In these days of Amazon and everything being available on line, delivered tomorrow, there for streaming and fully documented, an old fart like me sort of misses the old days of going to a record shop, checking out what was actually in stock, and occasionally stumbling across something whose existence we had no idea of.
Perhaps the closest I get to that is an evening browsing Music Magpie on EBay, where I managed to pick up eight CDs of interest for about £20 last week. They arrived yesterday, so the next few will be from that selection.
Mogwai are a good thing. I like the idea of a slightly gloomy bunch playing gentle instrumental pieces at anything from the faintest quiet to the ear-bleeding loud. And there's enough of this to be very enjoyable.
Punk Rock kicks the album off with an Iggy Pop interview, over a simple electric guitar melody, and there's a similar melodic feel to the gentle song Cody. Helps Both Ways is another trademark Mogwai, plodding / measured (choose your own adjective here) theme over a spoken commentary, this time of an American Football game. Year 2000...is yet another Mogwai instrumental, pleasant without creating much impression, as does Kappa, if a little more darkly, and Waltz For Aidan, a relaxing tune. As is May Nothing But Happiness, ending in a never-ending answerphone message. Oh! How The Dogs Stack Up is a short piano piece, leading to the much longer Ex-Cowboy, which is classic Mogwai territory of a repetitive theme starting quiet, and moving to ear-defender loud, before a peaceful end. Chocky follows, with an opening piano theme, over an industrial buzzing sound, before the band come in halfway, and continues the repeated theme, then another long piece, Christmas Steps, opening with a sparse guitar piece before the whole band kick in and raise the decibels again, before a gentle conclusion, taking us to final track Punk Rock /Puff Daddy/An Chris, a horn piece over spoken commentary.
Mogwai have a sound and they know it works for them. It's an enjoyable listen, but after a while you begin to detect Mogwai themes and anticipate what's coming. It's very atmospheric, and I'm not sure a track by track commentary like this does it justice. But there's lots I've enjoyed, and nothing I've disliked, even if a bit more variety would be welcome.
4* - just - the quality and the intense mood overcomes the lack of variety.
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