Sub Pop Records

MOGWAI

Not everyone gets Mogwai, but that’s what makes them great. Theirs is a majestic, powerful sound where barely a word is spoken yet it is the antithesis of background music. Album and song titles bemuse, confuse and delight in equal measure and live, they are utterly unstoppable.

For their seventh album Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will they have continued in this vein with a brave and instinctive album that is charged with an energy, spirit and intensity few can match. It is the sound of a band comfortable in their own skin, but clawing at the edges of their own capabilities, and drawing out something particularly special in the process.

Hardcore… is a natural progression from 2008’s mighty The Hawk Is Howling, but draws on a more varied sonic palette than its predecessor. It also throws into sharp relief how Mogwai the live beast and Mogwai the studio beast are two different, if complementary animals. The monochrome starkness of their 2010 live movie/album Burning/Special Moves acknowledged the weight and scale of the band’s breathtaking live shows. Hardcore… reminds us of the many moments of subtlety to be savored from their studio work.

Mogwai were birthed in the halcyon days of the mid-90s and helped Glasgow become one of the real bright spots in the musical universe again. They turned heads, hearts and stomachs with their live shows—stark aural assaults on the senses which swung between barely there and a coruscating scree of white noise. They’ve rolled out a quality half dozen albums and a clutch of EPs in the preceding years to considerable acclaim. Some people even bought the records too.

Over time, some kindred spirits have gone…