Mogwai - The Bad Fire
This Scottish post-rock export have sent flaneur music critics into a froth over the years. They were once an avant garde proposition as cheeky Glaswegians in trackies and baseball caps making ground-breaking instrumental cinematic rock with sweeping pulsating rock or sad, creepy low-fi ambience. And then, there are the famous irreverent song titles…
For all it’s hellish connotations, The Bad Fire, contains at least some elements that are markedly sunnier than much of Mogwai’s previous work. The band are famed for both their concussive, cataclysmic volume or hushed cinematic tension and poignancy. The track compositions on this record tend to lean towards patient builds or layered gradualism and unhurried photosynthesis. The opening track, God Gets You Back, is roomy and gaseous with rises of synth motifs that develop into brightly lit spaciousness.
Hi Chaos is reminiscent of the band’s Mr Beast era, though the instrumental high impacts come in electronic waves rather than guitar. The stunning ascension of What Kind of Mix is This, meanwhile, is a rousing piece of galactic synth. That song is a wee bit like French duo Air if they had been raised in Glasgow and could fight. Fanzine Made of Flesh is awash with breezy ZX Spectrum synths and the band’s favoured vocoded singing is a buoyant piece of electro indie-pop luminism. The summery static and soothing loops of 18 Volcanoes provide reflective but up-tempo and slightly more optimistic textures than Mogwai’s famous punishing gravity.
Having said that, Mogwai are unlikely to ever abandon completely from their masterly manipulations of creepy cinematic tension, pervasive sadness, or devastating volume. Pale Vegan Hip Pain stands out with its subdued, whispered plucks and restrained synths reminiscent of the Happy Songs for Happy People era. If You Think This World is Bad You Should See Some of the Others is a classic Mogwai template of a gripping glacial build into a mountainous piece of vintage post rock which wouldn’t have been out of place on the band’s seminal The Hawk is Howling record. Back then, this template and sound was novel but even though it’s tried and tested, it still works compellingly.
Also, this band have a penchant for playing with anomalies and for that, see Hammer Room, a quirky, jangly irreverence that twists with a crazy degree of layering and overspills with unpredictable wends. Likewise, Lion Rumpus is a burach of fuzzy guitar work and harder rock drumming.
Overall though, The Bad Fire, sees Mogwai edge away from their grittier, heavier signatures and instead bathe contentedly in electronic indie rather than post-rock fury. Tonally, while the band retain their adroit craft of hulking, suspenseful cinematic impact, this record has more optimistic accents that will still bind well with live sets.
The Bad Fire is released via Rock Action