Mogwai are a band you need to listen to through your feet, because floor-shaking volume is essential to proper appreciation of their breathtaking range, which stretches from a gentle fairy-tale lilt to a gut-wrenching roar. The Bad Fire is their new album.
They recently released a film, and it was only shown for one night in my local cinema. I explained to my friend – a Mogwai beginner – that we absolutely had to see the film there, and not at home on telly, because of the volume issue. Even if you’ve got a full-on home cinema going on, the neighbours might not enjoy the necessary decibels. Only the week before, I’d found myself reaching for my earplugs in the cinema, because the sound was uncomfortably loud and made it difficult to listen to what was going on – which makes for a perfect Mogwai session. And so it proved: I was delighted when the first suggestion of Mogwai Fear Satan began, in surround sound.
Obviously I’m going to see the tour, when I’ll get a chance to feel the songs as well as hear them, but for now I’m doing my best with some decent headphones. Hi Chaos sounds like it’ll be a heavenly way to bash my hearing. It’s followed by the carefully entwined melodies of What Kind Of Mix Is This? There’s an almost poppy start to Fanzine Made Of Flesh, though it gives way to something a bit more 8- bit, though still uncharacteristically jolly and maybe – shockingly – a bit catchy.
Then Pale Vegan Hip Pain arrives like a bashful morning after, as if to redress the balance. 18 Volcanoes starts as a conventional song, but veers off into more exciting melodic territory, managing to be both wistful and warming. Closer Fact Boy sums it all up with a heartfelt whisper, before fading away. I can’t wait for the gig.
The Bad Fire is out now on Rock Action Records.
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Review by Hannah Boothby
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