Sonntag, 8. Mär 2015, 14:03
Wed 4 Mar – Mogwai, Mick Turner
Mick Turner spends 40 minutes creating slow-moving, somnolent guitar figures interspersed with distorted drags of cello bow, while a Jim White sound-a-like softly layers staccato drum patterns underneath. It’s a “solo” mode that could almost be The Dirty Three on benzos, but if so it shows that D3 is much more than the madcap antics of Warren Ellis.
Mogwai has eight studio albums under its belt now. It’s the sort of longevity that adds frisson live: inevitably one fan favourite or another must give way.
Thus the surprise isn’t so much the presence of Rave Tapes highlights like “Heard About You Last Night” or “Deesh”, nor the absence of heavy hitters such as “Like Herod” or “Glasgow Mega-Snake”. Instead it’s that, touring Rave Tapes, Mogwai’s main set emulates the newest releases relative introspection, mostly eschewing claustrophobic dynamics in favour of gentler build-ups and a vast, open sound.
It works beautifully. On tracks such as “Heard About You Last Night”, “I’m Jim Morrison I’m Dead”, Hunted By A Freak, and 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong, Mogwai is crystalline and remote in a way I’ve never experienced: like sitting in a field staring up at the Milky Way. And even when the sound closes in, such as on Ten Rapid’s Ithica 27 ø 9 or Rano Pano, the effect is often gradual, or momentary, rather than an unrelenting vice of pure noise.
The inclusion of “Teenage Exorcists” from Music Industry 3. Fitness Industry 1. provides another unusual moment, with Stuart Braithwaite’s clear vocals harking back to some of the band’s earliest output.