Mogwai since they basically reinvented indie rock / post rock years ago with their seminal Young Team record. On Young Team, Mogwai took the loud/quiet dynamics of Slint and added a My Bloody Valentine wall of guitars and the results were nothing short of breathtaking. Millions of bands who were already trying to sound like Slint now had a new, even less attainable goal. The two records after Young Team, Rock Action and Come On Die Young, were okay, just not as inspired sounding, especially with all of us comparing them to their mighty breakthrough YT. So it's really exciting that this new record is so great! And it sounds totally fresh, even though the sound is so reminiscent of eighties college radio indie rock! The dynamics are gone now (although the tattered remains of their loud/soft past surface once in a while), not surprisingly. Mogwai had obviously been slowly shuffling down some sort of entropic path, not knowing where they'd end up and sort of feeling their way tentatively. Happy Songs is like that, meandering, filled with tension and emotion, that slowly disipates as the songs wind down and run their course. Shimmery and shuffling and summery and hypnotic. Sinister, but only slightly so. Smoky and loping, propulsive but only lazily so. There is an urgency, but it is displayed in Mogwai's restraint now, instead of the more obvious bombast of their early years. Galaxie 500 is the band that comes to mind most, especially when there are vocals, heavily reverbed, over ultra simple guitar lines, achingly plaintive lyrics, and simple spare rhythms. Codeine and Slint are other obvious comparisons. As is Godspeed (with all the random samples). Lugubrious and glacial, lazy and hazy, the perfect wandering the streets on a sweltering summer night music, or driving aimlessly sad and confused music, all minor key and melancholy but with a weird sort of hopefulness under the surface.
We all love Mogwai. Ever since their 1997 debut Young Team, which still pretty much is the standard for brooding, slow building quiet/loud/quiet/loud post rock, and sure, none of their records since have been as good as Young Team, but the thing is, they've all been pretty damn good, some of them GREAT. Many of them deceivingly good, only to gradually blossom into greatness on repeated listens, which we're beginning to think is the case with this, their latest, and easily their best titled. In fact, we might posit that the new Mogwai has one of the best titles of any record, ever!
C'mon. It's called: Hardcore Will Never Die. But You Will. Kind of surprised some other band (a hardcore band?) hadn't thought of that already, but then somehow it seems more fitting on a band, that's not really at all hardcore. And Mogwai have always had a knack for song titles, which comes in handy when you're essentially an instrumental band, and song titles are thus removed from any sort of lyrical constraints or parameters.
Needless to say, fans of Mogwai are gonna dig this too, unless you absolutely hated the last few, in which case, give the sound samples a go, and see what you think. But was far as we're concerned, this is another winner, from a group, who essentially created a genre, and even with a legion of imitators, have virtually no equal.
The cool thing is that Mogwai no longer feel wedded to the whole slow build quiet/loud thing, sure they indulge once in a while, and yeah, they still do it better than most, and if you see them live, these guys can get as loud as ANY band, but here, they're more about creating gorgeous chunks of indie rock. And on Hardcore, the sound is as varied as ever. Opener "White Noise" is gorgeous, thick with whirring keyboards, and some strange guitar crunch, laced over their meandery post rock, super melodic and sun dappled and really, great. Winding down after only 5 minutes, we really wish it would have gone on for twice as long at least.
"Mexican Grand Prix" is a big surprise, sounding more Like Neu! than Mogwai, with a clipped electronic pulse, electronic drums, warm wheezing organs, and vocals! Whispery and a little distorted, there are some computer voices too, and the drums get all stuttery, it sort of sounds like a darker, heavier Stereolab, but still manages to sound like Mogwai.
Much of the rest of the record is just super hooky, fantastically melodic, crunch guitar driven post rock, sounding like Mogwai for sure, but minus the super stripped down verses and explosive choruses, then there are tracks like "Letters To The Metro" which are all hazy and dreamy, with gorgeous slide guitars, simple stripped down drumming, and prominent piano.
"How To Be A Werewolf" might be the first track to really slip back into the old Mogwai template, but even then, it still sounds great, and original, the guitars are weirdly distorted, wrapped in effects, all draped over some strange bit of distant percussion, while the rest of the track offers up spidery melodies, simple propulsive drumming, and yeah, an eventual guitar heavy coda. "Too Raging To Cheers" does the same, starting off with some minimal piano, letting guitars surface, and grow gradually more distorted, same with the drums, there are even some strings, it's very moody and melancholy, and does explode into a very epic majestic Godspeed like climax.
Finally, the record closes with the awesomely titled "You're Lionel Richie", which is definitely an extended and abstracted version of the Mogwai formula, the sound minimal and shuffling, dark and brooding, eventually slipping into near silence, just some little tendrils of barely there guitar, only to come back in all distorted and buzzy, loping, and midtempo, eventually blossoming into something that sounds almost orchestral, soaring and wailing and seriously sonically transcendent, proving effortlessly, that Mogwai don't NEED to sound like the Mogwai of old, but can whenever they want to, and when they do, it will still totally and completely KILL.
While they last, we have the deluxe double disc version of the cd, which includes a 23 minute bonus track called "Music for a Forgotten Future (The Singing Mountain)", and don't fret vinyl folks, the lp includes a download card which ALSO includes that bonus track, even though it's not on the lp.
We all love Mogwai. Ever since their 1997 debut Young Team, which still pretty much is the standard for brooding, slow building quiet/loud/quiet/loud post rock, and sure, none of their records since have been as good as Young Team, but the thing is, they've all been pretty damn good, some of them GREAT. Many of them deceivingly good, only to gradually blossom into greatness on repeated listens, which we're beginning to think is the case with this, their latest, and easily their best titled. In fact, we might posit that the new Mogwai has one of the best titles of any record, ever!
C'mon. It's called: Hardcore Will Never Die. But You Will. Kind of surprised some other band (a hardcore band?) hadn't thought of that already, but then somehow it seems more fitting on a band, that's not really at all hardcore. And Mogwai have always had a knack for song titles, which comes in handy when you're essentially an instrumental band, and song titles are thus removed from any sort of lyrical constraints or parameters.
Needless to say, fans of Mogwai are gonna dig this too, unless you absolutely hated the last few, in which case, give the sound samples a go, and see what you think. But was far as we're concerned, this is another winner, from a group, who essentially created a genre, and even with a legion of imitators, have virtually no equal.
The cool thing is that Mogwai no longer feel wedded to the whole slow build quiet/loud thing, sure they indulge once in a while, and yeah, they still do it better than most, and if you see them live, these guys can get as loud as ANY band, but here, they're more about creating gorgeous chunks of indie rock. And on Hardcore, the sound is as varied as ever. Opener "White Noise" is gorgeous, thick with whirring keyboards, and some strange guitar crunch, laced over their meandery post rock, super melodic and sun dappled and really, great. Winding down after only 5 minutes, we really wish it would have gone on for twice as long at least.
"Mexican Grand Prix" is a big surprise, sounding more Like Neu! than Mogwai, with a clipped electronic pulse, electronic drums, warm wheezing organs, and vocals! Whispery and a little distorted, there are some computer voices too, and the drums get all stuttery, it sort of sounds like a darker, heavier Stereolab, but still manages to sound like Mogwai.
Much of the rest of the record is just super hooky, fantastically melodic, crunch guitar driven post rock, sounding like Mogwai for sure, but minus the super stripped down verses and explosive choruses, then there are tracks like "Letters To The Metro" which are all hazy and dreamy, with gorgeous slide guitars, simple stripped down drumming, and prominent piano.
"How To Be A Werewolf" might be the first track to really slip back into the old Mogwai template, but even then, it still sounds great, and original, the guitars are weirdly distorted, wrapped in effects, all draped over some strange bit of distant percussion, while the rest of the track offers up spidery melodies, simple propulsive drumming, and yeah, an eventual guitar heavy coda. "Too Raging To Cheers" does the same, starting off with some minimal piano, letting guitars surface, and grow gradually more distorted, same with the drums, there are even some strings, it's very moody and melancholy, and does explode into a very epic majestic Godspeed like climax.
Finally, the record closes with the awesomely titled "You're Lionel Richie", which is definitely an extended and abstracted version of the Mogwai formula, the sound minimal and shuffling, dark and brooding, eventually slipping into near silence, just some little tendrils of barely there guitar, only to come back in all distorted and buzzy, loping, and midtempo, eventually blossoming into something that sounds almost orchestral, soaring and wailing and seriously sonically transcendent, proving effortlessly, that Mogwai don't NEED to sound like the Mogwai of old, but can whenever they want to, and when they do, it will still totally and completely KILL.
While they last, we have the deluxe double disc version of the cd, which includes a 23 minute bonus track called "Music for a Forgotten Future (The Singing Mountain)", and don't fret vinyl folks, the lp includes a download card which ALSO includes that bonus track, even though it's not on the lp.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We at AQ all agree that the last Mogwai album, Young Team is one of the best things we've come across in a while; they take the slow build, dynamics, and instrumental intensity of Slint and add crashing guitar lyricism. Reason to celebrate: My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields, contributes a stunning sixteen-minute distortion-heavy brainmelter (so that's what he's been doing instead of giving us patiently drooling fans another MBV record). And if that isn't enough, there are also remixes by Mu-ziq, Alec Empire, Arab Strap (the Scottish duo whose murkiness calls to mind the Tindersticks more than anyone else), Third Eye Foundation, Kid Loco, and others. Very colorful vinyl.
When we first heard Mogwai's Young Team record almost a decade ago, we were knocked on our asses. That was exactly what we had been itching to hear but just didn't know it. Epic near metal post rock, dramatic and ultra dynamic, soft / loud moody indie rock epics. Taking bits and pieces from the Pixies and Slint and other bands that came before but making them into something wholly new and unique. And thus was spawned band after band, from Godspeed to the current crop of metallic post rock to the brooding instrumental indie rock of bands like Explosions In The Sky. All of them owe a massive debt to Mogwai, and Young Team in particular. After Young Team, Mogwai continued to do what they did arguably better than anyone else, each record a subtle variation on the last, one was more consistantly louder, one was softer and dreamier, the next was a "return to the ultra dynamism of Young Team" the next was something completely new and different. Ultimately though, they all sounded like Mogwai, and if there was such thing as a cd that held 12 hours of music, they all could have come from that single 12 hour album. But who was complaining? Not us. We loved the sound of Mogwai, and didn't want them to change, sure we would have dug another Young Team, but it was joy to get a new Mogwai record every time, that was instantly familiar, but had enough new stuff going on that it kept things interesting. And so it went for almost a decade, which brings us to Mr. Beast. And on the one hand, it perfectly keeps with the pattern, it's most definitely Mogwai, sonically there's no doubt about that, but on the other, this is a very weird record. For Mogwai at least. To begin with, the songs are all pretty short, none break the six minute mark, most hover at around four, but the devil is in the details, and you know how the devil always has the best music...
The sound on Mr. Beast is much more dense and polished, some songs are straight up guitar heavy shoegazing rockers, some are haunting lullabies with programmed drums and lap steel guitars. A couple tracks sound almost like Coldplay with balls (and bigger guitars), there's lots of piano, in fact the first song is almost entirely piano driven, as are a couple later on in the record, there are some very Flaming Lips moments, lush pop with BIG drums, some bits of Polvo-like angular indie jangle, even some full on metal riffing, but they all sound like Mogwai. And that's the key. It all sounds so effortless, so perfect. Not in a bad way, in that special way that few bands ever achieve. It's like if Mogwai suddenly decided to do a note for note cover of Brooks And Dunn or Pink or Slayer or anybody, it would STILL sound like Mogwai, or if they decided to only play skiffle or bluegrass or polka, you'd still hear it and immediately know it was Mogwai, and it would be really really good.
It's that effortlessness that makes this record so good. Like their records before Mr. Beast, familiar enough to fit comfortably in the canon, new and weird enough to make us love them all over again.
For a limited time, the cd comes in a deluxe hardcover book version with a bonus DVD, featuring a documentary about the making of Mr. Beast.
So the sticker on the front of this new Mogwai e.p. says that this is a companion to their 'Rock Action' record. Not sure what that means. Maybe it means all the loud parts that were missing from 'Rock Action' can be found here. Maybe not. The sticker also
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Aural dynamism has always been Mogwai's strong point. This new 3 song EP demonstrates their use of silence vs blistering noise. The first track begins barely audible only to increase its volume through a Louisville style math rock riff into shards of guitar feedback lifting above a potent backbeat. The later tracks continue where they left off with Young Team of beautiful droning mope rock.
We usually avoid online discussions about the death of the record industry, the rise of the mp3, and all that sort of stuff. We run a record store. We have no illusions about the industry, or the musical landscape. We all have iPods, and we all listen to mp3s and we all download stuff, but the thing is, we love records, we love cds, tapes, but especially the 7". So we got sucked into a discussion about the irrelevance of the 7" single, or more specifically, how 7"s lack the subcultural force they did 15 years ago. And while that may in fact be true, they do still have a force, just maybe a sub-SUB-cultural force. They remain the format of choice for first releases, a cheap way to check out a band you've only heard about (not as cheap as a download, but infinitely more satisfying), we have a handful of customers who ONLY buy 7"s, and we have to say, our love of the single has not really waned over the years. We of course wish they were cheaper, but there's something about 2 songs and a little chunk of vinyl, done right, it's about as sublime as music gets.
Which leads us to this, the latest single from long running post rockers Mogwai, and a Sub Pop single to boot, which holds a special spot in many of our hearts, that black bar across the top, the font, the Sub Pop logo, definitely sending us right back to the classic days of the Sub Pop singles club, and our beloved singles from Mudhoney and Nirvana and Afghan Whigs and the Dwarves and we could go on and on and on. Mogwai's offering features one track from their brand new (and killer) full length Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will, not an obvious single in the context of the record, but here on a 7", it definitely reveals itself as THEE perfect single, not at all typically Mogwai, more fuzzy and crunchy, with a swoonsome bassline, big distorted guitars, driving and intense, but still a bit jangly, with some cool warbly synth melodies mixed in.
The B side though, which is exclusive to this hear 7", is well worth the price of admission, this one DEFINITELY classic Mogwai, big drums, twangy moody guitars, very mathy, and post rocky, layered melodies and strange chords that sound almost a little like Sonic Youth or Blonde Redhead, the verses quiet, but only compared to the big crunchy crashing distorted drum heavy choruses, the bass getting even more thick and fuzzy, the sound epic and heavy and so good, managing to sound like Young Team era Mogwai, but at the same time, sounding fresh, and not at all out of step with their new, less obviously quiet-loud-quiet-loud sound. Super awesome. And yet another kick ass single. Furthering our belief that we'll never get over our love of these little chunks of vinyl.
Comes with a download code too!
While the title of the new full length from these longtime aQ faves had us secretly hoping for a record of straight up, ACTUAL rave music, the first track quickly reveals that Rave Tapes is in fact simply more of the Mogwai we know and love. So after the brief bit of inevitable no-rave let down disappointment, it's impossible to not get immediately swept up in Mogwai's lush loveliness, the opener a fantastically dreamy sprawl of blissy drifty post rock majesty, hushed, and melancholically brooding, darkly dynamic, expansive and layered. But fear not, this is not just Mogwai by the numbers, or maybe it is, but those numbers have been getting progressively less predictable over the last few albums, just check out "Simon Ferocious" with its buzzing synths, driven by a hypnotic, loping slow-mo, post rock groove, the guitars bordering on metallic, settling eventually into a cool buzzy bit of krauty post rock mesmer. Or the awesomely titled "Remurdered", which is all low slung throb, muted chug and Tortoise-y rhythms, in fact, it sounds a bit like a less jazzy, more skittery electronica flecked, synth heavy komsiche hypno-rock. There's one track with a hilarious sample of anti-Satanic ranting, which is fun the first time, but doesn't have a whole lot of replay value, but that hardly detracts from the rest of the record which slips effortlessly from Godspeed like instrumental epicry, to synthy, almost Circle sounding mathiness, to sweeping moody cinematic drifts, and to murky piano driven balladry, complete with vocals, a haunting bit of slowcore that sounds a bit like Codeine / Low / Galaxie 500, but it is Mogwai, so it eventually erupts into a soaring soft-focus squall of swirling psychedelic beauty.
The final two song salvo, begins with some classic Mogwai, spidery minor key melodies, over chiming harmonics, buzzing bass, shuffling rhythms, slowly building from hushed shimmer to fuzzy muted bombast, before finishing off with the weirdest of the bunch, all programmed drums, vocodered vox, swirling synth wrapped guitars and fields of prismatic shimmer, the whole thing sounding more like Zombi or Umberto, albeit mixed with Mogwai's epic smoldering post rock tendencies, which is just as good as it sounds.
Both the lp and the cd come housed in super striking, retro-futuristic, psychedelically geometric, eye popping, die cut sleeves! LP includes a download code too...
(Compact disc folks, FYI, we have a few of the cd, but Sub Pop forgot to ship our order this week so more will be restocked early next week and we'll of course list it next time!)
Let's face it. When Mogwai's 'Young Team' came out, that was it. The final word on the 'quiet/loud moody instrumental indie rock' sound. They had done it. What does a band do then? Where do they take their music? While they were trying to figure that out,
So when we heard the new Mogwai, we were ready to write it off, and we sort of did. It was slow, listless, and not at all like 'Young Team' which I think we had all been secretly hoping it would be.
But once we got over all our non-musical issues, and actually sat down and listened to it. Close, we were singing a different tune. It definitely doesn't sound all that much like Mogwai. And it actually does sound quite a bit like Godspeed (or what I imagined a Godspeed cover band started by the guys in Mogwai and the guys in Teenage Fanclub might sound like) but that's not a bad thing. Much in the way that Godspeed took the Mogwai sound and made it their own, it seems like this time around it's Mogwai's turn to say 'yeah? well watch this' and take their twisted sound back, and twist it even more, into a tranquil and dreamy, beautifully lush and absolutely epic album. A record you can sink right into. Glistening shifting guitar layers and textures, skittery and lazy rhythms, dramatic minor key swells all accompanied by drowsy vocals. A lot more vocals than we expected, but dang if they aren't nice. And it feels like beneath all this grandeur and epic sound, there are actually little hidden nuggets of catchy pop, just obscured enough to keep it interesting.
On their last release it was the horrendous cover art that didn't fit the music, this time it's the title itself that's the culprit (Rock action? Hardly). Ah, but we know those Scottish lads to be a mass of contradictions. Nevertheless, this is a fantastic record. Mesmerizingly beautiful and totally essential.
We love Mogwai. And we probably always will. Their Young Team record still ranks at the very tippy top of the slow burning, slow building, quiet loud quiet LOUD, post rock ouvre, and a million bands since, trying their damnedest to do the same thing, haven't dulled or diminished that love at all. In fact if anything, all it did was enforce how genius these guys really are. And while they're in the unenviable position of having a ridiculously iconic record that all subsequent records are inevitably compared to, when one can ignore that looming sonic spectre, then all of their records rule. Intense, and emotional, epic and majestic, heavy and melodic, soundtracky and cinematic. It really is remarkable listening to Mogwai and then hearing Pelican or Isis or any of the other bands who do something similar, and while Mogwai are maybe not BETTER, they are special, and unique, with a sound that impossibly manages to sound ONLY like them.
Special Moves is a documentary / live concert film, gorgeously shot, featuring selections from throughout their entire career, from big crashing bombastic epics, to brooding moody meanders, their live sound as lush and lovely as their records proper. All black and white, stark, high contrast live footage, interspersed with shots of random people on the streets, rain swept cities, crowd shots, sound checks, empty clubs, blurred lights, close ups of fingers and strings, all very impressionistic, and it all suits the music so perfectly. It includes some bonus live footage, which looks just as good as the movie.
And there's also a soundtrack disc, featuring all the tracks from the movie and then some, more of that epic Mogwai majesty, not necessarily all that different from the recorded versions, but heck, any excuse for more Mogwai is fine by us, and some of the tracks DO get reworked a bit, but if you've been hankering for some smoldering, swelling post rock quiet/loud epicness, this should hit the spot. Also includes a bonus download of 6 more live tracks!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Mogwai has grappled with the pressure of following up the utterly brilliant "Young Team" record through two eps and an entire album, choosing to slow burn their sonic ascensions in opposition to the incendiary dynamicism of "Young Team". This has led people to accuse Mogwai of going soft and being boring. While their album "Come on Die Young" certainly disproves these accusations, it has been hard to tell as to whether "Stanley Kubrick" will follow in its predecesors' successes. Slow lugubrious riffs, snippets of not-quite-jazz brass, and their pervading drugged out melancholia are of course the soup de jour for Mogwai.
Just so you know, two of the tracks on the cd are from the previously released "No Education" ep, which was mysteriously dubbed 'controversial' on the disc's sticker.
IIt must be pretty frustrating being in Mogwai, 'cause no matter what you do, no matter how far you push and stretch your sound, people just want to hear Young Team. Not that we can blame them - see the Young Team review elsewhere on the aQ site, and observe us gushing appropriately over the record that probably is single handedly responsible for about half of the indie rock made today. But you know, that probably happens to every successful band. Can you imagine if you had gone to see My Bloody Valentine on their recent reunion tour and they didn't play -anything- off of Loveless, just new songs? We went to see Dio once a while back, and all we wanted to hear was old stuff (of course) but instead he played his newly released concept record all the way through. More power to him but geeze. Still, we do understand, no matter how awesome a song is, no one wants to be playing it forever. Think about the Stones playing "Satisfaction". How long have they been playing that song? 40 years? Sheesh!
Anyway, in most fans' eyes, Mogwai can do no wrong, and even if they continue to NOT make Young Team part 2, they do continue to make awesome records. Their grasp of dynamics, and their ability to make an extended instrumental not only interesting but rocking and catchy as well, far surpasses most of the bands who want to be them, and very little has changed on The Hawk Is Howling. While the record starts off with the stately and serene (and awesomely titled "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead"), the follow up "Batcat" finds the band unleashing some serious riffage, and some cool and strange guitar filigree. It's a one part song (maybe two) but boy is it a good part, and it gets looped and twisted, the band building and building, much like the more metal Godspeed they always seemed to be. Epic and crunchy and heavy and so good we probably wouldn't mind if the song was twice (or three times, or four times...) as along.
The next few tracks find the band mellowing back out a bit, letting their songs sprawl and spread out organically, a dreamy, laid back post rock, with no particular place to go, and with Mogwai it's all about the journey, not the destination anyway.
"The Sun Smells Too Loud" is a definite twist on the Mogwai formula, lots of synths and keyboards, and a slow build, slow burn, that gets bigger and louder, without necessarily getting heavier. The main hook, the guitar figure repeated again and again will stick in your head like crazy, the perfect substitute for vocals, if you were even missing them. "I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School" is classic Mogwai, again harkening back toy Young Team, all loping strum and shuffling rhythms, glistening melodies, lots of texture and ambience, until about the last minute when the band erupts into a super intense psychedelic freakout, still grounded by the melancholy melody that runs through the whole song. There's plenty more drifting and meandering dreamily before closer "The Precipice", which begins soft and breathless, before morphing into something a bit more ominous, the guitars a tad more crunchy, and finally a killer two minute outro, that features gorgeous spidery guitar lines, pounding drums, and gorgeous tangled minor key melodies.
You want Young Team? Probably best to just get over it. Go listen to Young Team. Heck we might just go listen to Young Team again. But really, at this point we're way more interested in seeing where the sounds of Mogwai take us.
There are two versions of the cd, one is the regular edition, the other, WHILE THEY LAST, is slightly more expensive and comes with a dvd, which features the creepy and haunting video for "Batcat", a cool animated fan made video for the same song, and a short, very arty, and quite beautiful documentary about the band.
It must be pretty frustrating being in Mogwai, 'cause no matter what you do, no matter how far you push and stretch your sound, people just want to hear Young Team. Not that we can blame them - see the Young Team review elsewhere on the aQ site, and observe us gushing appropriately over the record that probably is single handedly responsible for about half of the indie rock made today. But you know, that probably happens to every successful band. Can you imagine if you had gone to see My Bloody Valentine on their recent reunion tour and they didn't play -anything- off of Loveless, just new songs? We went to see Dio once a while back, and all we wanted to hear was old stuff (of course) but instead he played his newly released concept record all the way through. More power to him but geeze. Still, we do understand, no matter how awesome a song is, no one wants to be playing it forever. Think about the Stones playing "Satisfaction". How long have they been playing that song? 40 years? Sheesh!
Anyway, in most fans' eyes, Mogwai can do no wrong, and even if they continue to NOT make Young Team part 2, they do continue to make awesome records. Their grasp of dynamics, and their ability to make an extended instrumental not only interesting but rocking and catchy as well, far surpasses most of the bands who want to be them, and very little has changed on The Hawk Is Howling. While the record starts off with the stately and serene (and awesomely titled "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead"), the follow up "Batcat" finds the band unleashing some serious riffage, and some cool and strange guitar filigree. It's a one part song (maybe two) but boy is it a good part, and it gets looped and twisted, the band building and building, much like the more metal Godspeed they always seemed to be. Epic and crunchy and heavy and so good we probably wouldn't mind if the song was twice (or three times, or four times...) as along.
The next few tracks find the band mellowing back out a bit, letting their songs sprawl and spread out organically, a dreamy, laid back post rock, with no particular place to go, and with Mogwai it's all about the journey, not the destination anyway.
"The Sun Smells Too Loud" is a definite twist on the Mogwai formula, lots of synths and keyboards, and a slow build, slow burn, that gets bigger and louder, without necessarily getting heavier. The main hook, the guitar figure repeated again and again will stick in your head like crazy, the perfect substitute for vocals, if you were even missing them. "I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School" is classic Mogwai, again harkening back toy Young Team, all loping strum and shuffling rhythms, glistening melodies, lots of texture and ambience, until about the last minute when the band erupts into a super intense psychedelic freakout, still grounded by the melancholy melody that runs through the whole song. There's plenty more drifting and meandering dreamily before closer "The Precipice", which begins soft and breathless, before morphing into something a bit more ominous, the guitars a tad more crunchy, and finally a killer two minute outro, that features gorgeous spidery guitar lines, pounding drums, and gorgeous tangled minor key melodies.
You want Young Team? Probably best to just get over it. Go listen to Young Team. Heck we might just go listen to Young Team again. But really, at this point we're way more interested in seeing where the sounds of Mogwai take us.
There are two versions of the cd, one is the regular edition, the other, WHILE THEY LAST, is slightly more expensive and comes with a dvd, which features the creepy and haunting video for "Batcat", a cool animated fan made video for the same song, and a short, very arty, and quite beautiful documentary about the band.
This is it! The one. The record that launched a MILLION other records. Half the bands we love and freak out about wouldn't even exist if it weren't for THIS RECORD. Or if they did, they sure as heck wouldn't sound the way they do. Sure there was Spiderland. And the theory that everyone who heard Spiderland started a band. And the Pixies. Same thing. And let's not forget Nirvana. Between Slint, Nirvana and the Pixies, the template for angsty loud/soft indie rock was pretty much defined FOREVER. Until Young Team that is. Mogwai most definitely owed a huge debt to the above mentioned big three, but there was just something special about Young Team. The ultimate brooding post rock stumble into massive epic metallic crush record we had ever heard. This is heavy, but oh so pretty, dark and romantic, but also creepy and seriously ominous sounding. SoftÔsuper blissed-out meandering almost-ambient soundscapes, dark brooding passages of near silence, eventually shattered into a million pieces by bursts of frenzied, rhythmic noise a la Godflesh, crushing and metallic and machinelike, but always ready to drift and fade back into soft swooning tranquility. But even the loud heavy parts areÔstrangely melodic and ridiculously catchy. This record is so fucking great. Even now, a decade after it was first released, and after we've heard about a million bands do their own versions of Young Team. Maybe the best way to really drive home how massive and amazing and incredibly influential this record is, would be to list a handful of bands who would probably not exist, at least not in their present forms, if it weren't for this record. No disrespect to any of these groups AT ALL (we love them every single one of them) but you gotta give credit where credit is due... the sons of Mogwai include Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Isis, Timeout Drawer, Snowblood, the Ocean, Magyar Posse, Gregor Samsa, Aereogramme, This Is Your Captain Speaking, Explosions In The Sky, Sigur Ros, Pelican, Mono, Grails, Tarentel, Jimmy Cake, Switchblade, Minsk, Conifer, Tides, Eden Maine, Rosetta, Red Sparrowes, Indian, Baroness, Cult Of Luna, Mouth Of The Architect and we could go on and on. So if you love any or all of the above mentioned bands, and how could you not, and you've somehow never heard Young Team, you are in for it in a big beautiful way! Now's your chance. Don't blow it. You will not be sorry. As for the rest of you, who for one reason or another just haven't listened to Young Team in years, lent it lost it or whatever, now is the time to revisit one of indie rock's most epochal releases, you just may very well have forgotten how devastatingly fantastic this record is! Finally available again (as an import), after being out of print in the State for years and years!!!
Second Rune Grammofon album from this extreme improv duo from Norway! It makes sense that they'd have an exclamation point as part of their name, as their music is indeed punctuated with glitchy outbursts, zaps of loud guitar/drums/electronics. Meanwhile, "MoHa" simply references their names: Morten J. Olsen and Anders Hana, both of whom are members of Ultralyd as well. We compared their first disc of hyperactive skree to some of Mick Barr's stuff, and to the most nutty bits from their labelmates Supersilent. Now we can add that shortly after our first listen to Norwegianism, we put on a classic avant-garde electro-acoustic album from 1970 by Luciano Berio, and after a few minutes got confused and thought we were still listening to MoHa!, when the Berio got into a particularly crinkly and chaotic passage of electronic bleepage. We like it best, though, when MoHa! pace themselves, give the music space to breathe, maybe even settle into some broken-down rhythm for a while (which are the parts that remind us of Supersilent), as on the track "Home Two".
We guess they may have titled this album Norwegianism 'cause they recorded it in Geneva and mixed it in Berlin, and felt that they were bringing some Norwegian noise to those locales. Also it could be in recognition of the fact that they get monetary support from the Arts Council Norway -- apparently Norwegian taxpayers are a lot more musically open-minded than the typical US citizen!
As always (this is their 3rd album), the exclamation point in this Norwegian industrial-skronk duo's name is quite appropriate. They definitely provide some bang for your buck, if you're into this extreme style of choppy, panicked trash-compactor "jazz", wherein sizzling electronics collide with machine-like percussion in a satisfyingly spastic frenzy. Electric guitar, keyboard, drummachine, drums, and something called "supercollider3" (a software program?) are deployed for maximum density and intensity, sounding something like a bunch of John Zorn types trapped in an exploding Radio Shack.
The album title One-Way Ticket To Candyland only makes us think that these guys have already splurged on the sugary treats, certainly seeming a bit hyperactively agitated by -something- in their quirky, chaotic music making. Yet the weird thing is, despite their jitters, they have such a knack for getting all the little pulsating puzzle pieces of their only seemingly messy compositions/improvisations to fit together remarkably well, turning this way and that like tiny, precision cogs in a well designed machine. All their herky-jerky blurting turns out to be exactly according to spec.
Knowing this, they almost get sassy, in that there's a bit of smartass punkrock 'tude to their (instrumental) song titles, from "The Shitman" to "Oh My God It's Rave". Shades of Don Cab!
We joked in some past reviews that Dutch experimental world music label Terp must be paying our salaries considering how much love we give their releases, but c'mon, you've heard them! You've bought them! LOTS of them! And like us you've played them all to death. Every single one is amazing, so exciting musically, so emotionally resonant, some of the most unique and moving music we've EVER heard. And as if to drive the point home, we have not one, but TWO new releases from Terp on this week's list, one, a live disc from legendary Ethiopian saxophonist Getatchew Mekuria, jamming with The Ex and friends, and this, a sadly posthumous live release from blind�Ethiopian vocalist Mohammed 'Jimmy' Mohammed.�
We raved about Mohammed's other release on Terp, the completely mind blowing�Takkabel! And as we mentioned before, his life story is just as dramatic and intense and emotional as his music. He became blind as a child, an apparent curse after his parents had him baptized against the warnings of a local fortune teller (God wanted him to be Muslim), spent years homeless on the streets, eventually rescued and cared for, enrolled in a school for the blind, where money was raised to help restore his sight, but the money was stolen, and his eyesight never restored, eventually becoming a nightclub singer renowned for his interpretations of songs by legendary vocalist�Tlahoun Gessesse (who you probably remember from several volumes of the Ethiopiques series).
But whereas much of�Takkabel! was tangled and angular and complex, recalling Aavikko weirdly enough, with guest drumming from improv legend Han Bennink, this live disc is much more laid back and dark, a very personal sounding and intimate recording, the band spreading out a lush tapestry of sound over which Mohammed weaves his magical moods. His voice is divine and as powerful as it is subtle,�distincitive and expressive, soaring and dancing nimbly across impossible melodies, the interplay between the vocals and the instruments is divine. The guitar like krar unfurling simple melodic fragments, the percussion simple and propulsive, a simple spare framework for Mohammed to explore as he sees fit, his vocals wild and acrobatic, intense and passionate, so mysterious sounding, but also utterly warm and inviting.�
The last two lengthy tracks are the most reminiscent of�Takkabel!, with the addition of sax, the rhythms a bit more off kilter and danceable, the whole sound a bit more funky and groovy, VERY Ethiopiques sounding. Hard to imagine the crowd in attendance not dancing wildly in the aisles...
The proceeds from sales of this cd will go toward a just-founded Jimmy Fund, created to care for his wife and his children, one of whom was born right after his death.
It must seem like we're on the Terp payroll or something by now, this being the second record they've put out that's received record of the week honors here at aQ. And the fourth or fifth that we've raved about. And to be totally honest, the Terp releases that ended up -not- being records of the week, could very well have under different circumstances, as they are equally as amazing. What can we say, everything Terp has put out so far has totally and completely blown us away! The live Konono record, the gorgeous Lanaya record and this newest release from blind Ethiopian vocalist Mohammed 'Jimmy' Mohammed. His story is just as amazing as his voice and the music he makes. After becoming blind as a child, supposedly as a curse for his parents' decision to ignore the warnings of a fortune teller and baptize him, as God had willed him to be a Muslim, Mohammed ran away and spent several years on the streets, homeless, begging for food, finding solace in the songs of legendary vocalist Tlahoun Gessesse (immortalized in several volumes of the amazing Ethiopiques series) who not only sang beautifully, but whose songs addressed the plight of the poor and suffering. Mohammed was eventually discovered and cared for, enrolled in a school for the blind and raised by a kind hearted surrogate father. After money was raised to help restore his sight, he was heartbroken to discover the funds were stolen and his eyesight was never to be restored. Mohammed spent a brief stint in the national theater before becoming a nightclub singer, where he became more and more popular. Mohammed mostly sings Tlahoun Gessesse's pop songs from the '60s / '70s, being as those are the songs that most affected him throughout his life, but it's his voice and the unique arrangements that make him so special.
He appeared briefly on Ethiopiques 2 but this is his first proper full length. The first track here is a mindblower. The music is so squiggly and complex, so dense and tangled, angular but so lovely, our first thought was that it sort of sounded sort of like the maniacal casio exotica of Aavikko. Part of it might be the fact that Mohammed's band is augmented on that track by legendary European free jazz drummer Han Bennink, and Massimo Pupillo from Italian drone jazz combo Zu. SO amazing. There are plenty of immediately recognizable melodies and distinctly Ethiopian elements, but the way it is played is so strange and lovely. But it's Jimmy's vocals, high and clear, swooping into an impossible falsetto and back again, warm and rich and so gorgeous, that makes this so magical. Bennink drums on a handful of the other tracks as well (he apparently told Jimmy that the reason they clicked so perfectly was because, he said "I'm blind as well when I play with them") but even when it's just Jimmy and his band, the sound is still totally unique and so very special. Little delicate curlicues of electric krar (5 string harp), shuffling skittery drumming, smooth slithery riffs, warm smooth sax from Ethiopian legend Getatchew Mekurya, all weaving a rich intricate tangle of classic Ethiopian melody and irresistibly groovy rhythms, above which Jimmy just soars, so totally emotional and intense, so passionate and absolutely breathtaking.
Altered state exploration and bedroom mysticism is on tap from North Carolina's Robert Thompson, who's taken up the moniker Mohave Triangles. Thompson has crafted the standard fair torrent of cassette releases, now offering his wares through the shambolic cottage industry label Hooker Vision out of rural Georgia. This tape opens with a spoken word segment from a Native American shaman explaining a recurrent prophecy about a messenger arriving at the end of a cycle of time. With accompanying ambience, the piece closely resembles the beginning of Godspeed! You Black Emperor's F#A# lp. But instead of orchestrated rock crescendo, Thompson zones out a very hypnotic piece of murky ambience, one that would harken back to classic Zoviet France or perhaps Basinski's shortwave compositions, through the hazy mirage of slowly repeating, constantly shimmering sounds. Elsewhere, he picks up the guitar, dialed into plenty of looping patterns, delays, and effects, skewing the Mark McGuire sound towards a freeform approach to avant-trance dronescaping. Limited to 100 copies!
By way of Madrid Spain comes Moho (mold in Espanol), a three piece juggernaut of dirt head rock fury so ferocious they give seasoned rockers like High On Fire, Electric Wizard, EyeHateGod & Grief a serious run for the (drug) money.
"....He Visto La Cruz Al Reves" (loosely translates to "I Have Seen The Cross Of The Misfortune" or better yet "I Have Seen The Cross Inverted!") is a furious groovy sludge rock jam, a stoned stumble through the garden at midnight.
Many of the songs start with big fat riffs, slowly building into some serious sludgy groove, drifting way off, gradually working up to a loping midtempo, before dragging it back down into the murk.
Moho are fully capable of kicking it up a notch too, but on this release (their second outing), Moho tend to lay way back "in the pocket" and just bludgeon your blissed-out melon over and over again in a "let's-beat-these-instruments-to-death-till-they-are-destroyed -over-and-over-again!!!" kind of way, and at the same time, a furious throat-full-of-rocks vocalist is howling wildly right in your ear - in Spanish no less - so don't fight it, just GIVE IN to the supreme Hessian power of Moho!
Comes with a DVD chock full of live footage of the band in small venues, "passing the pipe" and rocking out at a house party. They definitely look like they are a fun band to see play live...
A great hard to pin down metal outfit you should most definitely check out!
The former core trio of post rock combo Tarentel (Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Danny Paul Grody and Trevor Montgomery) have been on a roll lately, releasing tons of solo, side projects and collaborative efforts! Danny and Trevor are both in The Drift and synth duo Believer, which both have new releases out or coming soon. Danny has got a new solo album on Students of Decay that'll be here shortly. Trevor has been on the last two Date Palms records and released the Isidore Ducasse lp with Jefre, and Jefre has released recently a solo album on Type and a record with his other outfit, The Alps on Mexican Summer. Hardest working local musicians? Maybe so now that the three of them have reunited together in this new outfit, Moholy-Nagy (rhymes with mirage, hence the title of the album, Like Mirage). Named after the Bauhaus artist and professor whose photogram experiments and industrial design aesthetic have made him known as one of the fathers of Light Art, the band have made a gorgeous record of light-searching cosmic excursions utilizing synths, piano, pastoral guitar and drum machine. Dreamy and drifting but also focused and grounded, Like Mirage hones the strongest sensibilities of each member into something truly collaborative. And though cosmically charged music has been the modus operandi of all three members through most of their side and solo projects and labels, Like Mirage manages to sound completely distinctive from their other projects which is a strong indicator of the masterful musicianship each one brings to the table. Beautiful stuff!
This is not at all what we were expecting, but holy shit, is it cool. Moin is actually a side project / offshoot of Raime, whose gorgeously murky and bleak exercise in creeping, claustrophobic, electronic minimalism, Quarter Turns Over A Living Line, was a HUGE favorite around here, but as Moin, that sound gets recast as something less electronic, and more, well, sort of noise rock, for lack of a better descriptor. If it's at all possible, and judging from this, it most certainly is, Moin is like a weird noise rock version of Raime, the programmed beats, replaced by dense, motorik, muscly drumming, the various loops and layers transformed into spidery minor key guitar melodies, the vibe propulsive, hypnotic, tranced out, and still very very dark. Imagine an even more stripped down Laddio Bollocko, the 'band' locked into seemingly simple hypno-rock grooves, and just churning out totally mesmerizing, shadowy heaviness. Opener "Murphy" almost sounds like a Sling outtake, fused with a little Rapeman, with some Godspeed ambience mixed in. And if that sounds like impossible band math, well, we would have thought so too. "Stacie" (all the tracks have people names, a la the first Slint record too, hmm), is much more stripped down and low slung, arranged more like an electronic track, brooding and slow building, more about the vibe, and the mood, and the rhythm, and the texture, the guitars crumbling and crunchy, but spare and sparse, melancholic and haunting. And finally "Clancy" lays down a mathy stuttery beat, beneath sheets of feedback, before the main riff rolls in, another strange sample layered over the top, the guitars jagged and percussive, very Albini-esque for sure, but even more restrained and textural, all with a sort of post punk / industrial feel, and like the other two tracks, totally trancey, minimal noise rock nirvana!
Latest from this local boy/girl, goth-glam, dayglo duo, who traffic in a twisted strain of dirgey gothic gloomrock, all churning dolled up deathrock rhythms and echo drenched vox, sounding like they could have been transported straight from LA or London circa 1985. Think 45 Grave or Specimen maybe, the sound churning and rhythmic, their droned out rhythmic gloominess peppered with some Siouxsie like vocal trills, and Budgie like tribal drum pound, there's plenty of bass buzz too, even some snake-charmer horns, all wound up into a collection of druggy, lo-fi, gothic, psychedelic gl(oom)(am)...
Do you like your rock 'n' roll a little, um, weird? Moira Scar, the catchily jarring new project from Roxy and LuLu of Floating Corpses infamy, touch all the right nerves with their first self-titled release. The opening number, "Salley Meander", sounds like The Crystal Stilts if Brad Hargett sang in falsetto. "You Make Me Scream" channels The Cramps pretty heavily and is complimented by some free-floating psychedelic synths and horns. "Blood Moon" finishes off the first side nicely with more horns, a cacophony of horns, in fact, one that brings to mind the jazzier moments of The Nation of Ulysses or Veronica Lipgloss and the Evil Eyes. By far the best track on the record, "Gnu Groove (Wildebeest Wiggle)", opens up the second side. Roxy's vocals flow from falsetto to baritone to passionate screaming all within about ten seconds, riding the wave of jangly guitars and a simple but effective drum beat. Not to mention the awesomely anticlimactic guitar solo..... This record, clocking in at just under 23 minutes, will have you flipping back to side A just after side B spins to a close. Highly recommended!
Record number three (duh) from this WEEN sideproject and their first for Mike Patton's Ipecac label. Just like their other two. BIG DUMB COCK RAWK!! With a pinch of metal. A sick mix of AC/DC, the Dwarves, ZZ Top, Antiseen, Judas Priest and Loverboy. Or something like that.
And featuring inspired WEEN-ish lyrics like:
"Smelly like a cheesy meal
Got some poopy on your heels
Monkey on the gag reel
Tell me how you really feel
Driving down your burger brains
Standing in the pissy rain"
Weird and stupid and rocking and pretty fun(ny).
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Import version. As with their last album, this won't see US release for many months (September, we're told).
Mojave 3 goes bubblegum? Well not exactly, but kind of. This is for sure the brightest, most upbeat, fun in the sun record Neil Halstead and co. have ever made. Initially we were a bit boggled by this turn of events -- it's such a disarming contrast to his past Mojave 3 and Slowdive recordings -- but we've found Puzzles' perky charms pretty hard to resist. Whereas 2003's dreamily hushed Spoon And Rafter was an absolutely perfect album for staying inside, sitting by the window on a drizzly day with a hot cup of cocoa, Puzzles Like You beckons you to frolick in the flowerbed.
Beautiful! Truly, Neil Halstead and co. are shining models of quality and consistency. Album number four starts off on the right foot with the languid nine minute long "Bluebird Of Happiness", and carrying on from there delivers more of the same gorgeously hushed, delicate pop for which Mojave 3 are not nearly well enough known and loved (at least in Cup's opinion!). Each of the songs on Spoon And Rafter is a luminous, glistening treasure. If you're prone to song-triggered weeping sessions, be forewarned that this band has the crushingly bittersweet goods to gently pull those heartstrings 'til they break. That said, Mojave 3 can also pep things up to a perfect driving-along-the-beach tempo ("Billoddity"), slow things down to the most spartan, wistful balladry ("Hard To Miss You"), and then take a stroll beneath the willows ("Tinkers Blues"). Very recommended!
It's not just more metal magazines that we have started stocking. At long last, we're also now regularly gonna be carrying the mighty MOJO magazine. Another British publication (why are so many of our favorite music mags from England? The Wire, Terrorizer, Classic Rock...). Mojo, as you may know, covers the pop/rock scene from the past to the present, usually delving into rock history (the '60s, '70s, '80s...) while also covering all the latest, hippest indie rock sensations. For the music lover/AQ customer who's not just only into floorcore cd-rs and black metal cassettes and drone vinyl, it's gonna have plenty of stuff you'll want to read about, in fascinating depth.
This October issue: Queen on the cover (they have a new album, with Paul Rodgers replacing the late Freddie Mercury, though we're a little nervous to hear it). Inside: Dave Gilmour, The Last Shadow Puppets, The Fugs, Bon Iver, and more. Reviews, news, all that good stuff. 154 big colorful pages of it. Plus, there's a cover-mounted cd (in a jewel case!) featuring exclusive cover versions of songs from the Beatles' White Album.
Molasses brings forth their fourth full length of somber, beautiful music. We'd like to call this dusky Americana, but Molasses are Canadian... hmmm, 'Canadiana' just doesn't quite fit. And yes, Molasses is a branch of the expansive Montreal music collective tree which includes Godspeed You Black Emperor, Do Make Say Think and Fly Pan Am. Molasses mainman Scott Chernoff is joined by a sizable supporting cast of fifteen musicians including Sam Shalabi (Shalabi Effect, Osama), Thierry Amar, Mike Moya, Chris Brokaw (Codeine, Come) and Thalia Zedek (Come). With such a list of impressive contributors, there's still a remarkable sense of both space and restraint on Trouble At Jinx Hotel. With spartan instrumentation accompanying Chernoff's vocals, at times his delivery brings to mind a more obtuse Elliott Smith or Iron & Wine. A particular album highlight is the sixth song. "Coda" begins in hushed mellowness and is gently disrupted by squalls of feedback. This song effectively exemplified the album's keen balance of haunting atmosphere and earthy emotion. Gorgeous!
The description of sparse is the only connection between Molasses and Godspeed You Black Emperor, in spite of both bands sharing members. Slow-motion alt.country meanderings sort of like Songs:Ohia and Mazzy Star playing Tom Waits songs.
The Moldy Peaches are the latest purveyors of indie slapped-together slop rock brimming with the irony of "talented" musicians playing badly (lack of rhythm, juvenile poetry about cartoons and indie boys in tight pants, stupid guitar solos, and just barely
Not sure how many of you remember Richard Davies, but on his own and as one half of the duo Cardinal with Eric Matthews, he made some of the most totally brilliant, lush and orchestral pop records of the late nineties (even touring at one point with the Flaming Lips as his back up band!). Even those of you, like us, who totally loved all that stuff, may not remember Davies' first band the Moles. Originally from Australia, Davies quit law school in the late eighties to play music. The Moles moved to America but broke up in 1993 remaining relatively unknown. Their two albums remain masterpieces of shimmery, jangly indie pop. This collection includes cuts from their classic Untune The Sky record as well as several singles. The sound is sweet and spacious, dreamy and melancholy. Warbly organs, jangly rickenbacker guitars, sunny, reverbed harmonies, Davies' strange Robynn Hitchcock-sh vocals, all sorts of psychedelic production, and of course perfect, perfect pop songs. Fans of Belle And Sebastian, and similarly bittersweet pop should definitely check this out. Includes a bonus disc of rare and unreleased songs.
The Moles are definitely not a household name, at least in most normal households, which is definitely a shame. Not sure how many folks remember the band Cardinal, they only released one proper full length, back in the nineties, but to this day, it remains quite possibly one of the most perfect orchestral pop records ever released. But before Cardinal, there was the Moles.
Untune The Sky is the debut from New Zealand poppers The Moles, the band that Richard Davies called home, long before Cardinal, and while not nearly as lush or orchestral, it's a classic slice of primo late 80's/early 90's Flying Nun style experimental pop. Droning and hypnotic, with lots of jagged unfinished edges, weird almost industrial noise, Brit pop jangle and an almost Morrissey vocal drawl. But for as experimental as the Moles were, all of that experimentalism was wrapped around some incredibly catchy pop, hooks galore, not always proudly on display, sometimes nearly totally obfuscated, but just as often, set up right in front, and allowed to shine, an approach to pop that to this day still seems distinctly New Zealand.
Fans of the Tall Dwarfs, the Bats, the Clean, the 3Ds, the Chills, Straightjacket Fits, the Verlaines, could have easily missed out on the Moles, they were sort of underground even among the already underground, plus they were definitely a bit weirder, but now's the time to right that wrong, this stuff is timeless, sounding as good as ever, some incredible pop songs can be found within Untune The Sky, and half the fun is digging for them.
Originally released for this year's Record Store Day, Flashbacks And Dream Sequences collects (almost) everything recorded by these aQ beloved Aussie experimental jangle poppers. The Moles were never a household name, at least in most normal households, which is totally a shame, cuz their perfectly crafted bittersweet jangle pop sounds as good now as it did decades ago. Like lots of folks, we discovered the Moles a bit circuitously. Not sure how many folks remember the band Cardinal, they only released one proper full length, back in the nineties (you can find the review elsewhere on the aQ site), but to this day, it remains quite possibly one of the most perfect orchestral pop records ever released. And before there was Cardinal, there was the Moles.
The Moles is the band that Richard Davies of Cardinal, called home before that band was born, and while not quite as lush or orchestral as Cardinal, the sound is a classic slice of primo late '80s & early '90s New Zealand / Flying Nun style style experimental pop. Droning and hypnotic, with lots of jagged unfinished edges, weird almost industrial noise bits, plenty of Brit pop jangle, the sounds swirling and sweet and spacious, dreamy and melancholy, warbly organs, lush Rickenbacker guitars, sunny, reverbed harmonies, Davies' strange crooned vocals, sometimes Robyn Hitchcock-ish, other times closer to a Morrissey like drawl, everything swaddled in a hazy psychedelic production. But for as experimental as the Moles were, all of that experimentalism was wrapped around some incredibly catchy pop, hooks galore, not always proudly on display, sometimes nearly totally obfuscated, but just as often, set up right in front, and allowed to shine, an approach to pop that to this day still seems distinctly from that era / region. Yet seems impossibly prescient of what was to come.
Fans of NZ outfits like Tall Dwarfs, the Bats, the Clean, the 3Ds, the Chills, Straightjacket Fits, the Verlaines, could have easily missed out on the Moles, they were actually from Australia after all, and were sort of underground even among the already underground, plus they were definitely a bit weirder, but now's the time to right that wrong, this stuff is timeless, sounding as good as ever, these two discs are overflowing with some incredible pop songs, and half the fun is digging through all the psychedelic strangeness to find them.
This double disc set collects the group's albums proper, Untune The Sky and Instinct, as well as a treasure trove of singles, B-sides and unreleased rarities!
Between this new album from Lambchop and those from Jason Molina and M. Ward, whoa, this is quite the week for country rock excellence!
Mr. Molina doesn't want you to be caught empty-handed... without his music! He's released his latest album as a cd/lp combo (same music on both vinyl and cd packaged together in an lp sleeve. The music is absolutely solid Molina fare of his more hushed and stripped down variety rather than his bootstomp tavern rock. Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go is composed of nine timeless stark arrangements of just his voice, some piano and guitar. Really, the only unfortunate thing about this release might be the choice of cover photo -- a sort of Alfred E. Neuman 'what me worry?' shot of Molina and his guitar.
Pssst, want more Molina? A Magnolia Electric Co. album is comin' REAL soon.
Finally, goshdarnit! We alluded to this record in our review of Songs: Ohia's album Magnolia Electric Co. last February, and then we waited and waited... and now almost a year later here it is, the actual companion release to said album.
Easily the most brutally personal and gorgeously melancholy record yet from Jason Molina, aka Songs: Ohia. And that's saying a lot, since everything we've heard from him so far has been intense, intensely sad, musically compelling and completely brilliant. This Pyramid Electric Co. is all minimal and spacious, spare and haunting. Guitars shimmer and drift lazily through darkened rooms and ghostly winter evenings, single notes ring out only to settle back to earth after hovering in the dark cool air for what feels like forever. The piano is heard from the street outside the loneliest bar, in a town where nobody lives anymore. Chords and melodies escaping through a crack in the window like tendrils of smoke from recently extinguised cigarettes. Molina's voice still sounds a bit like Will Oldham, but the more time you spend with him, and his songs, and the more you actually let yourself get lost in his music, the more he sounds like no one else in the world. A high lonesome, aching heartbroken croon, that can turn into an anguished wail in a split second, but return to a hushed lover's whisper before you know it. This is the perfect music for two in the morning, home alone, drunk and lonely, snow outside, too sad to sleep, to tired not too, afraid of dreaming about her, wishing the morning would never come, but praying you can make it through the night. So fucking good. It's ostensibly LP only, BUT the LP comes with a cd version as well for you poor turntable-less bastards!
Juana Molina hails from Argentina where she was once a sitcom television star until she gave it up to pursue music. And we're so happy she did 'cause over the last few years she's made some really beautiful records. With a remarkable seductive voice and sparse interesting instrumentation beneath, she creates a sultry and inciting mood that totally wraps you up in its womblike warmth. With a voice that has the same melting beauty as sonic seductresses like Astrud Gilberto, what's so great about Molina is that while her voice is breathtaking, there is so much more to her music. Evoking much emotion but never hitting the listener over the head with overly maudlin sentiments or romantic drivel. Subtly experimenting with delicate sounds and electronics yet keeping songs strong and in tact. Creating a sound that is both very modern and totally timeless. It would be so easy for someone with a voice as beautiful as Molina's to just push her vocals way out in front of the mix and make polished straightforward pop records, but luckily she chooses to create interesting and textured songs using her voice as another element, no more important that some swoonsome guitar or shuffling rhythm. Another fantastic album. Highly recommended!
It would be so easy and profitable for Juana Molina to simply streamline her sound, to make things nice and easy and to compete with the likes of Feist and Beth Orton for permanent cafe stereo time, but lucky for us, she keeps pushing and challenging herself, creating original and challenging music while still managing to weave a sensual and seductive spell with her sounds.
Her voice is the main instrument, and it's her voice that carries Un Dia, with its seamless mix of organic instrumentation and subtle electronics. It's hard to believe that someone this creative and musically talented was once a bigtime sitcom TV star in Argentina. Makes so much sense how committed she seems to her musical vision as she already enjoyed a kind of mindless popular culture celebrity so she doesn't need to pander to commercial blandness with her music. It's not to say that this is difficult or unpleasant music because its not, quite the contrary but similar to folks like Bjork and Brigitte Fontaine decades earlier, Molina belongs to a strong brigade of visionary women who know how to blend experimentation with melody and pop sensibilities for music that is both rewarding and pleasurable. This might be her finest moment yet!
